Today was another rough day for Derek. It was really the first day he has obviously not felt good. After getting out of surgery last night at about 8:30 and recovery even later, Derek finally got to eat his first meal of the day about 11:00 p.m. last night, but he wasn’t feeling the greatest and didn’t eat much. Then after midnight, he couldn’t eat or drink again because they were planning to lightly sedate him to take a second bone marrow sample and do another spinal tap with chemo. That happened at 9:00 a.m. By 10:00 he was awake and ate breakfast about 10:30. He demolished everything on his tray. Hungry boy! He played for a while in his room and then his lunch came about 12:30. He started devouring his food, but must have still been processing breakfast because he wasn’t able to finish it all, though he tried.
Midmorning Derek received his second dose of two more chemo drugs he receives once a week. They were due yesterday, but they couldn’t give them because of the scheduled surgery.
Kristen came in the afternoon and they played together happily for quite a while. As he began his evening meal, he started out eating well, but suddenly said he felt like he was going to throw up. Nausea prevented him from eating more of his supper, and for the first time since coming here over a week ago, he looks sick. Here we go.
The reports from the surgery and the procedures this morning were quite encouraging, however. X-rays showed the mass in his chest has shrunk significantly and is almost gone. Lab reports showed that his bone marrow is about 10% white blood cell production, down from nearly 100% when we arrived a week ago. Cancer has not spread to his spinal fluid, so they are discontinuing two of the drugs they had been giving him. While he is beginning to show the signs of the battle raging inside him, his body is responding well to the treatments. His white count continues to drop, and he is entering a dangerous time for his immune system.
We ask that those who visit or prepare food for us, please be vigilant. If you or people you have been exposed to are sick in any way, including fever, coughing, runny nose, sneezing, please refrain from coming. We love you all and so appreciate what you are doing for us, but Derek has no immune system to fight even one germ, so we must not expose him. Thank you for your careful attention.
2 comments:
I am praying for you and your family. Thanks for sharing this hard road with your cyber community.
Thank you for blogging your journey. I praise God for your faith and trust in Him which remains unmoved through these difficult days. Thank you for sharing although it hurts.
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