We had a lovely, lazy Thanksgiving weekend. The weather was so beautiful! We went to Granny's for turkey dinner and Eric made us set up the Halloween decorations. He loves Halloween! Unfortunately, the crows have made a mess of our lawn, but Eric thinks it adds to the decorations.
Day 1/5: On Tuesday, Eric's appointment wasn't until noon, making for a quicker drive. The first day takes a tad longer since he has to be accessed first, but we were done in under 2 hours and back home before 3pm. Since he got topped up with all the things on Friday, his counts were pretty good. Platelets were falling but okay to wait until Wednesday, as we had planned. Walking down the hall on the way into the clinic, Eric saw a man standing on the roof; the man put his arm out and a hawk flew over and landed on his arm. These are the same birds from the Birds in Motion demonstration at Grouse Mountain. I think they are at the hospital for pest control.
Day 2/5: Eric's appointment was slightly earlier on Wednesday since we had planned a platelet transfusion as well. It was at 10:30, so still late enough that traffic should have been good, but apparently there is now construction on Grandview, so it was backed all the way up to the highway exit and took us over an hour to get to the hospital. UGH! Platelets had continued to fall and were down to only 11, so was good timing on the platelet transfusion. Plus Eric was getting a little bleeding from his gums with just regular brushing the last couple days. His Oncologist stopped by for a check up and mentioned that he only had the preliminary report from the biopsy, but it is looking like about 10% leukemia blasts. Clearly not great, but starting treatment this week should help to bring them back down again. It is another reminder that we're going to have to do something different, soon. His doctor said everything is chugging along with setting up the clinical trial and he's hoping it will be ready by the end of this cycle. We are still waiting on the chimerism (DNA) results.
After the hospital visit, Chuck and I went to donate blood at a pop up blood donation clinic in the tri-cities. It took less than an hour, door to door. You can find an hour to save lives! I already have my next appointment booked for January if anyone wants to join me :)
Day 3/5: Thursday we were hoping for a quick visit and we got it!! Traffic was great both ways and we were at the clinic for just an hour. Since Eric was already accessed, and had platelets the previous day, it should just be the IV anti-nauseant and IV chemo, and both are quick infusions. We'd been there 20 minutes and hadn't seen our nurse yet. When we did see her she was holding a bag of platelets for another patient which I figured was bad news, since the nurses have to sit in the room for the first 15 minutes of blood product transfusions, in case of reaction. However, she was able to send someone else to get Eric started and as soon as the anti-nauseant was done, she walked in with the chemo. It was great timing and we were both happy to head out and get back home. It's the halfway point of the treatment and we're both exhausted.
Day 4/5: We were hoping for another quick day for Friday. Sadly, the clinic was super busy and we ended up waiting 30 minutes just to get a room. Once our nurse arrived, everything went fairly smoothly, except that Eric's bloodwork wasn't back yet. Even though Eric just had a platelet transfusion on Wednesday, the double whammy of IV and oral chemo will drop his counts. As a result, his Nurse Clinician wanted his counts back before we left, to ensure he didn't need another transfusion. She was able to call the lab and ask if they had a preliminary number and that was high enough that we were allowed to leave. We were at clinic for almost 2 hours. Eric wanted to get home to play video games, but he is doing pretty well. On the other hand, I was so tired that I felt like I was falling asleep on the way to clinic Friday, let alone the way home!
In the afternoon the Constable that drove Eric to school and was on the Tour de Coast ride, stopped by our house. He brought Eric "beads." The beads are from Camp Goodtimes. Everyone wears their name beads and then you collect and add beads each year for the different camps and activities. This is something the riders do as well. They made Eric beads with his radio call sign Coyote.
Day 5/5: Clinic isn't open on Saturday so we headed into the inpatient ward. Unfortunately, they were super busy also. They had no rooms available and were waiting for someone to be discharged so the room could be cleaned so that we could use it. We had to wait in the Family Lounge for about 15 min, but then our nurse had the anti nauseant ready to go when we got into the room. We had to wait for a bit for the chemo from pharmacy. Once it was finished, Eric was able to have his port de-accessed and he was so happy.
Home now and only one day off. We're back to clinic Monday and Friday next week for Eric's regular check ups and platelet transfusions.
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