Sunday, February 27 - Maintenance Chemo Cycle 1, Day 41

Ever since last weekend, I have looked forward to writing about the fun we had at THON weekend. However, the forces that be have conspired against me all week, and I just have not had the time to sit and try to describe our first experience at THON. I will try again this week to do so, but in the meantime I thought I'd better try to get a regular update posted so no one thinks I've fallen off the face of the earth.

Being away last weekend put us behind on the normal household things that never end, like laundry, grocery shopping, etc. Add to that the time I spend out of the house taking Collin to his various therapy and other appointments each week, and it's very hard to catch up. Then on Thursday Collin ended up sick, and I all but gave up on trying to catch up.

When Collin woke up Thursday morning, he had a little unusual drainage from his left eye, but I didn't think too much of it. He had a great morning at therapy, and slept for two hours afterwards. That should have been my first clue; usually he sleeps for an hour, so I was surprised that he slept for two, but figured it was because he worked so hard in therapy. After the nap though, he had more drainage from his eye, and since he is scheduled to have surgery to correct the alignment of his eyes on March 9, my gut told me not let it go. So I called his oncologist's nurse and told her what was going on. She said if he still had the drainage Friday morning they would fit him in at the clinic after his pre-op appointment for his upcoming eye surgery.

Then around 5 pm he felt really warm to me, so I took his temperature. It was 102.2. So I called in and spoke to the covering oncologist. He spoke to Collin's oncologist and they decided to have Collin checked since he's still immuno suppressed, even though his last labs on February 14 were good. So, I put a suitcase in the car, and we headed to the emergency department. In the car on the way over, he vomited twice, and later he vomited twice more in the ED.

In the ED they took blood for labs and cultures, swabbed his eye for a culture, and swabbed his nose for a flu test. They gave him an antiemetic to stop the vomiting, then Tylenol to bring down his fever. They gave him some IV fluids, and a dose of IV antibiotic for his eye. The doctors didn't feel the eye infection would cause the high fever or vomiting, so they thought it was possible he had two things going on. The antiemetic and IV fluids perked Collin up and he was able to keep fluids down, so they discharged him around midnight. We went home and finally I got Collin cleaned up and into bed.

Then, because I wasn't sure about whether they'd want to see him in clinic Friday morning to follow-up, and whether or not we'd be able to reschedule the pre-op appointment, I had to clean the car and take apart the whole car seat, clean it up, and put a clean cover on it (thankfully I have 2 covers!) So at 2 am, in the dark and pouring rain, I miraculously managed to get the seat reinstalled so that we'd be ready to roll Friday morning if necessary.

Collin's fever hung around overnight even with Tylenol, but finally went down mid Friday morning. He had no more vomiting, was interested in eating and drinking, and kept food and liquid down all day Friday. Other than his left eye being a bit red and swollen, he didn't look or act sick. Thankfully we got the pre-op appointment rescheduled, and they decided we didn't need to go to the clinic, so we got to stay home Friday.

Then Saturday morning, he started with diarrhea, which continued all day. I lost track of how many times he needed to be changed, diapers and clothes, because of course it would immediately leak out of the diaper. Thank God for steam carpet cleaners, washing machines, and bath tubs! And then, as if it wasn't enough having to clean up multiple messes all day long, late Saturday afternoon Collin was standing holding on to the kitchen table, and gagged on the snack he was eating. Of course our dog Bailey was sniffing around Collin's feet looking for crumbs at that very moment, so when Collin gagged and threw up, it landed right on Bailey's head! So, back to the bathtub we went, only that time it was Bailey's turn for a bath.

Today Collin has still had some diarrhea. This upcoming week is another busy one, with a clinic appointment, multiple therapy appointments, and the rescheduled pre-op appointment (which they said takes about two hours!) I feel like I'm never home anymore. I also have to finish getting ready for Neya's birthday. Lately, by the time I manage to get through the day, I'm physically and mentally exhausted, and have been going to bed as soon as Neya and Collin are asleep. I'm not writing about this to complain, but to let you know if it takes me a while to answer email or phone calls, please know that it is just because I'm busy, not because I don't want to talk to anyone! =-)