American Blood

Dylan is doing as well as can be expected after the therapies he has had over the past month. He is tired, but has the occasional bursts of energy when he will run up and down the house with a few friends, but that doesn’t last very long. He is not eating much at all, despite being on the Megace appetite stimulant, which I find distressing and frustrating. He will ask for something, take a bite, then say he is done, then an hour later ask for something else. This goes on all day and is a usual chemo kid drama that all us parents fight through. Today he wanted oranges, he ate one but now he wants spaghetti, and I doubt he will have more than one mouthful. The diarrhea is also still an issue as a side effect from the Irinotecan, but the medication he is on is keeping it under semi control. Tomorrow I suspect that he will need blood and platelets as he looks pale and he had a small nose bleed this morning. It is also possible he may need some potassium due to the diarrhea causing it’s loss. He had his MIBG scan on Thursday and hopefully a report will be in tomorrow also. I assume it will be unchanged as they usually call if there are any major changes in either direction. Dylan continues schooling with Anne Marie and Missy. I have to tell you, Dylan really is a smart cookie, he had some blood drawn the other day and he said “this is American blood!” I replied, it is Australian blood with some Italian and German decent. He said “No it’s American” I asked how he came to that conclusion and he replied “Well, I have had so many blood transfusions here that it has to be American by now!” The nurse and I started to laugh…good logic Dylan! The weather is very cold now, but still no real snow, just a few flurries, but nothing that sticks to the ground. It is now finally cold enough to have our “ghetto fridge” What is a ghetto fridge you ask? Well, we put all our drinks and even milk on the window ledge and it stays cold! A lot of the parents here do the same, it works really well. After just one hour, I gave Dylan a drink and he complained it was too cold! It wasn’t though, he is just so use to having warm drinks these days. Well, tomorrow is a new day, most of which will be spent in out patient at the hospital. Not sure what the treatment plan is ahead, but for now, Dylan will recover from this last therapy and build up his strength.