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So Far Very Good
By Margot | May 20, 2008
Sam is at school today and went to school all day yesterday. He’s tolerating the new chemo without a problem. Aside from some nausea which seems to be controlled by zofran, he’s acting just as well as he did before last week. It’s almost as if last week was an awful dream (I wish). The best news of all is that his arm pain is gone. He hasn’t asked for a pain pill for two days and says his arm doesn’t hurt anymore. I can’t believe it would work that fast but dear Donna Ludwinski let me know that it worked that fast for Eric as well. Now if we can keep his counts up, we’ll be in good shape. We’ll keep checking VMA/HVA weekly. I love chemo! Ha Ha. I love it today anyway. Neil and I laughed (sarcastically) that the pharmacy included gloves with the irino. Here are some gloves so that you don’t touch any of the stuff that you are pumping into your son every day. I’ll never forget the first time Sam got chemo right after he was diagnosed. It was very heavy duty stuff and the nurse came in with a gown, gloves a mask and handled it as if it were a grenade. It was very comforting knowing it was about to be pumped into my four year-old. We are scheduling a head and abdominal CT for next Wednesday, there were some suspicious areas on the skull and abdomen and we want to know what we are dealing wtih in terms of disease.
For now though, Sam is doing very well. Instead of counting my chickens before they hatched last week, I was counting on disasters before they occured and imaging all the worst going forward. For all my big talk about living in the moment, I was doing exactly the opposite. I think it was the fact that Sam was in pain and I couldn’t do much about it. This disease makes it hard to be optimistic but I have learned my lesson and have hereby denounced pessimism. Feel free to help me with this plan.Â
Speaking of chickens, we brought home Fluffles and Peep last night, the baby chicks that hatched in Mrs. Gage’s class. The boys were so excited, we let them walk around on the back patio and Sam and Andy held them while Charlie pet them gently. There was an unfortunate chick crushing occurance in last year’s class by a baby brother of one of the kids so needless to say, I was a bit nervous.  The boys were very gentle though and so happy to have them. Sammy said this morning, “Thanks for letting me take the chicks home last night, Mom.” I was almost inspired to go out and buy some chicks so we can become the crazy chicken family- not sure it would go over with the neighbors though.Â
HVA:Â from last week (before new chemo) 26 down from the previous week’s 27
VMA: 13. 1 down from 14. 6
Thank you to all of you for the kind comments, emails, prayers and good thoughts. They have been working.
Margot
Topics: Progress Reports | 9 Comments »
May 20th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Margo,
The good guys are going to WIN!!! That VEGF flare-up was the issue, is my best guess It is now under control so we can kill those mets.
Love,
Meryl
May 20th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Margot,
Your news has made my day. Sam is where he belongs in SCHOOL. I’ll keep you all in my thoughts and prayers. Thinking of you all often.
With Hope
Abra
May 21st, 2008 at 1:11 am
Oh Margot–your joy in those beautiful boys reminds me CONSTANTLY to be in the moment as well–and how I need help to remember. Thank you. The extreme fascination over baby chicks…it just doesn’t get any better, eh?
I have been thinking all day about how I love poison too. Really sick, I know, but I do. I see Erik looking so good, so happy, taking little poison pills, and just knowing it is making his NB very uncomfortable…is alright with me.
Hey for future reference we just grew some tadpoles into frogs (okay we did lose one, but one graduated to froghood and we let him go in a puddle recently).
The miracles are all around us…
May 21st, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Hey Margot…been a while since we made books together 🙂 I’ve been keeping up on Sam and I have to say today…YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!!!
I’m praying for Sam’s complete recovery. And soon.
My little girls just got chickens as well, and we had a crushing incident. Sigh. Must be kind of common. I know your kids will enjoy them…mine have gone chicken-crazy.
Take care,
Dave
May 21st, 2008 at 4:49 pm
So glad to hear that Sammy’s pain is gone & that the numbers are going down!!!!GO TEAM SAM!
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:52 am
Go Sam Go! Margot, if you want to borrow Lucy Marie let me know. She loves kids! Thanks for the somewhat good news.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:46 am
rock on sam! Your michigan cheerleaders are thrilled to hear you’re feeling better.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Hey Margo – good talking to you yesterday. Pain is the worst, isn’t it? I had Max in a wheelchair yesterday for the first time ever because his legs hurt so much and his pain pills weren’t working. Decadron to the rescue and he’s back in school today. So many meds, so little time…
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:05 am
Hi Sam… hope your arm is feeling better! Team SAM is number one!!!
Pat from DC