Day 26 - The Shannon Family

Grammy and I took Nicholas to outpatient client yesterday for a chemo treatment. It was heartwrenching to see how upset he was to go. He said he was scared of the hospital now (I can't blame him). He understands he has to go, but just does not want to. He was okay once we were there. He was very curious about what his 'port' looked like, so nurse Angie took one out and showed him. He seemed to think it was cool that he has one. We met with the doctor and they feel confident that after day 32 he will start his 'remission' phase. This is the start of a 2 year process. He will be admitted next Tuesday to start consolidation phase 1. He will have a bone marrow and spinal done in the morning and he will start a very heavy chemo treatment the next day. One of the chemo treatments will drip through his port for 24 hours. We have to wait until it flushes out of his system before we can go home. We have not told him he will be staying in the hospital yet. We are learning to give him little bits and pieces of information to him and not to far in advance. The hospital has many support associates that help him and us deal with the stay there. We plan to enjoy this week, while Nick is home and then start packing up for next week. His blood counts are back up to normal (for now) and his energy is back. Although I will be happy to see him stop taking the steroid drug..... he eats all the time, very demanding and cranky to.