Our weekend was good. Eric scooted around a bit on his scooter, but the rest of the week has not been great. Eric has been lethargic and has lots of aches and pains. We went for bloodwork in the community on Monday, so his Oncologist can keep a close eye on the two big concerns we have at the moment: liver inflammation and blast count. Eric's Nurse Clinician called us on Tuesday to let us know the liver inflammation was slightly improved, but blast count had quadrupled in only 3 days. This explains why Eric was feeling generally poor. As a result, they asked that Eric start his oral treatment that day and suggested we pack our overnight bad to clinic the following day. We went into clinic on Wednesday and I was expecting the blast count to have significantly increased again, despite the treatment, since it was only one dose. His Oncologist came at the beginning of our appointment to let us know his thoughts. If the blasts were taking off, as anticipated, then he would admit Eric for a different chemotherapy that is administered by IV every 12 hours, to get the blasts under control. Luckily his blast count was actually slightly down from Monday, not enough to be statistically significant, but not up which is a win. Additionally the liver inflammation had decreased a little as well. We didn't have to stay, but they did ask us to come back again on Friday for another check in. In the meantime, his Oncologist asked us to double the dose of his oral treatment. That had always been the plan for this round, but with the liver inflammation it was not something we'd been able to do.
We headed back in on Friday and since Eric had platelets on Wednesday, he didn't need them again, so no need to have his port accessed. Instead we went to the blood lab at the hospital first. Unfortunately clinic was packed and we waited in the hall for 40ish minutes before getting a room. We had hoped for a quick in and out and this was not it. At least the bloodwork results were back by the time we got a room. The liver inflammation was down again, and since Eric's now had 3 doses of treatment, 2 of them at a double dosage, that is actually really good. Unfortunately, his blast count hasn't dropped. His Oncologist says these numbers: 8/7/9 are essentially all the same and its making him nervous. As a result, we will be going back to the hospital tomorrow for IV chemo. He did say we could be inpatient and have the chemo every 12 hours or we could do outpatient and have the treatment only once a day. We have opted for that, but there will be a very low tolerance for admitting Eric. The Oncologist expects we will do this for 5 days, but we should see results in a day or two. Surprisingly, Eric's platelet count was only 9 today after getting the transfusion Wednesday. Eric said no platelets today so he will get platelets tomorrow as well. On the plus side, we'd been planning to go to the hospital grounds tomorrow for the Balding for Dollars event anyhow.
While Eric hasn't been "well" for many years, he has been stable and able to enjoy a variety of activities. These couple weeks of instability have been very stressful, especially following on the heels of this latest virus. However, this rough spell has really been since Christmas. Eric has had 3 viruses during that time, plus changes in treatment all requiring hospitalization and generally leaving him feeling quite poorly. He's barely been able to go to school and is currently spending most of his time hunkered down in my bed watching tv or playing on his iPad.
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