Good Bye Cisplatin!

It's early Sunday morning or late Saturday night, whatever your pleasure. Kevin's now done with Cisplatin, which is by far the most symptom/side effect inducing drug on his protocol. The next few days won't be easy, but I'm thrilled he is done with this, the only high dose chemo he receives. Kevin will receive Cyclophosphamide the next 2 days, which from what I understand is a mustard gas derivative as opposed to a platinum based chemo like cisplatin. It comes with it's own side effects, but in general is much easier on his body. I was with him in the morning when the cisplatin was administered, and as usual he became very ill. They gave him the trifecta anti-nausea cocktail, which makes him pretty incoherant. As Rachel wrote, he seemed to be pretty sick when she was with him this afternoon. However, this evening he actually has done very well. He was pretty out of it when I first arrived tonight, but the drugs started to wear off, and he became much more lucid. We finished a movie that him and Mike started then read for about 45 minutes. He ate a Star Crunch (one of the few things he'll eat at pretty much any time) and even did his mouth care without a battle. It sounds like he had a pretty acute reaction to his chemo in the afternoon, but tonight he hasn't needed any additional nausea meds and hasn't complained of feeling ill. Overall he rebounded pretty well from his rough afternoon. You can totally tell when the drugs wear off, because his speach and awareness is night and day. When this is all said and done, Kevin will have spent more then 50 nights in the hospital since his tumor was diagnosed (including surgeries, inpatient chemo, and infection). At 8 years old that probably is more then most people will spend hospitalized their entire life. I think Kevin, like I is more or less numb to it by now. It is what it is, and you do what you need to do to get through it. I'm thinking he'll probably be inpatient (which means I'll remain here) until Friday. After that he'll be here anywhere from 3 to 5 weeks. .

Hopefully everybody back home survived both U of M and M.S.U losing close games this Saturday. LOL I was thrilled to find the game (U of M of course) was actually on ESPN out here. I don't like when my team loses, but I guess I have more perspective then ever now on what's important.

Take Care,

Eric