Tom's Chemo 13 went smoothly and other than being really tired the last few days, he's been doing well. And his blood counts seemed to hold up - until today that is. Naturally, just in time to affect plans for the Easter weekend. Both his hemoglobin (red blood cells that carry oxygen) and platelets (cells that help your blood clot) are quite low, and on top of that, his neutrophils or white cells are dangerously low.
What does all this mean? For one thing, we'll spend all day Thursday in the clinic for him to receive 2 units of blood and 5 units of platelets. For another, it means his activities have to be restricted until his white counts come up. If he were to get an infection at this point, he would be a very sick boy. Translation: Mike and I get to be the bad guys. Again. Unless his counts come up again tomorrow, he'll need to be under house arrest.
One of the extra sucky things about cancer is that it takes away your control: any and all plans are tentative and revolve around blood counts, treatment and test dates. But we are in a battle here, and we cannot let the enemy get a toehold back in Tom's body - we're in the process of driving it out - and he's fought so hard to get where he is now!
As for me, I recovered from my flu or whatever it was in time for Tom's return from the hospital, and to keep my promise to Nancy: namely, to go down to Minot (North Dakota) and scope out the university there. We had a tour booked for Friday, so luckily things were back to normal by then! We stayed in an adorable Bed and Breakfast, and came back home Saturday. We didn't really find a lot of bargains worth bringing home, but one thing we did bring was definitely a big hit: we brought Tom a carton of orange Fanta. He loved it! I think he took in more fluids in the next 2 days than he normally does in a week!
(P.S. If anyone is going across the border, I`d be so grateful if you'd bring us back some more orange Fanta!)
Monday night, Mike and I attended a parents forum where we were asked for our input to a wish list on how they might design new space at the General... someday. They are currently doing some long range planning (in 10 to 15 years time). Naturally, this was a great opportunity to raise the concerns we have about consolidating pediatric services for our health district. As it turns out we will get another opportunity next week, when the Sask Cancer Agency holds its annual public meeting.
I have spent the last few days getting used to (sigh) my first pair of progressive lenses. If they do not start feeling better soon, I am going back to a pair of single vision lenses, and just carry some reading glasses! Yikes! Can old age be far behind...
Anyway - wishing you all a joyous Easter, with the opportunity to reflect on the many blessings we enjoy, and the One who is there for us, no matter what troubles befall us.
Thanks for checking in on us - Happy Easter to you and yours,
Thomas' Mom
