Kevin has his first radiation treatment today at noon. He will have a total of 33 treatments over the next 6 weeks. The first two weeks are the whole brain and spine and then after that it is just the tumor bed, aka where the tumor used to be. I have to admit I am so frightened of what the side affects can be. I am worried he will no longer be our quick witted Kevin. I worry about the growth hormones he may have to take after. And I hear his hair is going to thin. Some kids get sick from the radiation some just get tired. UGHH!!! Please pray that God protects his organs, his brain and just kills the cancer. In order to emotionally accept this treatment I have had to accept that if we don’t do this the cancer can come back and give his a slow painful death. It is so difficult to subject my son to a treatment that has such horrible side affects. Kevin also has had a decrease in appetite the last week. It is a battle to get him to eat. He really needs to keep working on gaining weight. Most kids lose about 10 pounds and Kevin is so skinny he can’t afford to lose 10 pounds. Hopefully God will spare him from the nausea and vomiting most people experience.
Yesterday Kevin was so energetic. He misses school and his peers so much. He started the tutoring classes yesterday and was disappointed that there would be no other kids with him, but he was happy to do some reading work. Last night was also Bingo night. Some kids from Central Michigan University have taken an alternative spring break and they are spending the week here volunteering at the Ronald McDonald house. They put on the Bingo game and each kid won at least one prize. It was a nice social event for Kevin. He won 3 prizes; 2 games and a bionicle.
Kevin loves having Jake here with him. He loves to introduce him to people as his little brother and last night Kevin was enjoying making Jake laugh for about an hour. Sometimes when Kevin is worrying about the treatments and what is going on he just likes to try to hold Jake. It somehow comforts him I guess the same way holding a baby comforts adults too.
I will let you know how radiation goes as soon as I have a chance. I understand we won’t really know what Kevin’s reaction will be until the evening. Please keep praying for him.
1 comment:
The first few days of radiation, Steven was extremely drowsy after, and very flushed.
We'd go back to RMH and he'd take a 2-hour nap.
But he had no sedation, with sedation it's a whole different thing.
For Steven, after the first few days he didn't look so flushed and his energy level was normal.
Near the end of the craniospinal portion of the radiation, he got a sore throat because some of the beams for the spine will impact the throat and esophagus a little.
Also by the end of radiation, his taste in food had completely changed.
The funny tastes in food were there for the rest of radiation and chemo. What he liked and disliked might change from day to day and we just went with it.
It took about 6 months after treatment for his tastes to return to normal.
Make sure he takes the zofran/ondansetron, even if it seems like nausea isn't a problem.
Expect his hair to really start falling out on day 13 or so of the craniospinal radiation. Steven's scalp got ultra sensitive at that time, for Steven, shaving his head relieved some of that sensitivity.
And as for growth hormone and all that, don't worry about it now, not all kids need it and those that do usually manage really well.
There will be plenty of new things to worry about after treatment is over, you don't really need to get a head start on that now :-)
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