Thursday's clinic was a special day. Although it was the beginning of week one, meaning steroids start again, there was a definite feeling of the beginning of the end of treatment. We all knew that this was the case, but the occasion did not ht me until later into the day.
As usual, we arrived at the clinic at 7am and Sammy went up to the fourth floor for his finger prick. We were then seen pretty quickly by Megan and Dr. G. All was well and we were sent straight back to be accessed....incase the blood would not come out immediately. The counts came back showing everything as it should be....Sammy continues to have excellent blood counts. Joyfully, the blood also came out first time, and Donna, the nurse, was able to administer the IV chemos really quickly. We were all trying to make sure Sam was ready to go over to the Day Hospital as soon as he was called.
Then we hear that the sedation team wasn't even in the building yet. It was about nine o'clock and we were done with chemo. Now we had to wait! Thankfully, Sammy had Nana and I to keep him company, along with a couple of visitors: Sammy was invited to be a star in his own video - a non-profit company explained that next week, Sammy and his family could record a half-hour video as an oral history for the family. We spent some quality time together practicing questions we might ask each other for the video.
Another visitor was Matt from The Hole in the Wall Camp. He had obviously met Sam before and they got along wonderfully. Here is Sam coloring a picture of Mr. Krabs from Spongebob. Matt colored Ariel from The Little Mermaid....Sammy got a real kick out of that and was giggling and very happy.
Kim came in to do the usual check-up and questions, but before anything else she announced that this was a BIG day for us. I stared at her blankly for a moment before realizing she was referring to the fact this was the LAST LP. Her happiness, hugs and congratulations awoke my comprehension of the enormity of the event! LAST, LAST, LAST, LAST, LAST!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness! We were ENDING something that had been part of our lives for two years. Dr. S gave us a similar greeting and then got down to his usual friendly business.
The LP went well. Sam was scared once we went into the OR and needed a lot of comforting. He needed enough sleepy medicine to knock out an elephant...he just wouldn't got to sleep!!! Once he was finally out, Dr. S and Kim worked on keeping him safe while under, and Dr. L performed the procedure. It all took about five minutes and then Sam was wheeled back into recovery.
Already awake, Sam was quite entertaining as he saw three of Nana and I, thought my hand was all covered in warts, watched ships sailing on the curtains, and asked every few minutes, "Where are we?" Keeping him horizontal was the biggest challenge! Sam wanted to sit up and play his DS game.....how he was planning to do that with blurry eyes and wires attached to his arms and fingers, I will never know!
So it is done! We have reached a major milestone in treatment....we are on our way to the rest of our lives :)
Oh, bravo! And now onto the homestretch of recovery!
ReplyDeletewow! Congratulations! What's next - i.e. are they going to monitor Sammy closely after October, given that you wrote that the risk stays always with him?
ReplyDeleteHi Olga, and thank you! Sammy will have blood drawn every month after october. Then, after a year, it will be every three months and finally will go down to once every year for the rest of his life. He will be monitored all the time. We will call CHAM for anything...he is always a patient there.
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