Welcoming the weekend

Kevin's had a very busy week, including some rough spots. Rachel wrote in detail what happened during the procedure of which they harvested more stem cells. I don't deal so well with blood, so I'm glad Mike & Rachel were there instead, as I probably would've become sick. He's still pretty sore from the incision in his groin where the cathetar was inserted. He's not real comfortable walking long periods of time as I think the friction irritates the area. I'm hoping he improves throughout the weekend. I was back in Michigan Monday through Thursday evening, but Rachel said Kevin did pretty well overall. He's still not eating much, but she said he's not experienced much nausea either. That is until this morning with me, of course. He became pretty sick, with nothing of note to instigate it (no food or medicine yet). He was taken off his Zofran (nausea medicine) a couple days ago, so with this morning's incident we've started him back up on it. Another scare took place today after his functional MRI. Rachel received a call from the Physician's Assistant (we really like him) indicating he needed to come back in for a CT Scan. It seems the radiologist saw enlarged blood vessels in his head from the MRI. He consulted with Dr. Gajjar, Kevin's Neuro-Oncologist, and the head of Kevin's entire protocol. They decided to get the CT Scan, which is more accurate for looking at blood vessels then an MRI. After the scan they said we were free to leave and the would call us with the results. Kevin was very excited to see Kung Fu Panda, and it looked like with the possible complication he may not get his simple wish. You see, Kevin's not supposed to really frequent public locaions for long periods of time, especially if there are a lot of people there. The doctor gave us the okay to go to a movie if it's the middle of the afternoon, and he sits away from people. Since it was almost 4 p.m. we feared we were running out of movie theatre's slow time. Luckily, the CT scan took all of 5 minutes and we were out of there shortly after 4. Rachel and I agreed a 5 p.m. movie should still be away from prime time. Thankfully, there weren't many people there, and we sat a couple rows away from anybody. Kevin and Scotty both loved the movie. The movie really put Kevin in a good mood. We came home afterward, and for the first time in a while, he wanted to stay up late. With no appts tomorrow, I let him stay up until 10. It was just really nice to see him have the energy to actually stay alert past 8:30 or so. Rachel and I both kept our cell phones on vibrate waiting for any news on his CT Scan. At 9 p.m. neither of us had heard from anybody regarding the results. No news is usually good news, or at the very least we figured he must not be in imminent danger. Still, I wanted to hear something. I emailed Dr. Gajjar hoping to hear anything. He emailed me back within 20 minutes, indicating that everything looked fine. For some reason the MRI showed blood vessel abnormalities, but the MRI is more for review of tumors and actual brain material, not blood. Thankfully, the CT scan looked clean. I may actually be able to sleep tonight! To be honest, I don't even know what dangers or consequences enlarged blood vessels would entail.....not knowing what was going on was wearing on all of us. Dr. Gajjar has been an absolute god-send since we've arrived at St. Judes. He's answered every one of my emails when I have something on my mind. His attention to our concerns is appreciated beyond description. When we were at a certain Children's Hospital in Michigan, we seemed to often have the feeling of being left in the dark for days at a time. We had to wait on pins and needles for days to see what stage Kevin's cancer was, after the Spinal MRI, lumber puncture, and bone marrow aspiration. Whenever Kevin gets a test of that nature at St. Jude, we get results the same day, even if there' unoffical. Dr. Gajjar or one of his nurses often run into us later in the day, and let us know everything looks good. While I'm giving out praise, I should also mention we are all very pleased with his BMT (chemotherapy/Bone marrow transplant) Doctor, Dr. Hale. St. Judes may not cure every child, but they certainly go about the entire process with open communication and just an overall outstanding bed side manner. If we were somewhere else, today's events would not have even a preliminary conclusion until Monday. While we don't have all the details we'll eventually need, Dr. Gajjar made sure to let me know that Kevin's scans are fine, and that there are no problems. We're hoping Kevin gets to continue his stay as an out-patient until cycle 2 of chemo begins next Friday morning. We know the first few days of that will be rough to say the least, so we're praying he continues to have mostly good days this next 6 days. The best Fathers Day Present I can get, is that Kevin feels good this weekend, and we get to avoid the hospital until Monday.

Good Night all

Eric