and the bear slept...

 

Wow we have made it, Kaleb had the last dose of chemo for cycle 2 yesterday.  Yes I know that we still have many more to come but for this one small moment I need to stop breathe and be thankful.  Kaleb has not been hospitalized, he is keeping his spirits up and we have had a village of people coming along side with us through our journey.

ok.... now the update.

We headed out on our drive early in the morning and Kaleb (having had a horrible sleep) tried to sleep most of the way.  We stopped part of the way there so that Kaleb could take his meds and then fall back to sleep.  Arriving at the hospital, our wait was longer than normal to get past the screening lines. A delivery person standing behind us kept getting closer to Kaleb (clearly not staying 6ft away and was unmasked) so I had Kaleb stand in front of me so that there was a little buffer room.  Once we made it through screening and before heading into the PMDU Kaleb and I grabbed a quick snack from the 2nd floor.  Kaleb was still visibly exhausted (the meds he takes are known to mess with sleep and then he had the stress/dread of this appointment) His nurse weighed him and then ushered him into the treatment ward.  Thankfully they had a quiet corner spot for him where there was not much foot traffic and a little removed from the centre hub so that he could sleep. 

Kaleb had his bandages changed, PICC lines flushed and the site of his PICC Line checked over for any infection.  Everything looks good, although they did have to push the line back up as it had slipped a little (they did not stitch the line into his arm when it was installed).  After all of that he had his blood drawn and sent to the lab.  Kaleb was hooked up to the pump in preparation for the chemo, had a snack and then fell asleep while we waited.  While Kaleb slept I talked to his case manager about our next steps in this process.  Informed her what meds we were low on and how he was handling things.  The music therapist and Camp rep both popped in to say hi but Kaleb was asleep so they continued on their rounds to the other kids in the room.  Kaleb's specialist came in to check in on him and to let us know that Kaleb is neutropenic however they were still going to go ahead with his scheduled chemo, what we need to do is watch for any signs of fever.  Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that fight infection, Kaleb's counts are low enough that we have to be extra diligent as his body will not be able to fight an infection.  Just before his specialist left Kaleb woke up so she took the opportunity to check the inside of his mouth for sores.  You see a few days prior Kaleb had so much mouth pain that he was unable to eat, even liquids hurt his mouth.   She confirmed that Kaleb has mouth sores due to the DOXO (one of the chemo drugs).  She said to continue with his dental hygiene and rinsing his mouth after he eats.  If it gets to be too painful again he is to take pain meds.  While he was getting his chemo, Kaleb's dietician came in and discussed how the week went and continued to encourage Kaleb to eat more and keep his hydration up.  It was decided that Kaleb is showing great effort in trying to meet the goals set out for him and that my roll should be just support.  Just before we left Kaleb's PICC Line started to bother him so our amazing nurse decided to redo the bandage change before sending us on our way! Kaleb and I headed out and grabbed something to eat on the way home where again Kaleb slept.  

  Next week Kaleb has his PET Scan....  This is a very important test as it will tell us if the Chemo is working and will also determine if he needs radiation.  We will find out the results November 1st.