About a week back, the Unknown Son had a CT scan that showed some suspicious spots in his right lung. He had his biopsy today.
Unfortunately, the news wasn't good. His cancer (Wilms Tumor) has recurred. According to the surgeon, there was at least one clear tumor (pea-sized) in his right lung, and clear evidence that it had also metastasized into some of the lymph nodes. I'm currently in the ICU with him as he recovers from the biopsy, and I'll spend the night (the Unknown Mom will take over tomorrow).
He's awake and in good spirits. Looks like we'll be watching Sponge Bob DVDs for a while longer, followed (hopefully) by sleep).
I'll post more information as I get it.
update: It's the morning after, and he's doing well - his fever has broken, he's talking up a storm, getting all the tubes out except for his chest drainage tube, and about to start drinking fluids on his own.
Showing posts with label Unknown Son. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Unknown Son. Show all posts
Monday, 1 June 2009
Monday, 9 March 2009
Forecast For Blogging - Light
It always seems strange to see someone post that they won't be blogging for a couple of days - it's like saying that your readers need your regular spewage so much that they'll have troubles without their regular fix. I have no such illusions.
Nevertheless, some weeks just need to be mentioned. The last cycle of the Unknown Son's chemo went fairly well – by the end of the week, they’d figured out the right mix of drugs to knock down the nausea, and he was doing pretty well. He had minimal nausea or other issues in the day or two later.
This time, it’s a different story. First off, the cocktail he’s on this time had to be infused over a 7-8 hour time frame (instead of the 4 hour infusion time last cycle), so it involved us getting there by 9 and not leaving until about 5 o'clock. Add in the 1 hour commute each way, and it made for a very long day. In addition, this time around, the chemo cycle only ran over three 3 days of infusion, so we did it on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of last week. Come Thursday, we were thinking "This is a snap. No problem."
Advice to self - don't say or think that. Just don't - it tempts fate.
Then the fun started.
Friday morning, we had to go bring the Unknown Son back to the clinic for repeated nausea and vomiting. He got IV fluids and some anti-nausea meds, and we were out by 2:00. Then we had to go to the local Emergency Room (it's 10 minutes away versus an hour, so it made sense) Saturday night at 9 for a repeat performance. Sunday was fairly uneventful, with a little bit of nausea in the early afternoon. He had one or two more episodes later that afternoon, but his new medication Marinol , which is a synthetic form of the active ingredient of marijuana) seemed to work. After taking it, he slept for a while, and woke up quite hungry (in other words, he got stoned and ended up with the munchies). A warm bath, and another dose before bed, and he was out like a light.
At 4:00 this morning, we were back to the vomiting. So, it’s off to the clinic once more (the Unknown Wife is there now). With luck, they can get a handle on this – he’s lost about 4 pounds this week, and unlike his dad, he can’t spare the weight. He'll spend the night there, and Unknown Mom will stay with him (unfortunately, I have a commitment I can't get out of tonight). If he requires a second night, I'll relieve her after my night class tomorrow night.
Luckily, the Unknown Mother-in-Law (who is a saint, by the way) can come over to stay and help out with the Unknown Daughter.
So, blogging might be light for the next couple of days.
Nevertheless, some weeks just need to be mentioned. The last cycle of the Unknown Son's chemo went fairly well – by the end of the week, they’d figured out the right mix of drugs to knock down the nausea, and he was doing pretty well. He had minimal nausea or other issues in the day or two later.
This time, it’s a different story. First off, the cocktail he’s on this time had to be infused over a 7-8 hour time frame (instead of the 4 hour infusion time last cycle), so it involved us getting there by 9 and not leaving until about 5 o'clock. Add in the 1 hour commute each way, and it made for a very long day. In addition, this time around, the chemo cycle only ran over three 3 days of infusion, so we did it on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of last week. Come Thursday, we were thinking "This is a snap. No problem."
Advice to self - don't say or think that. Just don't - it tempts fate.
Then the fun started.
Friday morning, we had to go bring the Unknown Son back to the clinic for repeated nausea and vomiting. He got IV fluids and some anti-nausea meds, and we were out by 2:00. Then we had to go to the local Emergency Room (it's 10 minutes away versus an hour, so it made sense) Saturday night at 9 for a repeat performance. Sunday was fairly uneventful, with a little bit of nausea in the early afternoon. He had one or two more episodes later that afternoon, but his new medication Marinol , which is a synthetic form of the active ingredient of marijuana) seemed to work. After taking it, he slept for a while, and woke up quite hungry (in other words, he got stoned and ended up with the munchies). A warm bath, and another dose before bed, and he was out like a light.
At 4:00 this morning, we were back to the vomiting. So, it’s off to the clinic once more (the Unknown Wife is there now). With luck, they can get a handle on this – he’s lost about 4 pounds this week, and unlike his dad, he can’t spare the weight. He'll spend the night there, and Unknown Mom will stay with him (unfortunately, I have a commitment I can't get out of tonight). If he requires a second night, I'll relieve her after my night class tomorrow night.
