April 5
Jacob has been doing well at home and except for a couple neutropenic days his counts have been good.....we are enjoying a little extra time at home this time and actually getting to do a couple things like a normal family again.....we are due to be back in Ottawa on April 12 and Jacob is to receive his 6th cycle on the 13th which will be an overnight stay.....
April 16
Jacob received his 6th round of Chemotherapy on Tuesday and is feeling a little under the weather. We were admitted on Tuesday morning after his bloodwork (his neutropolys were just above what they needed to be) and his chemo started around supper time. Jacob stopped eating on Wednesday and has been very sick in the mornings (he has been vomitting). We have been administering his Ondansetron and Gravol around the clock and although he is very sleepy it seems to be working.
We had a tough time leaving to go back to CHEO after our extended break, but we had a great surprise at the Ronald McDonald House when we returned on Wednesday....the 'Moores' (a family we had become quite close with over the last 2 months) had arrived the night before and we had a chance to catch up and have lunch together. Joshua was quite excited to see his friends and had lots of hugs to go around.
We are due for bloodwork at NEO on Monday....Jacob's counts will probably start to fall by this point.
This is Jacob at NEO in Sudbury this week with his nurse Sylvie (Pediatric Oncology Nurse) and Sandy (lab technician-in Purple). Jacob never cries when Sandy takes his blood!!
Well, this week has been full of anxiety about Jacob's slowly declining platelets. His platelets are at 43 as of noon today and he is starting to look like he has been in a fist fight with his brother! We are scheduled to go to the Pediatric Floor at the Sudbury Hospital on Sunday morning as everyone is anticipating a transfusion that day (after receiving Carboplatin jacob usually requires 2 units of platelets by day 12 post Chemo--a transfusion is given once his platelets drop below 20)
We also celebrated Joshua's 3rd birthday...this was the highlight of the week for the boys and for us. Joshua got his second Vacuum (a shop vac) to add to his collection...and now the boys each have one to clean the house!!! I will add some pictures of the party to the photo gallery.
The inevitable happened....I spent most of the weekend at the hospital with Jacob. On Saturday I noticed petechaie starting on the roof of his mouth and on his legs, so to the hospital we went. His counts came back (3 hours later!) and his platelets were at 24--home we went. Jacob woke up on Sunday with even more petechaie (now everywhere)...Joshua helped make the descion to go to the hospital in the morning, by hitting Jacob over the head with a set of headphones in a fit of 'brotherly love'. This left a huge bruise the color of a blueberry on the top of his bald little head...and we are off to the hospital at 10:30. Jacob's counts are done and his platelets come back at only 17 and two units of platelets are ordered. The hospital has to call the Canadian Blood Bank to locate platelets and it takes almost 3 hours just to get them. Jacob's port is accessed and the IV is started around 1pm...the platelets are hung around 3:30 and we finally get discharged at 5:30pm. By this point I feel as though a train has hit me and we head home to meet dad just getting off work with some Wendy's.
Today we head to NEO for follow-up blood work to check Jacob's platelet level...to my surprise they are at 58 and we can finally take a deep breath....His white blood count is also on the way up and Jacob is taken off his daily injections until the next cycle of Chemo.
