"Chateau Pasqua" (also known as the Pasqua Hospital) is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there!
And we felt like we did live here for almost a year, during the course of Tom's first 14 rounds of chemo. I think what makes it hard to accept is that we thought/hoped/prayed that he was done being here as a patient, and that we could just come here to visit our friends.
Thursday morning we had planned on coming down to the clinic to check Tom's counts anyway: we wanted to ensure that his counts were checked before the weekend in case he needed blood or platelets on Friday, and we also needed to make sure his counts were high enough to go in public places for 2 good reasons: 1) he wanted to visit his school and sing with the choir, and 2) we had tickets for a comedy show.
He was very groggy and hot to the touch when Mike went to wake him Thursday morning. He had a fever of 38.6 C. Every cancer parent knows that 38.0 degrees is the cutoff point that you phone your oncologist or get your child down to the clinic or hospital, because it's a sign that your child may be fighting an infection. Since it was only 30 minutes before the clinic would normally open for the day, we went straight there as soon as we could get organized and Mike could shovel a path to the van for Thomas (who is still using crutches). As we arrived at the hospital/clinic, Tom had another nose bleed - seemed likely that he would need platelets again.
Sure enough, the blood tests confirmed that his platelet counts were still very low, despite the transfusion on Monday. His platelet count was only 14, so they started making preparations to transfuse more platelets. After the doctor examined him, he felt that Tom more than met the criteria to be admitted.
Tom wasn't very happy about it...and who can blame him?
On the upside, Reyce is here, and we are happy to see, seeming to bounce back from pneumonia. He is just across the hall. This morning he sent two different nurses over to see if Tom was ready to come and play video games! I got the two of them set up in Reyce's room, and Tom played for quite awhile, until his leg started to go a bit numb from sitting in one position too long.
One of the pain management specialists came up last night, and they have decided that since the pain seems to be so well under control now - we haven't had to increase anything since December 30th - that we could safely start tapering some of the meds off. So we began that today, and will move very gradually. This is a good sign, and hopefully means that the chemo has been effective in shrinking that new tumor.
The anesthesiologist came by: they need Tom's platelet counts to be at 50 before the surgery, so he will get a transfusion on Sunday and again on Monday, right before the procedure. They will do the procedure under a local anesthetic with sedation, and the anesthesiologist will be standing by in case any complications should arise and they need to knock him out completely. They are reluctant to do that because anesthesia actually lowers your body's natural immune response, something that Tom really doesn't need at this point!
If you are in Regina and healthy, Tom would very much enjoy your company at the hospital. His counts are up a bit today, so he's already on the rebound. In fact, Dr. Haq was surprised, as he expected them to still be on the way down today! Thomas was teasing him for being wrong, and Dr. Haq said he'd be quite happy to have Thomas prove him wrong on many fronts!
He might be lucky enough to get a pass for a few hours out on Sunday. If you're unsure whether its a good time to come, just call or text Thomas, Mike or I to check it out ahead of time.
We are so grateful for family, friends - and those friends who have become like family this past year and a half. Thanks for your continued interest and support in our journey.
Have a great weekend, God bless.
Thomas' Mom