Luckily, the Unknown Mother-in-Law (who is a saint, by the way) can come over to stay and help out with the Unknown Daughter.
So, blogging might be light for the next couple of days.
Sunday, 1 March 2009
This Week's Another Big Ball-O-Crazy
Posting will be light this week, since life is far over the line into CrazyTown:
Ah well - I guess I'll have to plan on sleeping Friday night. By then it'll all be over.
- It's a chemo week for the Unknown Son, so every day I'm either teaching or (on my non-teaching days) taking him to chemo.
- I've got a conference deadline tomorrow (for the Southern Finance Association meeting)
- In addition, I'm teaching two nights this week in a professional program.
- Somehow in the midst of all this, I have to write an exam for my case course.
Ah well - I guess I'll have to plan on sleeping Friday night. By then it'll all be over.
Saturday, 3 January 2009
Update on The Unknown Son
So far, Unknown Son is recovering nicely from his surgery on Monday. It looks like he'll be getting his chest drainige tube out today. That means the only tube left in will be the IV that gives him fluids,
Last night he ate two small pancakes with peanut butter (a taste he got from his DaD), he even took a couple of short walks (about 50 feet). Today, we'll go for as many walks as he can handle.
In the meanwhile, there are always videos. For now, it's the Muppet Movie. What can I say - I believe in a classical education.
It'll still be a couple of days before he gets discharged, but for now - Wocka Wocka Wocka.
Updated 1:30 -- he just got the chest drainage tube out, and they've capped his IV (it was only giving a minimal amount of fluid, anyway). So, he might conceivably be home tomorrow. But we'll see.
Last night he ate two small pancakes with peanut butter (a taste he got from his DaD), he even took a couple of short walks (about 50 feet). Today, we'll go for as many walks as he can handle.
In the meanwhile, there are always videos. For now, it's the Muppet Movie. What can I say - I believe in a classical education.
It'll still be a couple of days before he gets discharged, but for now - Wocka Wocka Wocka.
Updated 1:30 -- he just got the chest drainage tube out, and they've capped his IV (it was only giving a minimal amount of fluid, anyway). So, he might conceivably be home tomorrow. But we'll see.
Thursday, 25 December 2008
Bad News
We just got som bad news regarding the Unknown Son. As many of my regular readers already know, he's gone through a lot - he's a two-times cancer survivor.
In 2002 he was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a particularly nasty and resistant childhood cancer. After a great deal of chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, more chemotherapy, and experimental treatments (including an autologous (i.e. "self") stem-cell transplant, he went into remission in 2005.
In January of 2008, he was diagnosed with a Wilms' tumor (a kidney tumor), which resulted in the removal of his right kidney and, after more chemo, he was given another clean bill of health this summer.
Now it looks like he has another tumor - in the lower part of his right lung. We just found out about it two days ago as a result of routing follow-up scans. He's scheduled for more surgery this coming Monday (the 29th). He'll get the tumor removed, which will give us the best information as to what exactly it is. He'll probably have about a week-long hospital stay, and we'll then know if this is a recurrence of the Wilms, tumor or something else (it could be a recurrence of his neuroblastoma, but that's unlikely because there was no indication on his latest MIBG scan a couple of weeks back).
So, please keep us in your prayers.
If you're one of my "non-blogosphere" friends (or a regular reader who knows me by my real name) and you want to keep up with what's going on, we maintain a website that we use to keep family and friends abreast of the little guy's treatment. Drop me an email and I'll send it to you in case you want the url.
In 2002 he was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a particularly nasty and resistant childhood cancer. After a great deal of chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, more chemotherapy, and experimental treatments (including an autologous (i.e. "self") stem-cell transplant, he went into remission in 2005.
In January of 2008, he was diagnosed with a Wilms' tumor (a kidney tumor), which resulted in the removal of his right kidney and, after more chemo, he was given another clean bill of health this summer.
Now it looks like he has another tumor - in the lower part of his right lung. We just found out about it two days ago as a result of routing follow-up scans. He's scheduled for more surgery this coming Monday (the 29th). He'll get the tumor removed, which will give us the best information as to what exactly it is. He'll probably have about a week-long hospital stay, and we'll then know if this is a recurrence of the Wilms, tumor or something else (it could be a recurrence of his neuroblastoma, but that's unlikely because there was no indication on his latest MIBG scan a couple of weeks back).
So, please keep us in your prayers.
If you're one of my "non-blogosphere" friends (or a regular reader who knows me by my real name) and you want to keep up with what's going on, we maintain a website that we use to keep family and friends abreast of the little guy's treatment. Drop me an email and I'll send it to you in case you want the url.
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