December 11, 2008

14 Days Until Christmas! It sure is approaching quickly and it feels very different this year.

Sam has been on dexamethasone for the past 7 days and today, thankfully, is the last dose for a long while. He has not been feeling well all week and yesterday he experienced severe back and leg pain. He had a hard time getting comfortable, couldn't sleep, and was very restless. He was very upset and asking for some pain relief. After checking that he had no fever we decided to give him one dose so he could get to sleep. Today when we went to the hospital for blood work we checked in with nurse Christine and she said that was the right thing to do and said as long as we are not masking a fever. Today he is feeling marginally better.

Sam, beginning tomorrow, has 17 days without any chemo drugs. One week without chemo therapy is part of his protocol, but Dr. Bond has rearranged his schedule for several reasons. The first reason is that Sam would need to receive a spinal tap and 4 consecutive days of chemo which would fall on Dec. 23-27. Dr. Bond wants his kids (patients) to have as good as Christmas as possible, given their unbelievable circumstances. Children coming into the hospital for those special days and having to deal with all the yucky side effects is difficult for everyone. So Dr. Bond did some rearranging with Sam's schedule to make these days better for him. He will begin the next section in his protocol ,if his counts are high enough, on December 29in Vancouver. We are so thankful for the compassion and kindness we receive from Sam's oncology team. We are hoping that Sam will recover from the past few weeks treatments and feel stronger physically, mentally and emotionally. It sure takes a toll on every part of a person's body to go through all this.

Sam is keeping up with his school work, but he misses the social interactions the most. I try to get him out of the house a bit each day. Some days he can do much more than other days. He and Lucy cuddle and nap together much of the day...he loves that little dog! She has been an incredible addition to our family and the timing could not have been better. I remember last Christmas, when our kids received a picture of Lucy in their stocking, and wondered why they got that. That's when Ger told them that sometime in the spring they would be "adopting" their cousin's dog as they prepared to move to England. I have never seen our kids respond with such emotion and excitement...it was very special! How do you top that?

Well I have some cookie dough chilling that is ready to be rolled out, baked and iced. Sam has our dinner menu planned and is dreaming of food day and night once again! He sure knows his way around a kitchen compared to 6 months ago. Thankful for the good things that come out of difficult times.

Bye for now,
Debbie