Back On Track

Hi Everyone,

We have had a busy few weeks around here. We had a tough time starting about 2 weeks ago. As Xavier said in his post, the previous rounds of chemo really knocked down his immune system. To continue on his treatment plan his ANC counts needed to be at 750. Unfortunately his were at 144 and so the Dr's wanted him to take time off to get his immune system built back up. He also has developed an allergic reaction to the antiseptic solution called Chloroprep which we use to clean his chest catheter. It started out small and within a few days had spread all over his chest. It was bothering him pretty badly last weekend and on Sunday I called one of the oncologists to see what I could do, and he sent us to the emergency room at St Joseph's Hospital. The docs say he has contact dermititis and so they put him on a stronger antihistamine as well as a steroid to combat the reaction. I was also told to switch his cleaning process on his chest to alcohol and iodine, and a gauze and paper tape dressing instead of the tegaderm patch. Anyways, I am glad to say that it is starting to clear up and, as of Monday Xavier's ANC count was at 2189. So we are back on track for chemo which started up this past Tuesday again w/ an 8 hour clinic visit, and we will continue to have to go back thru Friday. He then gets a few days of break, and goes again from Tues-Fri. I feel like I go on autopilot to CHOC now. :)
Thanks again for all the prayers and support. Hope everyone has a happy and safe Labor Day weekend.

Love, Cherie

Post From X #2

Hi everybody thank you so much for all the messages. I am glad to hear that all of you are praying for me. This has probably been the toughest time of my life so far and my dad says its just another thing I have to power through. My blood levels are very low they are supposed to be at 750 but right now they are at 144. So I was not allowed to do chemo this week. I had an allergic reaction that produced red itchy spots on my chest near my catheder. Its very hard not to scratch my chest. Sometimes I get bored but not all the time because I just got a new game called Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games its very challenging but very fun. There is nothing else to say but keep praying because I will always need it.

Love, Xavier

Don't Get Too Comfortable...

Sorry I haven't posted sooner but we have had a hectic schedule. Xavier's treatments have been going well, but we have had a bit of a scare recently. Last Thursday the 7th X had his usual clinic visit, spinal chemo, IV push chemo, and also an intramuscular chemotherapy drug that is given in each of his thighs called a PEG. He had this PEG the day he was discharged from the hospital. This drug is known to cause allergic reactions, so the 1st time he had it we had to wait 4 hours to see how he would do. He did well with it the 1st time, so we assumed he would do fine w/ this one as well. We stayed at clinic for 1 hour after he had all of his meds so they could keep an eye on everything, and we were discharged w/ no problem. He was sore but no other major issues. We went home and had been there for about 3 hours when X came out of his room and said his lip felt funny. I looked at him and his eyes and mouth were swelling up! I immediately called the Dr and was told to give him benadryl now and come back to the clinic at once so he could be taken care of, and was also warned that if he had trouble breathing I would need to go to the nearest emergency room. Needless to say I made it to CHOC in about 20 minutes! Thank God for Fastrak! We arrived and Xavier received a shot of hydrocortisone for the reaction. He also needed a blood transfusion because his lab results showed that his hemoglobin levels were too low. His blood was from the designated donor program set up for him at CHOC. The nurse was not allowed to give me the name of the donor but if your donor # is FE20709 we want to thank you and let you know X received your blood! We appreciate the donations so much and you can see that they are truly needed. Anyways I am happy to say X is doing well now and over the allergic reaction. This was a definite reminder that we can't get too comfortable in our situation, you never know what can happen. Thanks again for the love and support.

Cherie