We were finally admitted into Skids on Thursday of last week for Round 5 chemo. Round 5 we dont like too much as it has some chemo drugs that do a number on the inside of the lining of the stomach on Jake and weakens him severely. But Jake did much better than Round 3 that was just like this one! We stayed an extra day for hydration purposes and came home Wednesday. Now it is back to nursing him to drink and eat what he should be on a daily basis which is a continual nag on our parts and so far so good. It looks like he lost around 4lbs, bringing him down to 51.5lb, which is better than last time at 49lb so I am happy! And Jake did not throw up nearly as much either and I can only hope to say that it is because of the way we now feed him and the ND meds that are helping too.
We also had an opportunity to meet with the surgeon that will be performing the next step to all of this which is the removal of Jakes tumor. Possibly scheduled for the week of or after thanksgiving.
Jake has another MRI Tuesday that will give us our final conversation with the surgeon on how exactly the surgery will be performed (as in, what size the tumor is right now and whether he will have to make an incision or can go in with a camera and have three little holes instead).
The hope would be that the chemo may shrink the tumor down a bit but not always necessarily so. This is a big step for us. We opted not to have the tumor touched at the beginning (as there is always a risk of spread) that when this tumor is removed it will be disected and we will learn a lot more about the monster... we describe it like this....we consider the tumor the queen bee hive and with it gone we will have now a bunch of worker bees (neuroblastoma cells) buzzing around inside of Jake trying to find a new home and that is where the work is now the hardest because they could be anywhere... they are already everywhere and after surgery and removal of the tumor they do chemo Round 6 (same as 4) and then hit hard with all they've got (more chemo) and this in turn causes his bone marrow to collapse and hence the need for stem cell engrafting... to save and "roboot" Jake's bone marrow/white cells/red bloods cell/platlets. And they want to do this twice....the idea of all of this is too get all of the bees...unfortunately it is powerfully hard on all of the good cells too... 4 weeks each round in hospital...brings us to Christmas....
To add to this a note about Jake and his ability to cope with illnesses. Jake will become very susceptible to illnesses as his immune system is being severely comprimised... we naturally 'touch' in showing our care towards one another... with Jake, it could be detrimental... so please remember ...hands to yourselves around Jake will really benefit him :)
Heh, also remember that still the simplest way to stop the spread of bugs is to wash your hands with soap not the sanitizers, just good old fashion hand washing...
So with the tumor out they can research it and let us know where we are at too and there is two types of NB (neuroblastoma) and if his tumor has a certain gene in it... well lets just say we dont want to have it in Jake's as it just means that it is a harder monster to have to get rid of.
Okay...deal with that one when we get to it right!
Jakes school did their Terry Fox Run yesterday and weak Jake made it out to the assembly and they all honored Jake!!! Had to hold face at that one! But imagine all of his peers yelling out this 'cheer' they made for Jake... a lot rhymes with Jake... lol!! They had t-shirts made up for him... thank you Spruce Ridge for the support!
...Jake takes the cake!
......For goodness sake, we love Jake!
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