If everything goes according to plan we will be starting Shad's high dose chemo and stem cell transplant at the end of this week. We have been super busy the last few weeks checking everything off of the list for him to be cleared by the insurance to get started.
First of all we were in the hospital for about a week, getting his stem cells harvested and then for his 2nd round of the regular chemo. Before we left they were able to do several of the tests he needed. One day he had an echocardiogram, an EKG, an audiogram, and x-rays. The next day he had a bone scan, and then we were able to go home that night.
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| echocardiogram |
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| listening for the beep |
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| adding the peg when he heard the beep |
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| EKG |
He had an MRI and a Petscan at Balboa a few days later which was a welcome event. We have really missed our doctors and nurses there. When we were leaving after the scans we even ran into some old friends who we hadn't seen since Christmas.
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| After scans, coming out of sedation |
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| Janae, Shad, Trevor and I at Balboa |
Shad had his first dentist appointment last week and did amazing. Unfortunately they found two cavities which we then had to pay to get filled. I thought it was kind of random that they wanted to put him to sleep to do it, but we decided we put him through enough awake that we would go ahead and do it that way. The dentist was pretty sure they were going to need to do root canals with caps, so that would have been a lot for him awake.
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| Getting ready to have his teeth cleaned, watching Frozen |
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| teeth cleaning |
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| he was a little nervous as shown by him rubbing giraffes ear |
That same day we also had our transplant meeting with the doctor and the case manager/nurse who we have been working with. They went through their list of things they needed to tell us about, and we asked a few questions. They had said it could take several hours, but we were done in about 1. They went through the schedule of how things will go which was helpful because we hadn't really been told anything about that before then. He will get admitted on day -5 and that will be a day of pre hydration to prepare for the chemo. Day -4 to -2 he will be given the high dose chemo of Carboplatin and Etoposide. Day -1 will be a rest day where they let the chemo do its job and monitor him closely. Day 0 will be the stem cell infusion also paired with lots of monitoring to watch how he reacts. Luckily since they are giving him his own cells there should be no problems. He won't (shouldn't) reject them because his body will recognize them and have no reason to fight against them. He won't have to take any drugs or anything to help with that. He will be on a neutropenic diet which I think will be hard for him (no fast food, and few fresh fruits or vegetables among other things). On day +5 they will start giving him his
GCSF shots again which he will have to have every day until his counts have recovered. He hates getting the shots every day (who wouldn't), but I am grateful that we will be in the hospital for most or all of them so I don't have to be the one to give them to him. We will stay in the hospital until his neutrophils have recovered which takes 10 to 21 days after the stem cell infusion. He has always recovered well from chemo, so they are pretty confident he will be on the shorter end of that length of time. Right now the tentative schedule is about 3 weeks in the hospital, one week home, and then back to the hospital to repeat the process a total of three times. My mom has decided that she will come and spend the summer with us to help out with Shad, and rotations at the hospital. I am so happy that she made this choice, and words will never express how grateful we are to her, and the rest of the family, for taking time off from her life at home to come and help us. Hopefully we don't all kill each other before the summer is over.
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| Daddy and Shad playing while we waited |
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| having a snack while we waited |
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| we even saw the helicopter landing on the roof |
Monday the 12th we had another appointment for Shad at the hospital. It was a physical to clear him for transplant, the last thing on the list, but was pretty much a waste of time. We waited several hours to be seen, and when the doctor finally came she talked to him for about 5 minutes, poked his belly, listened to his heart and lungs and declared him good to go.
We were scheduled to do his dental surgery on the 15, but a schedule conflict came up so they moved us to the 14 at 9:30. We got there at 8:00 and filled out the paperwork, talked to all the different people and then waited, and waited. He finally got taken back about 10:30 where they apologized for running a bit behind...haha. They put him to sleep and then Trevor and I hung out and waited until he was done. When they doctor got in he found that the cavities weren't as deep as they had first thought so they were able to just fill them instead of doing the root canals. We were happy about that.
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| extra snuggly before surgery |
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| waiting for the dentist to get started |
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| still waiting |
Aside from a doctor appointment for me, our week looks to be pretty free of medical appointments. Hopefully that lasts and we are able to do some fun things and get ready for the hospital.
