One Thing Down...

Jacob finished his radiation treatments yesterday! 11 days of driving back and forth to the hospital, 11 days of being zapped of your energy and feeling nauseated from the treatment to his abdomen. He is glad to be done with that step of his journey.

When we arrived at our last appointment the receptionist greeted him with a balloon and an army helmet filled with army toys (Jacob loves anything Army!). I was greeted with a bouquet of roses. These precious gifts had been dropped off at the hospital from my mom's long time friend, who we used to live down the street from and who's daughter I used to be best friends with. My mom's friend had gone through radiation a few years ago and was presented with flowers on the last day of treatment and it meant the world to her, so she wanted to do the same for us. It was wonderful - a way to mark this milestone of one thing being done and over with. Jacob's face lit up and he dug right into his helmet of treasures!

After radiation, he had his third chemo session. It was all out patient but everything yesterday took so long. We were in the office for two hours, when the actual chemo took just 1 minute. It was crazy. Then we were told to go to the pharmacy to pick up some more G-CSF shots as his blood counts were lower so we should re-start them. It took the pharmacy 2 hours to fill that prescription. We didn't get out of there until 5pm! When I arrive home I gave him the shot before listening to my phone messages: which said the counts are a bit higher than they thought and not to restart the shots. Oops. I'm awaiting a call back this morning as the counts don't match up so I need to ask for certain whether or not I need to continue the shots (the $250 a vial shots). There is always so much waiting and checking and waiting some more at these appointments.

Jacob's next chemo round will be on the 28th of the month. This involves 3 new drugs which he hasn't had and will be a 4 day in-patient stay. I dread these hospital stays, but am glad that we have 10 days at home to be normal. He needs a few blood checks in between now and then but that can be done here at our local lab and faxed in.

Joe was sick all day yesterday while we were gone. He has a fever and is not feeling like himself. I can't tell if it is the start to something like the flu, or just one of those 24 hour illnesses that small children sometimes get and bounce back from. He was quite warm last night and had to have some Tylenol. He whimpered and moaned in his sleep. He does seem better this morning, just feeling slightly warm and tired. Jacob can not get this. Any fever of 101 degrees means he will be admitted to the hospital for three days. His counts are lower right now so his body would have to fight extra hard to get rid of this fever...which would take a toll on him. I am praying that he can avoid this bug.