Coming home

Hooray! Steven gets to come home this morning. His methotrexate numbers are down this morning to .10--just enough to release him from the hospital. He may even make it home in time for church.

My last post was a little innaccurate. I guess what they test is his blood to see if the chemo is gone. It is an expensive test--something like $500 each time they do it. They test him several times during the first 24 hours to make sure his body is clearing it and after that they only test him once a day. So if he tests at .12 or even .11, they have to wait until the next day to test again and then release him. Having any of this chemical stick around in your body is really dangerous, so they have to keep fluids going all the time to flush it out.

In other news, for the first time in my life I care about March Madness. Maybe it is just something to think about other than cancer. Go BYU! Even Rob is cheering for the Cougars this year (along with the Buckeyes). Steven was in an overflow area in the hospital this stay instead of the locked down ICS unit. I brought two of his cousins up to watch the game last night. It was great fun. He even watched most of it, but he was perhaps more interested in the book on nuclear distasters I brought him from the library. He is liking basketball, but I think we know where his real interests lie. His nurse said he hadn't seen a kid his age that liked CNN so much.

Luck of the Irish

Steven's counts came back great yesterday and the ICS unit was full which means he is able to start his next round of chemo today, but we had to wait for discharges before we could get a room. Which means he got to go to school again this morning. This was exactly what I was praying for. We are settled into the room and he's getting iv fluids to prepare him for round two of chemo. This drug is called methotrexate. It will be a 4 hour infusion and then he is given iv fluids withsodium bicarbonate that helps reduce the acidity and helps his body flush it out. We will be able to go home as soon as it is all the way gone from his system. The average stay is between 2 and 5 days. This drug will make him nauseated while it is in his system but shouldn't produce the same kind of delayed nausea we saw with the last drugs. It shouldn't bring his counts so low either. The side effect it has is the one I fear the most--mouth sores. There is certainly a range of reactions, he may be just fine. The sores usually start showing up in 5 to 10 days after he starts. We will get a feeling for how he reacts then. In the meantime, we are watching CNN and March Madness and waiting. Also, hoping that luck is with us and that the tumor fears this drug as much as I do.