Check Up at Clinic Today

Eric had his check up at clinic today to check his blood counts after they tanked last week. The good news, his platelet count is up, not normal, but up, which shows that his body is making fresh platelets. The bad news is that his ANC is now in the toilet. It is only 0.2 and those are his germ fighting white cells. While my brain is shouting relapse (re-relapse?) since he hasn't had this response to this treatment in the past. However, our Nurse Practitioner has assured me this is a normal response to the chemo and likely just a result of the repeated rounds. 

We're planning a couple nights camping next week to enjoy some water slides and I thought this might throw a wrench into the plans. So far, just a small wrench. The team wants him to come back again next week for a count check, before we go camping, so we've had to push our trip back one day. The real wrench would be if this significantly impaired immune system resulted in a fever, in which case, with counts this low Eric would end up in hospital and we'd have to cancel. So fingers crossed 🤞

In other very random, but good, news...the pet therapy program at the hospital is creating a calendar for next year with the pet therapy pets alongside past and present patients. Eric LOVES all animals and the pet therapy program went a long way to brighten his time in hospital. Last week when we saw the poster looking for patients to participate, Eric immediately told me to apply. We heard this week that he had been selected and he had a costume fitting today. He is going to be The Mad Hatter with Edward the bunny. Stay tuned for photos in the (distant) future. 

Tomorrow is the last day of school! Hopefully I will have loads of fun summer adventures to share 🤞

Catch Up

Well it's been awhile and we have been BUSY!

Starting with today, Eric had a check up at the hospital and his platelets have taken a nose dive since his last visit 9 days ago. He narrowly avoided a transfusion, but since he wasn't actively bleeding, we just have to go back early next week to check in instead. The platelets dropping is a common side effect of chemo, but Eric has sailed through on this treatment in the past. His Nurse Practitioner today said that he's had a lot of chemo and its probably just taking a toll on his body. He is definitely more tired, and more likely to get a bit snippy as a result. Of course, he is generally still in good spirits, trying to convince one of us to go in the (freezing) backyard pool with him this afternoon! He is on Day 19/28 of this round of oral chemo treatment. While we were in today, Eric's Nurse Clinician drew this picture of him and hung it on his door. 

Also today, before the hospital, Eric finished building this Star Wars LEGO ship. He's been begging me all afternoon to take him to the LEGO store in Surrey so he can buy a new set. His LEGO addiction is still going strong. 

Joel's been away at camp with his school for the last couple days. He's also grown again and is now 5'5". He's basically eye to eye with me and I don't like it! I expected him to get taller than me when he was 16, not 12! 

Last weekend, we went to Sicamous where we stayed in a cabin at the Sicamous RV & Cabin Resort courtesy of Starlight Children's Foundation Canada. It was absolutely pouring rain on Saturday, but the staff spoiled us with a pancake breakfast, burger BBQ and s'mores. They tie-dyed shirts with the kids and spent the day teaching the boys to play pool. During some lighter rain, we got out for a scavenger hunt, had a campfire and rode on the resort's train. The weather was much better on Sunday and we got to explore the area attending The Enchanted Forest and The Crazy Creek Hot Pools, followed by relaxation around the campfire. We are so grateful to Starlight for providing our family with this opportunity and to the staff at Sicamous RV & Cabin Resort for making us feel so welcome.

Our rustic cabin had a lovely porch swing (and a lot of mosquitos!)

We checked out Dutchmen Dairy in Sicamous and tried out some ice cream

Eric and I didn't realize this was a baby cow until we went to the other barn and saw the full size cows

The train at Sicamous RV & Cabin Resort. Eric rode around and around and around on it, dragging different passengers with him every time

Chuck's turn on the train

We even got to watch the hockey game

A waterfall only a few min walk from the resort

The staff did tie dye with the kids

Gophers everywhere. Millie really liked to put her head in all their holes

The boys thought perhaps Humpty Dumpty was pushed?

Millie did not like these horses. She barked at them. A lot. 

Chilling at The Enchanted Forest

Such a cool place; you can go into all the little buildings

The Cow Jumped Over the Moon

My favourite sign of the whole weekend

Chuck and Joel climbed to the top, Eric halfway. Millie and I stayed on the ground where we belong

Mama. Take a picture. Hurry up. This is really uncomfortable. 

Many s'mores were consumed, followed by some colourful flames

On Friday before we left, Eric had sports day and the classes performed the Hip Hop dances they'd been working on for a week.

Earlier in the week, Uncle Jon came to visit for a few days and Eric entertained him by playing in the (freezing) backyard pool.

The previous weekend, Eric finished up his IV treatment and it was an epic birthday party weekend! Saturday morning, Eric went to a birthday party at Lush where he got to make a bath bomb. Then we went to the hospital for his treatment and we asked for his port to be de-accessed so he could go to a birthday backyard pool party in the afternoon. That party was 4.5 hours long and when I went to pick up Eric, he was STILL IN THE POOL! The next morning, back to the hospital where Eric had to have his port re-accessed, which he thought was totally worthwhile for the chance to swim. He had his last (7/7) IV treatment and got de-accessed again. We went from there to Granny's to celebrate some family birthdays. I thought Eric would be exhausted and cranky after that super busy weekend, plus the treatment, but he wasn't at all. He got home on Sunday and immediately wanted a bath so he could use his new bath bomb!

Only 4 days of school left until Summer Vacation!

Day 4 of 7

Yesterday was Day 4 of 7 of the IV treatment (and Day 4/28 of the oral treatment.) Yay! More than halfway! Eric is doing quite well. He's been playing outside in the afternoons and feeling pretty good. He was a little nauseous last night around dinnertime. I gave him an anti-nauseant and within 30 min he was feeling better and building LEGO. We are both tired, Eric from the treatment and me from the driving. Aside from Monday which took longer just because it was the first day, the appointments have been nice and quick at only an hour, but that is about 3 hours round trip. 

We did get results of Eric's bone marrow biopsy and its still great news - all donor DNA and no evidence of the bad cells. Woohoo! 

Eric also had an ECG on Monday and the abnormality that had appeared in his heart rhythm is gone. There are some meds known to cause this so the Dr wanted to recheck now that Eric has been off the meds for awhile to make sure it had returned to normal. 

Everything is looking good! 🤞

Kristina, the outpatient Child Life Specialist has been spoiling Eric with LEGO all week.