Monday- Brian's first day of chemo (fourth week of new treatment schedule...remember, one week of chemo, five days in a row, followed by three weeks to "recover"). Brian got accessed and cried saying he was scared. It was sad. He received Vincristine and Cytarabine. Aunt Dabney came over to hang out with the other three kids and treated them to some Chick Fil A and Great American Cookie Company cookies. Aunt Dabney also taught Ansley a couple of lessons along the way during the day. :-) It was a good day. Brian handled chemo quite well.
Tuesday- Brian started the day off OK, running around with William and playing Star Wars. By 9:00 AM he didn't feel well and was slowing it down. Daddy carried Brian into Nemours and B didn't even want to bring the ipad. He was really not feeling well. The nurse started Brian's treatment around 11:20 ish. Brian wore a mask so he didn't have to smell the alcohol they clean with. He cannot stand that smell.
Brian's cytarabine treatment for day two of treatment is only a fifteen minute infusion. He was feeling so poorly that he fell asleep.
Dr. Schwartz came and saw Brian and talked with us. He ordered a round of Rocephin and blood cultures to be taken. (What we have typically done in the ER the previous two weeks of treatment before being admitted.) He let us know that we are allowed to give Brian one dose of Tylenol to see if that helps lower Brian's fever later in the day. If the fever is a result of an infection in his port, the fever will persist and the one dose of Tylenol will not do too much for the fever in the long run. Because the previous two chemo weeks have ended up with Brian being admitted to the hospital for a week, followed by a week of antibiotics at home, we were really trying to avoid that. (That is two weeks in a row that Brian has his port accessed, with a two week break before he starts again!)
We have discussed with our doctor the possibility that the fever and throwing up, etc are just the side effects of the chemo and not an indication of an infection in his port. The previous two "infections" have been common contaminates and only the first culture taken in the ER ever grow bacteria. All cultures taken after that point are clean and clear. It is entirely possible that Brian didn't have infections in his port. The timeline for how things unfold for Brian on day two of chemo are almost exact each time. So, after his antibiotic treatment at the Infusion Center and blood cultures were taken, Brian got to go home. We were told that as long as Brian didn't have a continuous high fever, chills or obvious changes, don't worry about taking him to the ER that night because we had basically done what they were going to do anyway. If Brian has an infection in his port the cultures will show something and we will hear from them today. At which point he will be admitted to the hospital. So, basically we are waiting to hear from the today. Actually, we are waiting to NOT hear from them today.
Brian did OK, through the night. He had a fever that hung around 101.3-101.8 most of the night until about 2 AM when it went down to 99.9. Fred and I kept talking back and forth about the ER if the fever didn't go away. We were SO thankful that by 2 it was down. Plus, Brian did not throw up. We gave Brian his Zofran a little earlier than his dose is "suppose" to be given (but still inside an allowable time frame) and I think that proactive move helped his nausea.
Please pray that we do NOT hear from the lab about Brian's blood cultures. We are praying that he does not have an infection in his port. On the other hand, if he doesn't have an infection in his port it is really sad to know that this is our boys reaction to the medicine. He will go through this each time. That is really sad and makes the ten more months he has of this look really long.
We pray that you do NOT hear!
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