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July 24th, 2007
By Margot | July 24, 2007
We finished day two of chemo today. Sam’s LDH yesterday was 614 – still going down. Hurray. Perhaps we shouldn’t freak out so much over each change, but then that is our nature – we are freaker outers. I guess you’ll just have to keep that in mind as you read updates of me freaking out. They pulled a sneaky trick on me and narrowed the normal range as soon as Sam turned 7. It is now from 420 to 750 instead of from 400 to 900 -giving me much more opportunity to freak out.
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Sam did well and I finally wised up today, it being Tuesday, that since we are only doing two days of IV chemo now, there is no reason for me to schedule the first day on a Monday. The reason being that it’s only a half hour infusion but we spend most of the day in the hospital on Monday because the clinic is a freak’n zoo and we have to wait for a bed, an IV pump, etc. Whereas today, we just breezed in and out relatively quickly and got to chat up all our favorite nurses. I was so used to scheduling the first day on Monday because we always had five days of chemo to get in that I just kept doing it. As Andrew is now very fond of saying, “Duh!” (what is he, 15?). Sam is doing well though he threw up on the way to the hospital this morning and then cheerfully said, “At least I didn’t get any on my shirt.” In fact, he’s such a pro that he didn’t get any anywhere but right in the bag I panickedly threw him. As I held the bag aloft with one hand I pulled into, you guessed it, the very same 7/11 whose bushes we’ve avialed ourselves of for bodily fluids many times -I got to use the trash can today. Sam laughed as I was driving one-handedley and said, “What if there was a hole in that bag?” “We’d be screwed,” I answered. Not sure if that would make a good large Hefty Ziploc commercial or not. As I watched the chemo drip into Sam and cursed and appreciated it all at the same time, I fantasized my own little version of 1984 but it was: 2015 (The Medical Version: Big Bother of Cancer):
Sam walks in to the hospital with Mom. There is no waiting as there are very few kids and kind nurse says, “Right this way Sam, we are just going to take your picture quickly.” Click! A picture of the inside of Sam’s whole body lights up on a big 3D screen. “Uh oh!” says kind nurse. Sam’s got some cancer cells in there, see them? They light up as green with our special non-invasive, non-toxic, vitamin giving camera. Let me just shoot these anti-oxidant lasers right at those little buggers and they’ll be zapped forever. This lovely camera doesn’t harm a single healthy cell.” “But,” says Sam’s mom, “What about the rebel cells hanging out smoking behind the gym just waiting to come out and wreak havoc on the honor student cells?” “Oh says the nurse, this camera lights up every single cell so there are no rebel stem cells that will ever come back.” “So that’s it?” says Sam’s mom “that’s the whole treatment?’ “Yep, he’s cured forever. Can you believe they used to give kids chemo? How barbaric.”
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Then I take the fantasy further:
Mom walks in with all three children and Dad. Kind Nurse says, “We are just going to take a family photo here.” Click. “Hmm. See these little purple cells? They have the potential to go berserk and multiply -what we used to call cancer before we cured it, we’ll just zap them so they don’t cause any damage by dividing. Oh and Sam, you had cancer before we created this easy one step cure? You had chemo and your hearing is damaged? Just take this little pill and all the cochlear hairs will grow back and your hearing will be good as new. And if you take this little pill, it will ensure that you are not sterile and can produce healthy sperm. It tastes just like bubble gum.”
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I can dream right?
We had a fun weekend, went sailing and to the circus with the Mikulaks. Thanks to the Millers for inviting us on their beautiful boat. The boys had a wonderful time, both got the steer the boat and be captain for a while and they had a great time with Hannah and Max. We left Charlie as he’s a busy almost one year-old and I was afraid he would either topple overboard or squirm and scream in my arms wanting to get down and topple overboard enough to make it very unenjoyable for me. He hung out at the Monacos. Thanks Colleen. The Cirq-de-Symphony was great. It was part of the Summer Pops put on by the San Diego Symphony and it was a great way to get the boys to listen to classical music. They had all of the amazing acrobats performing in front of them giving them something to look at while they soaked up all that culture. Thanks to Megan, a mom from Hannah and Max’s school, we were hooked up with parking passes, awesome seats, and the kids got the meet the performers and tour back stage. Thanks, Melissa for thinking of us. I was telling one of the nurses about it and she laughed and said, “Yeah, wow, if you had two cancer kids together you could’ve probably had anything you wanted.” It made me laugh.
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Will post this week’s VMA/HVA levels as soon as we get them. They were taken today. I’ll try to post some pics of the kids on the boat as soon as I can.
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Margot
Topics: Progress Reports | Comments Off on July 24th, 2007
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