Hi Everyone,
I know I owe a blog, it has been a little while. April is a crazy month for us with birthdays. Nick and Colbys, along with the 3 Love children are all born in April. Clinic was uneventful on Monday. Nick's counts were low, but we expect them to go right back up since he is off chemo this week (it is day 17 of 21, on his 3 wk protocols). He even said that the shot in the leg did not hurt this time. I believe the numbing cream really works when left on for a certain period of time. Last night, I woke up and Nick felt very hot. As usual, we take all the blankets off him and unzip his PJ's to cool him down. After about 2 hours, his temp had gone down, but still a fever. I decided to take him to the ER (instead of waiting for clinic to open). We were in the ER from 5am-8:30am and had 3 different nurses try to access his port, but all failed. The port is a circular piece, with rubber middle that was surgically embedded in Nick. It is a direct access to blood and the way they give him chemo. Since it is skin deep, we add numbing cream to his skin and then a small needle is inserted into the skin and goes through the port hole. Once the needle is inserted, the nurse will try to draw blood via a syringe immediately. If they can not draw blood right away, you must take the needle out, to prevent infection and any clogs in the port. Nick was poked 3 times and did really well with it.... his usual screaming and some crying to go home. I finally told them (like I said before, I have to protect my child and do what I feel is right at times) that I would wait until clinic opened up and go downstairs to see the nurses their. Nick is much more comfortable with clinic and he agreed to wait. During all this time we had taken Nick's temp a couple of times and he did not actually have a fever (it started at 100.3 and went down). We headed to clinic and explained what happened (the ER is definitely not my favorite place and I try to avoid it at all costs) and they agreed to just let us go home since Nick did not 'technically' have a fever. Another learning experience for us. Nick is chilling today and getting ready for Colby's birthday party at Pump It Up tonight. Greg said Colby was very distraught this morning to wake up and find Nick at the hospital. He was very worried that Nick would not make his party..... such a very caring brother.
Next week is a VERY big week for us. Nick is scheduled for a spinal. It has been 19 wks since his last spinal and they are always scary for us. The doctor will inject his spine with chemo and take a sample as well. As long as they see less than 1% blasts (leukemic cells), we are on track. He will also start another 3 phase of chemo, steroids and a shot. Please pray for him next week, he does not like to put to sleep and process is very scary to him.
