Maintenance!!!

We finally made it to the maintenance phase. Xavier's counts were at 960 on Monday so he was able to go to clinic Tuesday for a spinal as well as IV chemo. This phase will last 3 years, he will have a spinal and IV chemo once a month, and will be on oral chemotherapy meds that he takes every day. We only have to go to clinic once a month, and can do labs from home every 2 weeks. Also, some other big news...Xavier obviously hates to have his spinals (who wouldnt?) but the reason he feels that way is because he doesnt like the feeling when he comes out of the sedation because he is dizzy and nauseous for a while after. His Dr said that she does have some older patients who do spinals without sedation, and said he could try it if he felt he could handle it. He agreed to try it and did GREAT! All they use is a cold topical spray. He is so brave, the Dr and all the nurses were so proud of him! And...in 4 to 6 weeks they will remove his broviac catheder, and they dont need to replace it with an under the skin port-a-cath. His Dr said that for all further IV meds that X needs, they can run a regular IV in his arm. This is such a relief! It feels really good to finally have all of this good news to report. Hopefully there will be much more to come now that things are settling down.
Thanks again for all the prayers and support!

Cherie

Not Yet...

Xavier had his labs drawn yesterday, and we needed his counts at 750 to begin maintenance. Unfortunately his body is recovering slower than we thought and his counts came back at only 437. Much better than the previous count of 66 at least. I think his body just needs this break from chemo and we will be back on track again soon. He is scheduled for labs again on Monday, and if we are at 750 he will have a spinal chemo and a push of chemo in his catheder on Tuesday. We are all anxious to get going on the next phase but we are trying to be patient...
Will update you on Monday with his counts.

Cherie