Weekly Check Up Friday, Dec 13

We've had a pretty good week. Eric is 12 days into his 28 day cycle of oral chemo and is feeling so much better than he did in the last round. He's not eating a tonne, but he is eating and he's super tired, but he's not nauseous and not having tummy pain which is a huge win. Eric still hasn't been attending school much because he's so tired, but his class had a field trip to the swimming pool this past week. Eric assumed he couldn't go because he hasn't been allowed in a public pool in 2 years. However, I called the pool in the morning to check how many school groups were booked in and it turned out it was only the one group so I checked in with Eric's team and we agreed that in this case the benefits out weighed the risks and he got to go!!! He was so happy and had a blast playing with his friends at the pool. Last Sunday we got to attend a Starlight event at the Landmark theatre in New West to see Moana 2 in the comfiest recliners with popcorn and smarties. Yesterday, even after many hours at clinic, he powered through to go to a birthday party where he was described as the life of the party, and not the tired mess I expected him to be. 

We agreed with Eric's team last week that we would do a community blood test at LifeLabs on Tuesday to see if he needed to come in on Wednesday or if we could wait until Friday. The LifeLabs test showed that his counts had held from the transfusion the previous Friday. I was very happy not to have to go into clinic on Wednesday, but even more excited that his counts had held and maybe that meant an improvement in his marrow. 

Fast forward to Friday. Eric's bloodwork comes back and his platelets are "<5" as in too low to even bother counting 🤦 It seems maybe somehow Tuesday's test wasn't quite as accurate or who knows. At any rate, Eric needed a platelet transfusion at clinic yesterday. Luckily, everything went super smoothly and we got out before traffic got too bad. Eric's hemoglobin was down as well, but not low enough to require a transfusion yet. All of this has bought us two visits to clinic next week; we are scheduled to be in both Tuesday and Friday with the assumption Eric will need platelets on both of those days and blood on one of the days.