Hello,
We had a great week at the Shannon Household. Nick was back to himself after the last steroid dose. Not sure why he had a hard time with it and all the pain. The boys are getting back to a routine after the Disney trip. It definitely took them a little while to come off of cloud 9 and focus again. Colby asked to watch the Disney photo CD again this weekend. I am working on posting the pictures, should be soon.
I took Nick to clinic today. His counts were great:
WBC: 4.6
RBC: 10.6
APC: 3,000
He received his Methotrexate and will go back next Monday for the final week. He will start a cycle but only finish the first week of it. The reason for this is because his protocol (Dana Farber study/trial he is on) states the treatment will go for 2 straight years after he is in remission. He was in remission on 11/18/08. What this means is that the chemo killed all the leukemia cells in his blood during his 30 day Induction phase. He has remmained in remission this whole but because Leukemia is a blood cancer, there is always a chance of those cancer cells popping up again. Due to years of research doctors have found out that after 2 yrs (depending what protocol you are on, could be a little longer), that treatment can be stopped. So here we are..... 2 years later. The emotions were catching up to me today at clinic. One of my clinic moms (Jen) and I were talking about it and she was asking if we had plans for Nick when it is over.... I don't know yet. We still have the spinal and bone aspiration in Dec. and the port to be taken out. I definitely had to take some deep breaths when I was talking to Nurse Pat, Paula and even Donna, our parent consultant. I think the past 2 years Nick has endured so much and he is definitely one of the lucky ones to get through everything he has. When he was first diagnosed the Doctor told us to expect a lot of hospital stays, blood transfusions, platelet transfusion, bacteria infections and plenty of virus's. He never needed a platelet transfusion and he did develope C-diff and pneumonia, but was treatable through antibiotics. He was labeled the 'fever' child at clinic b/c of all the fevers he had last year, yet, he made it through all of it.
I guess the date caught up with me so fast today, that I realized next week is it. I doubt I will ever feel it is 100% over, we will have follow up visits for at least the next 5 years. Monday will be a tough day for me (and I am sure Greg to). When you rely on a medicine to cure your son and then it stops, the adjustment peroid has to come. I can't explain it, but I am sure my cancer moms out there know the feeling. The tears were flowing on the way home today, but that is okay because we have Nick. More to post later.
