Hospital Round 2

     We are in the middle of our second hospital stay.  Shad came in on Thursday morning to do the port removal/port placement surgery.  He had his old broviac port removed since one of the lines had clotted the last time we were at the hospital, and then they put in the new portacath.  The new port should be a good thing because there is nothing on the outside of the skin.  This means less care for the port at home which is nice, there is also less risk of infection since there is nothing outside of the body.  When he comes in for treatments or check ups they will numb the skin over the port, and then stick a needle in to access the line.  Our biggest worry is that he will see the needle and freak out, even though it shouldn't really hurt when it goes in.  ˙Hopefully after he realizes that it doesn't hurt he will be okay with it.  He came out of the placement surgery with it already accessed, so we haven't actually seen how they do it yet.
     After the blood work that was done when we first got here, Dr. Pene came in and let us know that the AFP (Alpha Fetoprotein) levels (which are one of the markers for this kind of tumor) had dropped.  When we came into the hospital originally (before diagnosis) his levels were over 60,000.  Now they have dropped to just under 20,000.  That is pretty good for just one round of chemo.  The doctor let us know that if the level were at 0 they would stop treatments, but no one would get to a 0 with just one round.  Also, you can not feel the mass in his pelvic area from the outside as easily anymore, so that shows that it is shrinking.
     Shad has been having sporadic wet diapers, which also shows that the mass is shrinking away from the urethra, and he is beginning to regain function.  The doctors were hopeful that they would be able to take out the suprapubic catheter, but after trying it capped (not draining automatically), he started complaining of abdominal pain, and so they did a bladder scan.  He had quite a bit of urine that he was holding, so they uncapped him and put the bag back on.  Although it looks like we will not get it taken out this time in the hospital we are hopeful that we can get it out soon.  As the tumor begins to shrink function should be able to improve more and more.
     He is still handling the chemo really well.  He did throw up one time the first night of treatment, but he had also just eaten almost 2 whole McDonald hamburgers and some french fries as well as a bunch of pickles.  The nurse was flushing his line with the saline (which he tastes), and he pretended/made himself gag.  This in turn caused him to throw up.  Since then he has been doing pretty well in the nausea department.
     He has 2 days of chemo left, and then we will do the post hydration for 24 hours.  He will get a Neulasta shot 24 hours after the last round of chemo, and then we should be able to go home.  We are hoping for early evening on Wednesday, but it will probably be more like Thursday morning.
     We appreciate all of your prayers for Shadrach and our family, and hope you will continue to pray for us as we continue throughout the treatments of this disease.  We definitely feel the strength and blessings that are coming to us through the power of prayer.