It is so nice to be home from the hospital. I find it a bit exhausting there with long days and not the best sleep. Grandma was visiting so she cooked for us all week and I really got to rest. Eric and I took Tuesday completely off everything and didn't even get out of our pjs. Wednesday Mom and I went Christmas shopping and Eric went back to school. He only made it until a little past recess though when he called to say he was feeling pretty nauseous. He came home and had an anti nauseant and played video games the rest of the day. He seemed to be feeling fine the rest of the day and woke up Thursday morning ready for school, so maybe I just sent him back to school a little too early. Thursday he made it through the whole day of school and no nausea.
Friday we were back to clinic for a check up. Eric's team had asked us to go to the Heart Center for an ECG first, so we headed there, but right when we arrived there his nose started bleeding. It is interesting trying to get an ECG with a bleeding nose. He is supposed to have his arms relaxed by his side, so I held his kleenex on his nose for him. Luckily it's a quick process. Still bleeding, we were making our way over to clinic when Eric insisted that we must buy popcorn from the vendor in the lobby. He had a difficult time choosing between all the different flavours but in the end went with sweet and salty. In clinic Eric put away half a bag of popcorn while waiting for his nurse. Interesting how he can't take his meds when he's bleeding, but eating popcorn is no problem. Eric's NP just happened to walk by his room while we were waiting for the nurse; she saw he was bleeding and went to order TXA for him. While we were debating between oral and IV TXA, Eric's nurse accessed his port and his nose stopped bleeding. Since the platelets had also arrived right at that time, we decided just to get the platelets in and not worry about the TXA, unless his nose started bleeding again.
We were on track for a pretty speedy visit when his nurse came into the room halfway through the platelet transfusion to do a group and screen. Bloodwork was back and Eric's hemoglobin was low so his team had ordered a blood transfusion. Both Eric and I were surprised, and not prepared for a long visit! His hemoglobin had been over 90 on Tuesday and was now down to 75.
During the blood transfusion, Eric's Oncologist came in for a chat. It was a good chat, but the long and short of it is, we don't know anything. It's too early to tell if the new med is working. Eric's white blood cells counts are up; his neutrophils (germ fighting white blood cells) are up to 1.0. We haven't seen that number in over a year. Unfortunately, circulating blasts are also up a little (0.3-0.5), but since that is not combined with his white blood cells shooting off the charts, his disease probably isn't getting worse. Or if it was, it's at least stable now. Probably. Maybe the white cells are up just because this treatment works differently than others and isn't suppressing them or maybe its an indication that the med is working and he has some healthy cells in there. Maybe, probably, possibly... We just have to wait and see. My favourite thing *eye roll* The Oncologist is planning a bone marrow biopsy a few days before Christmas, which will be 30ish days into treatment. Though the holidays may delay the results. In the meantime, Eric is feeling good and that's certainly a win.
On Saturday morning we were invited to a private Starlight screening of Zootopia 2. It was way too early in the morning, but the trade off is that we get the entire theater to ourselves. It was only Starlight families and they had the movie playing on 4 screens. Santa was there and so were some Disney animators sketching everyone's favourite Disney characters. We had popcorn for breakfast, enjoyed the movie and got some cool swag afterward.
Saturday afternoon we decorated our Christmas tree and Sunday morning Eric had swimming lessons. That is it for us for the weekend. Joel seems to have caught a little cold, so he's taking it easy while the rest of us hope, pray and cross everything that Eric doesn't get the cold and end up back in hospital. Eric's Oncologist still wants to keep a close eye on him, so we're back at clinic Tuesday and Friday next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment