Still in hospital

I know it’s been a long time since my last update. Not much has really changed. Dylan is still in the hospital, his room mate Carter got released and Dylan has a new room mate that we don’t really know yet. Dylan has his up and down days, but for the most part his spirits are high. Radiation finished last Friday and all went well, and on Tuesday Dylan started a 5 day round of chemo. Dr Kushner explained that they decided to change the scheduled chemo from Carboplatin, Ifosfamide and Etoposide (ICE) to Carboplatin, Irinotecan and a double dosage of Temolozide. To our surprise he has not vomited and feels great! In fact he feels better than I do. I have been sick with a flu like thing that I thought I shock off last week, but it got me again this week and I have had to spend 2 full days isolated in the RMDH and away from all the families including Dylan. I feel better today though, so hopefully that’s the last of it. Thank god Tim is here to care for Dylan, it seems every time Tim comes, my body goes into meltdown and I get sick because I subconsciously know that I can. I briefly saw Dylan and blew him a kiss from behind my mask at the hospital today, he was up and happily playing, in fact I was taken a back from how amazingly well he looked. He is doing occupational therapy at this time also, just to keep him mobile while being hospitalized for so long. His teacher comes in to see him on the usual 3 day schedule as well. The chemo will finish on Sunday and next Tuesday 9^th January, Dylan will have his stem cell rescue done. After a stem cell rescue it usually takes about 10 days for the counts to rise, but this can vary greatly with individual patients. Once Dylan’s counts begin to rise then he can be discharged from hospital and we can schedule him in for a new medi-port to be placed. Not really sure what the plan is from there, but we take each day at a time. I guess it will all depend on the next scan results and HAMA test. I personally would like to give Dylan a break for 3-4 weeks and then attempt another stem cell harvest. Dr Modak said that it is likely not to work, but I figure we have nothing to loose, it’s a painless procedure and other parents have told they succeeded after more rounds of chemo than Dylan has had. After this stem cell rescue, it only leaves us with 1 rescue left and that makes me uncomfortable. I think while Dylan is stable, we should at least attempt another harvest. Tim and Cain leave on 17^th January, yes I talked Tim into staying an extra week. Oh and I have added some new pics to Dylan's photo gallery, some more to follow from Christmas once I download the photos from the camera.