Home Sweet Home

I just burned both feet all the way off when I ran across the hot lava.  Luckily for me Tyson used his super x-ray power to put them back on. He also has super xray feet so his don't get burned on the lava.  We got to come home from the hospital on Thursday (July 7) and are loving every minute of it!  Ty is still on ceftazadime IV antibiotic three times a day so we get to see Michelle a lot (his home health nurse), and she brings him a giant Reeses peanut butter cup quite often which he totally loves!!  She has noticed that a lot of her little cancer patients love them..must be something about the chemo or the protein in them or something that makes the kids crave them.

So other than a sticky dressing change which has to be done once a week when his port is accessed (whoever invented Tegaderm is related to the devil), Ty is doing really well and is starting to recover from Consolidation (phase 2).  The 6MP (mercaptopurine) which he took by mouth every day in that phase really did a number on his blood counts after a couple of weeks, and took a couple of weeks to wear off.  He's had two blood transfusions and one platelet transfusion during this phase and his ANC (germ fighting power) has dipped to zero and stayed there a few days a couple of times.  I'm sure the infection in his knee hasn't helped with that, the oncologist said that is probably why his ANC is still too low to start the next phase. 

So here we wait!  Happy that he gets a break from the nasty 'medicines' they call chemo.  One of the hardest parts of the whole cancer thing is that you have to treat your kid with poison. 

 Other than the hospital stays, this phase has been pretty mild and we are enjoying the break from chemo that his low ANC has caused.  Now we are ready for it to go way way up in the next few days so we can go to at least part of the family reunion this weekend at Cherry Hill. His next CBC is Thursday and will determine whether or not it will be safe for him to go.  If not Merin and I will stay home with him.  My mom and dad are going to take the big kids down with them in our camper but every time I mention it to Ryan he starts to cry.  It is really hard for him to be away from me overnight so the past couple of hospital stays have really taken their toll on him.  He really wants to go...just really wants me to be there too.  It is interesting how much this affects the whole family, not just the cancer patient. They are a vital part of his treatment and recovery.