I guess I will start with medical and end with personal today.
Nathan's counts are great! It seems they were not really affected by the chemo. This is puzzling. We will never know how low they may have gotten between Wednesday and today - but they couldn't have even come near anything at all neutropenic. His doctor reminded me that the severity of the side effects does not have anything to do with how well the chemo is working - but he also did decide to up his dose on one of the chemos by 20%. Since his counts are so good he is going to start chemo again tomorrow instead of next week. He will go into the clinic tomorrow and then have it at home through Saturday. So - we will pretty much be stuck at home inthe afternoons this week - but at least we will be home and not int he clinic most of the week.
On Thursday Nathan has a CT scan to use as a "baseline" scan post-surgery. Please send prayers and positive thoughts for no suprises in it. As far as the leg pain - it seems to be gone. I hadn't asked Nathan about it and today he told the doctor it didn't hurt anymore but he couldn't remember when the pain had gone away.
One thing wearing on me currently is that in two weeks Nathan has lost .8 kilograms. This is almost 2 pounds. he currently weighs 37 pounds. He is 46 inches and so that is very, very skinny. Nothing really has happened in those two weeks to warrant the weight loss. His doctor syas it may be just htat his body is still fighting to keep weight on from the surgery and chemos. He wouldn't speculate further, but gave him a good physical exam - I think looking for any obvious reasons. Of course I am a worried that it may be caused by some bad thing....but I am trying to put that out of my mind. Meanwhile he suggested putting Nathan on pedisure. I will try - but Nathan does not drink a whole lot - and when he does they are small sips and I just know we won't be able to get much of that into him. I am hoping to find some other way to get extra calories in him.
On to the lungs. They sounded better today - however on an unrelated note his doctor heard some wheezing in his lungs. He asked if there was any family history of asthma. I told him Luke had bad childhood asthma. He said that often it starts with hearing it in the lungs before we ever hear the child wheeze. He wants to put him on an inhaler. I didn't get to talk in depth about that...like - is this a permanent thing or just as needed. He called in a prescription and I will bring it to the clnic tomorrow and they will show us how to use it. I figure I will take that time to ask more about the whole potential asthma thing. Frankly - I am a little overloaded with having three major things we were trying to figure out in one appointment.
Bottom line is - his counts are good, he feels good, he currently has a little cough, and he is very skinny. So - all in all - a fine state to be in and starting chemo early is a good thing in the cancer fight.
On to non-medical. We had a wonderful weekend in the mountains. My brother got married yesterday and we had a wonderful time with family. Luke even took the kids on a little hike to a waterful yesterday morning. He was so proud of them for not complaining about the walking and he really had a great time with them. Unfortunately, my current aches and pains in my pregnant state prevented me from joining them. Both kids were incredibly well-behaved for two long dinners, pictures, and ceremony. We had a very late drive home last night. The best I could do was stay awake until Luke had navigated the curvy mountain passes and then joined the kids asleep. A big thanks to Luke for cheerfully driving us all home late last night. Luke just left for a business trip. He will be home in time to take Nathan to his CT scan on Thursday since I cannot be in the CT room.
My current stress right now is INSURANCE! I am fighting to get the insurance corrected for both Julia and Nathan (Nathan's being from sometime in 2003!). Meanwhile bills are being sent to collection that are incorrect and so I don't want to pay them until they are fixed but I also don't want to ruin our credit. UGH! I HATE insurance. I am a CPA and have trouble sorting this all out.
So - I think that touches the tip of the iceburg anyway. Luke and I both are feeling like we are flying blind with Nathan. We don't know the current status of his disease - we don't know what what treatments he will be having. We don't know if every little tiny weird physical thing with him is cancer or not. It is not a fun place to be - so I just keep reminding myself to enjoy each day. That was especially easy to do this weekend with family and a wedding. Life goes on.....
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