41) Back on track

Things had really hit the skids during the last 10 days of December, and first few weeks of January. To give a quick play-by-play of the gory details:

1. E had a 6 day hospital stay from December 20th - 26th.
2. J was home sick with croup for a whole week from January 1st - 7th.
3. E went to the hospital on January 10th for what was supposed to have been regular bloodwork, but ended up being admitted from January 10th - 12th because he had a fever, and ended up being diagnosed with Respiratory Syncytial Virus, or RSV.

Due to his intermittent illnesses, and continual low blood counts, E's graduation to Delayed Intensification II was delayed 3 times.

On January 16th, we went to our satellite hospital for standard bloodwork, and the results came back fine, so E was a go for starting the second phase of Delayed Intensification. We were back on track!

On January 17th, we traveled to SickKids so that E could receive his lumbar puncture, and start the next phase. We were a bit late leaving, traffic was bad, and we didn't arrive at SickKids until 9:30 AM. It ended up being a bit of a happy accident that we were late, because E ended up being taken last into Cujo's Room because of his RSV diagnosis to minimize the chances that it might be passed on to other patients. We were given a temporary private room, and we ended up being there until 7 PM. In just one day, E had a dose of vincristine along with his lumbar puncture, and was administered two new drugs, cytarabine, and cyclophosphamide. We were also prescribed 6-thioguanine, or 6-TG to bring home. This is an orally administered medication, but since E is so young, we must dissolve the tablet inside a syringe filled with water and get him to drink it. He needs a 2 week course of this drug, administered on a nightly basis. Since we ended up being so late, we put out an SOS to my mother-in-law. She had already stayed over the night before to get J off to daycare, but she graciously came back out to pick him up, watch him, and feed him until we got home.

The view from our room, facing East toward downtown Toronto

January 18th and 19th were more chemo days, but we only had to go as far as our satellite hospital. There, E was administered a dose of cytarabine.

January 20th was another chemo day, but our satellite hospital's POGO clinic isn't open on weekends, so we took a trip to SickKids. This was a quick trip, and we brought J with us. While we were parking the car in the underground garage, J exclaimed "this cave is really cool". It's probably the second time he's ever been in underground parking, but I guess, yes, it probably does seem like a cave.

January 21st - 23rd were rest and recovery days for E.

January 24th, 25th, and 26th were more chemo days at our satellite hospital, where more doses of cytarabine were administered.

January 27th, a Saturday, was another trip to SickKids, but they needed us there earlier. J has a dance class on Saturday mornings, and our appointment overlapped with his class. We asked my parents if they would mind coming down to help us out. My sister who lives in British Columbia happens to be in town right now, so it would also be an opportunity for J to visit his aunt. The 3 of them drove out, took J to his class, had a visit, and treated him to lunch at McDonald's. At SickKids, E received his cytarabine, and had his blood tested.

The levels are dropping, so now we wait and hope he doesn't get sick, or require a transfusion. Save for a couple more nightly doses of 6-thioguanine, the aggressive portion of Delayed Intensification II is now over.