Sorry, edit to last post...

Seth is not having his 6 hour chemo on Thursday. He is having 3 different types of chemotherapy,one will take about 10 minutes and is clear, one will take about an hour and is red and turns his wee red and one being the big fat needle that he hates. We haven't told him yet as he will just get anxious about it and there is no need for him to worry just yet. We will tell him Thursday morning first thing so he can prepare himself, but not spend too much time obsessing over it.

New round of chemo has begun

Seth has begun his third round of chemo as of Wednesday last week. It starts out with strong steroids and his appetite is already increasing, along with his mood swings.He will be gaining weight and be getting a moon face and chubby tummy again. We went to Westmead today for a heart echo exam and everything looks healthy to begin the chemo on Thursday. Thursday is a round of cyclophosphamide which takes 6 hours.
Brett has had his third and final operation on his back as of Tuesday last week, and he returned home Saturday afternoon. He is recovering well and we will know once the post op pain goes as to how bad any nerve damage might be. Merry christmas to all and happy holidays. Here is to the end of 2010 and hopefully 2011 will be a better year for all.

Final methotrexate done new phase begins

Seth finished his final Methotrexate treatment yesterday. His levels must be 250 or less to leave and his morning count was 360. His afternoon count, however was 240 so we just made it out of there around 4:30pm.


This final one affected Seth the most. He was quite ill with it and even the anti nausea medicine didn't help him out very much. They came up with another medicine which seemed to help out a bit more so he picked up a little for a few hours and became his normal cheeky, energetic self.


Unfortunately, Seth had trouble keeping down water, so he couldn't help flush out the chemo and we had to rely on the drips and medicine to flush it out which is why we just scraped by.


We had R2D2 visit with Luke Skywalker and Batman among other characters which was a nice distraction for him.


The next round of treatment is the most intensive treatment he will undergo. He begins with a bone marrow test, a heart echo and steroids. The steroids are much stronger than the ones he first began and he will again become like a little buddah. He has to go through 4 nasty needles in the butt and about 6 different types of chemo. There will be lots of trips to Westmead and Campbelltown and will be a very busy treatment. Seth's blood counts are expected to drop quite dramatically and it is expected that he will get quite sick on this protocol. There will be many transfusions and many delays whilst waiting for his counts to come up.


The good news is... once this is over and done with, he should get his central line taken out and officially go onto maintenance chemotherapy which is all oral.


Unfortunately, the timing to begin coincides with Bretts next op on the 14th Dec, so there is a bit to juggle before Christmas comes and the Westmead clinic shuts down for a small break.


Seth had a difficult night once home, he vomited a couple times and his temperature went up to 37.6 (once it hits 38 we have to rush to hospital). He kept having bad dreams and didn't get much sleep. His temp was at 37.3 this morning and has been going down since (which is wonderful). He threw up this morning, but has felt like breakfast and so far has kept it down. I have him on anti-nausea medicine at home and hopefully that will help him get through it.
The final tally for the money raised for Cure our Kids by Picton Public School came to $14,613.55. What a wonderful effort from a wonderful community and school. Thankyou.