Monday, March 31, 2008

A very fine weekend

Rick seems to be doing well on the new chemotherapy. Only side effect is some mild nausea. Yesterday we went swimming and then walked close to four miles at Duxbury Beach. He would have walked more, but his brother and I ran out of energy. His appetite is good, he is eating well, but his taste buds are unpredictable. He’s in good spirits and is looking forward to a full week at school with no doctor or hospital visits.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Doing well so far on the new chemo

Rick made it to school for a couple of hours Wednesday, and hopefully all day today. He's feeling well........no side effects yet, but that could change in the next few days. He's happy and active, that makes me happy.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Long day at Dana Farber


We started the new drugs yesterday. It’s the first chemo he’s had since September so we were all anxious. Ricky is feeling very good, looks great and has had no headaches or nausea for the last week. His pre-chemo exam was good; the doctors are impressed with his health and attitude. His platelets reached 94,000, which was great news since the concern was that the new drugs would further suppress his bone marrow. They didn’t want to start anything until he reached 100,000, but I pushed to get going sooner since the clock is running and the tumor isn’t waiting.

It took eight and a half hours before we could leave. Ricky did okay, but did get sick to his stomach half way through and is having blurred vision off and on. His blood pressure was elevated, and he felt pretty poorly. But Ricky being Ricky, we stopped for Chinese on the way home and he had egg drop soup, some Chinese tea and some ginger chicken (he told me the ginger would help his nausea), and he ate well. He took the leftovers for breakfast this morning. Not sure if he’s going to school today or not.
EDIT: He's going to try going to school this morning. He feels "pretty good".

Next treatment is in two weeks. Personally, this was a very hard day for me. Bittersweet that we finally got back into treatment, but hard to watch your child endure something like this when he should just be in school learning math and enjoying his many friends.

Keep sending the positive thoughts and prayers our way!

Bill


Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Quick update

Rick's platelets were up to 74,000 on Monday. The Monday scans gave the doctors more data, and this will help us moving forward. There was no significant tumor growth between the MRI last Thursday and Monday's scans.

Blue Cross has approved the Avastin and CPT-11 drugs, and we are starting Tuesday. It will be infused every two weeks, thru his port. He's going to his Grandparents in Albany for Easter so this should work out well. As mentioned earlier, Blue Cross has been a godsend for us.

There has been some great success with this combination and we are planning to be one of them.

Google Avastin and CPT-11 for more information on what may be our miracle.

Till the next update.........please keep the good thoughts and prayers headed our way.

Bill

Monday, March 17, 2008

Vermont




Ricky and I had a great trip. He felt really good all weekend. It's hard to believe he's as sick as he is.


Today we have some major tests (PET scan, etc) at Children's. We'll see how that all works out.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

MRI results

Rick had his MRI this morning at Children’s. As we had suspected, the results were not good. The tumor is back already, just six weeks after surgery. It’s bad.

Surgery and radiation are not options; all we have left is to go for the chemo in spite of his low platelets, which were at just 70K this morning. We will be starting next week, he’ll get a PET scan and we will immediately start the chemo. Risk of hemorrhage is high, especially since he had brain surgery and has low blood counts, but it’s the best shot we have of slowing this thing up. Better to give it everything we can, than wish we did later.

We are going to Vermont for the weekend to visit my sister and her family. Likely the last trip we’ll make up there, but who really knows. He’s feeling pretty good, just a few headaches and some nausea, so I’ll pick him up at school the end of the day and we’ll be there for dinner. He loves it there; it’s one of his favorite places.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

More blood work yesterday......

Rick had his blood tested while at Dana Farber yesterday getting his monthly antibiotic infusion. His platelets are only up by 1,000 to 68,000. Very discouraging as my fear is the numbers are just not going up fast enough to catch this thing. Neurosurgeon at Children’s was very impressed with Rick’s recovery from surgery, but also said he would need a “compelling reason” to consider operating again. The MRI has been moved to Thursday and will be very telling as to what happens next.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Numbers moving up!

Just got the results of this morning's blood test. Platelets are now at 67,000. We're gaining. MRI planned for March 17th. Another blood test in a week. He is having some issues with nausea, which may be just a stomach bug going around his classroom. Seems strange to hope he has a virus, but it's lesser of two evils, as it could signal that the tumor is growing back.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

In school all week......

.......and he got a 100 on his spelling test yesterday! He's doing Tong Ren and accupunture this morning.