Weekly Check Ups Feb 10 & Feb 14

At clinic on Friday, I had lobbied for a check up later this week, but was unsuccessful. Eric's sodium dropped a little on Friday so his doctor wanted to check it again on Monday before he took his next dose of Selinexor. We did have a lovely, relaxing weekend in between the two appointments though. We had some nice family time for the Super Bowl, not that any of us are interested in the football, except maybe Chuck, but we had snacks! Here's a pic of Eric with his own personal Super Bowl snacks. 

On Monday, mid-morning, we headed into clinic and traffic wasn't too bad. For the first time in more than 2 months, we actually went to the blood lab first. We didn't anticipate Eric would need a transfusion since he'd had a platelet transfusion Friday, so we planned for a quick visit. Unfortunately, the lab had other plans. The line up to check in was to the door and the waiting room was packed. Eric will not sit in the waiting room like that; it is so full, mostly with people not wearing masks. We were told the wait would be 30-40 minutes, but it was a full hour until we were called in. We put a little kids chair out in the hallway for Eric so he would be more comfortable and he just watched something on his iPad, but it was pretty frustrating. We headed over to the Oncology Clinic and his doctor came in fairly quickly after we arrived. Eric's Nurse Practitioner did the exam while I spoke with his Oncologist and we got out of clinic so fast that Eric actually said "we get to leave already?"  The doctor came with pretty decent news; no transfusions were required and platelets were 34. Again, not normal by any means, but so much higher than they've been in months. Additionally his sodium had bumped back up a couple points, so he was safe to take his Monday dose. 

This is Eric's last week of this cycle of treatment, so he will have a bone marrow biopsy Wednesday next week. However, they felt that leaving Eric from Monday to the following Wednesday, 9 days, was too long, since he has been having transfusions twice a week for months. They asked if we wanted to come into the hospital on Friday for bloodwork at the lab and a check up at clinic or go to a local LifeLabs on Thursday morning. We initially chose just to go to the hospital Friday, thinking that we can't get an appointment at LifeLabs on Thursday morning so it will be a wait anyhow, and then we might have to come in Friday anyway if Eric needs a transfusion. However, a friend in Vancouver told me its a pro-d day there on Friday and we've found that makes the hospital - parking, blood lab, etc - very busy. So we decided to go to LifeLabs. 

Thursday morning I watched the wait times online and we made a break for it and got so lucky! We were in and out in 10 minutes flat. It wasn't until late afternoon that our team got the results. Eric's Nurse Clinician called to say that his platelets were 21 and they thought it was probably a good idea to top him up before the long weekend. We went to clinic for 10am and both traffic and parking were great; I love Fridays. Since we knew the day before we were coming in specifically for platelets, the doctor ordered them before we arrived and our nurse got started right away. We told her that Eric had hoped to go to his class Valentine's party that afternoon. She looked at the clock and said hmmm, no pressure... Everything went smoothly, but it does take a bit of time to do the access, make the lines, make the pre-meds and get the platelets upstairs. We ended up at the school later than we had hoped; however, Eric still got an hour of his Valentine's party. He hasn't been at school in more than 3 weeks so that was a big win. Unfortunately, Eric's platelets were only 15 on Friday. I had hoped they'd be higher, but his doctor reminded me that he'd been getting transfusions twice a week, and this had been a full week since his last transfusion (and the platelets weren't <5) so that is an improvement. 

Eric ordered himself a new Lego set on Thursday with his Christmas money. While at clinic on Friday he was gifted a smallish set and had time to finish 3 of 4 bags. Additionally he had a set he'd been given awhile ago, but hadn't been feeling well enough to finish. With a new Lego set arriving imminently, he was motivated to finish up those other 2 sets Friday evening. Then he spent all day Saturday building his new set. 

Eric is done this cycle of treatment now. He has a biopsy scheduled for Wednesday to check in on what's happening in his marrow. Since he'll get a little break from treatment while we wait on results, I expect he'll be feeling much better and able to go to school. I hope. Fingers crossed.