Monday, July 18, 2011

Collin had an episode of vomiting last Friday that really made me anxious. He had eaten dinner, and was sitting in the recliner watching Elmo on the iPad when out of the blue, with no crying, gagging, or coughing beforehand, he threw up. He had no fever, and he seemed perfectly fine before and after the episode. Even though I know kids who have had tumors where Collin's was tend to throw up easily, the incident really increased my (already high) anxiety, because vomiting for no apparent reason was one of the first symptoms of the tumor and I dread relapse. Thankfully he has not thrown up since Friday, and seems fine. He also shows no evidence of chicken pox (and my shingles are almost gone-yay!)

Today at his routine clinic visit, I talked to his oncologist about the vomiting, but she wasn't concerned at all. She wasn't surprised or concerned either that he hasn't grown taller in quite a while; she said it's not unusual for it to take at least a year off treatment before kids start to grow taller again.

Collin's last dose of his current chemo (Etoposide) will be July 26. He has two more rounds (14 days each) of Accutane, and then he will be totally finished with chemotherapy by the end of August. On one hand I am excited to be able to stop giving him measured doses of poison. I know it is progress, a milestone in his treatment. However, it's scary as well, because not giving him chemo means we're not physically fighting the cancer anymore. It's a terrifying thought.

Collin's oncologist talked about something (coincidentally) called "Collins' Law." Basically it's a formula for predicting "risk for recurrence of embryonal tumors including medulloblastomas." It is determined by taking the person's age at diagnosis (16 months for Collin), and adding 9. So, the next 10 months are critical; if by May 2010 (25 months from Collin's original diagnosis) he is still free of any clinical evidence of recurrence, he is considered "cured." There is still a small risk of secondary cancer years from now that can be caused by the chemotherapy Collin has received over the last year and a half. So please pray that Collin's next MRI this coming Thursday still shows "No Evidence of Disease." As soon as I know the results, I will share them!