Steroid week has come and gone, but the effects still seem to be
lingering. It was fairly typical with bouts of rage, extra crying,
insatiable hunger, and a few sleepless nights. I sometimes find that
the worst part of steroid week comes on the Monday when we finish,
and lasts for a day or two afterward. E’s cravings this time around
were fairly standard: milk, cookies, and chocolate.
Monday was Family
Day here in Ontario, and we had my wife’s family over to celebrate
my mother-in-law’s birthday. Five boy cousins, aged 2 to 7 were
running around the house. They seemed extra loud & fighty than
the usual dull roar when all 5 are together, and it had my anxiety
tweaking the whole visit.
Tuesday was back to
work, and our morning routine was interrupted by E vomiting all over
himself while sitting in his high chair. Of course this made J laugh,
and though we tried to explain that you don’t laugh when someone
vomits or hurts themselves, he just wasn’t getting it. Tuesday was
much too far away for him to still be feeling nauseous from his
methotrexate. Monday night had normally been 1/2 a pill of 6MP, but
just last week, SickKids instructed us to increase the dose to a full
pill. I’m not sure if that had anything to do with the barfing. We
know some other families in treatment whose kids vomit in the morning
after the previous night’s 6MP dose, but it is extremely unusual
for E. He’d also been drinking a bottle of milk, and had a few
funny coughs before he brought up the contents of his stomach. Maybe
it was one thing, maybe another, or maybe a combination. More likely,
I’m overanalyzing it.
Tuesday night,
February 19th, he did not want to go to sleep at all. I
took him to our family room, put on the TV, and tried to get him to
lay with me on the couch, but to no avail. He was up playing with his
toys, and watching television until well after 11pm. Finally, he made
a number in his diaper, so I changed him, and only then he was ready to
settle down. I was completely wiped out by that point in time, so it
didn’t surprise me when I woke up the next morning and found the
both of us still laying on the couch.
E had a lot of
energy this week. Even after Wednesday’s dose of methotrexate.
Usually that slows him down by a step or two for a couple of days,
but it almost hasn’t seemed to phase him this week.
My wife went out to
work today, so it meant that it was E, and me sitting around the
house staring at each-other all day. If only. He was full of energy
today, and you couldn’t keep him in a single room for longer than a
few minutes at a time. He wanted to get into everything today:
markers, toys, paper towel, pulling magnets & papers off the
fridge, scattering flyers, etc. He pooped 4 times today before noon.
I was expecting him to break his own personal record of 7, but he
only did one more for a total of 5. Poor little guy though, his stool
is all acidic from the methotrexate, and even though he was changed
within minutes of having gone, his little bum is chapped, red, and
sore looking. He was quite unhappy with me applying bum cream after
poops 3, 4, 5, and after his bath. Normally, he’ll take a nap on a
Friday because it seems to be the day that Wednesday’s methotrexate
hits him the hardest. Not today though, he must still be riding a
high from the steroids because he was not having it when we tried to
nap. It worked out for the best though, because tonight was probably
the first night in a week that he went to sleep at bedtime. I’m
happy for this week to be over, because I’m exhausted.
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