Tuesday, Sept 2 though Saturday, Sept 6 + Biopsy Results

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, a time when we come together to recognize the brave children fighting cancer and raise awareness about the urgent need for more research. Did you know that only 7% of the total cancer research funding in Canada is allocated to pediatric cancer? This is a staggering statistic considering that cancer remains the leading cause of death by disease in children.

We enjoyed the last (long) weekend of summer vacation at Halfmoon Bay with Uncle Jon & Auntie Becky. They hadn't been since our wedding 16 years ago! We had a great time both relaxing and adventuring. We played a lot of cards, went to the Farmers and Artisans Market in Sechelt and hiked the Skookumchuck Narrows trail. At the end of the trail we were rewarded not only with the view of the turbulent tidal rapids, but also a large pod of porpoises and a few seals. Joel came with us, but the walk (8km) is too much for Eric, so he stayed back with Chuck and they explored a new to us beach. 

Tuesday the kids headed back to school, briefly, and then we all drove into Vancouver. Eric was scheduled for a check up, platelets and IV chemo to start the next round of treatment. Joel had an optometrist appointment nearby. 

Wednesday was a full day of school but Eric only went for a half day because he had to go back into clinic for Day 2 of treatment. The clinic was FIVE nurses short on Wednesday which is crazy, but they still managed to get us out in under 1.5 hours. It was really smoky in Vancouver and smelled like smoke when we got out of the car. On the way out we had to wait a few minutes for the valet and it was bothering Eric's throat/lungs so badly that he went back into the building to wait. 

Thursday Eric didn't go to school at all. He was tired from his treatment, sore from walking up the hill to school and worried about the smoke. Usually when he has this IV treatment, he doesn't go to school at all for the 5 days, but since it's the first week back to school he had wanted to go initially. He hung around in his pjs this morning and then we went back to clinic again for Day 3 of treatment. This time we were there just over 1.5 hours. I did spend most of Thursday thinking it was Wednesday and then most of Wednesday thinking it was Thursday, so much so that I forgot to go to the BCCH pharmacy to pick up Eric's meds. 

Interestingly, I had also forgotten to ask for the biopsy results until Thursday, maybe because of the busyness of back to school as well as the hospital all week or maybe because we started another round of treatment prior to getting results, which is a bit out of order. Eric's Oncologist is still calling him "stable" but the donor chimerism is at 10% (16% at last check) and they are seeing an increase in blast cells as well. Though, apparently they are "clumpy" and it's hard to know if they caught a clump or not. 

Friday Eric's appointment was an hour earlier than the rest of the week, so it would have only been 2 hours at school so we decided to skip it. Hopefully next week once he is in his new classroom with his new classmates he will be ready to get back into the rhythm of school. We headed into the hospital for the 4th day in a row for Day 4 of IV chemo and a platelet transfusion. I snapped a sneaky pic of Eric on the way home. This is what happens after 4 days of treatment and 4 days of driving into the hospital. 

Saturday was the last day of IV chemo, day 5 of 5. When our appointment was originally booked, it was scheduled on the inpatient side because the clinic isn't open on Saturday. However, they had enough kids needing Saturday treatment that they couldn't accommodate them on the inpatient side so they opened clinic for four hours today. Eric's nose started bleeding minutes before we got in the car to drive to clinic. Unfortunately, it didn't stop the whole way there. We got to clinic and asked for a dose of Tranexamic Acid. The nurses were actually a bit reluctant at first. There's only 2 of them and everyone there is supposed to be a quick in and out and it wasn't ordered and a doctor is sometimes difficult to find on a weekend. Not that they aren't there, they just have more patients. Anyhow, the head doctor for the entire department happened to be there and Eric was their only patient for the first hour, so we got lucky. The doctor ordered the TXA right away and also got him a warm blanket and an OJ. She was so sweet. The TXA runs pretty quickly, but takes time to get made up and delivered from the pharmacy so we lost about an hour to that, but it did make his nose stop bleeding finally. He got his anti-nauseant, last dose of the IV Chemo and had his port de-accessed. He was so happy to scratch his chest once the dressing was removed. 

It's been a heck of a busy week and we are looking forward to an easier weekend and week ahead 🤞