No news yet

So, as Chris said previously, we really needed that break Saturday from this stressful week. Chris ended up going out to run errands and Uncle Dave stopped by for a little while to help out. Otherwise, Dante was much improved after a really rough Friday for him. He was in a great mood in the evenings eating toast and playing with his sticker book at the table with Chris and making jokes and trying to manipulate not getting a bath by doing just one more sticker. Nonni left this afternoon for a week long cruise, so Dante spent a few hours with her before she left.

I was upset last night when Dante took a bath, because I could see all of the bruises he has from having low platelets and white blood cells. Plus, he has started to lose some weight due to not eating this time around. Chris quickly reminded me that as long as the cancer is gone, he doesn't care what he looks like on the outside.

Some of you were waiting on results from us, but we have to wait a little bit longer. The results we are waiting on will be next Wed and then the following week's AFP results.

Dante's ANC this week was zero on Tuesday and then only up to 100 on Friday. We don't get a CBC until Tuesday, so until then, we have to stay quarantined. I'm bummed because I was hoping to get out and do things over the holiday week. Hopefully, on Tuesday his counts will be high enough to get out for the rest of the week. The GCSF injections that he gets to boost his white blood cell counts drops his platelet levels, which is why we had 2 platelet transfusions this week. We typically only give him injections for a week, but this time his counts are so low we are entering our second week of them. I would expect that on Tuesday, we will need yet another transfusion.

Speaking of Tuesday - are you ready for this schedule? We have to drop off Carina with Aunt Laurie and get to the hospital by 8:30. Dante drinks a solution to protect his thyroid during his GFR (glomerular filtration rate) test (a test that checks his kidney function) and then we wait 30 minutes. They draw blood. Then they inject him with some radioactive substance and draw his blood every 5 minutes for 3 blood draws. Then, we have 4 hours "off". During that 4 hours, we need to get a CBC and possibly a transfusion. We have to get him to start drinking the contrast solution for the CT scan. Around 2, we get a CT scan, they draw more blood. Then 45 minutes later, draw blood, wait 45 minutes, draw blood again. I think I can safely say we will be exhausted after trying to keep that schedule.

I suppose one could weigh the monotony of sitting in the hospital getting chemo against sitting at home playing and waiting for results. I would definitely choose the "at home" option.