First High Dose Chemo Done!

We took Seth into hospital on Sunday for his very first High Dose Methotrexate Chemotherapy and came home Wednesday afternoon. When we arrived at hospital Sunday night, they hooked him up to a double therapy drip - one normal saline, one with bicarb. The bicarb is to heighten his PH levels so that they can protect his body from the chemo drug. Once he was at the correct levels which was around 8am Monday morning, they started the Methotrexate which is a clear rich yellow coloured liquid. Similar to if you put yellow food colouring into water. This runs for 24 hours. It made Seth feel quite nauseas and he was put on medication to stop him from vomiting. He also suffered a couple bouts of diahorrea and some quite painful reflux. Seth has become extremely sensitive to smells and tastes which makes meal time hard. He was then given other medication, that seeks out the methotrexate from the cells and flushes it out of his system. He continues on the double therapy treatment until blood test results show that the levels of the methotrexate are low. Once that level has been reached, they can stop the drips and send him home. His blood counts should be dropping in about a week, when he will once again lose his ability to fight viruses and bacteria and he will be needing more transfusions. This is such an intense phase of treatment for him. I hope it treats him kindly.
He has to keep up with his oral chemo treatments throughout this intense phase as well. It is expected that he will get Mucositis from this treatment which is a horrible side effect. They get ulcers from their mouth, all the way down their digestive system. With any luck, he won't be too badly affected. He has 6 rounds of this treatment to get through before moving on.
Even though we have finally heard those magical words remission, we have had to explain to Seth that, yes, the doctors can't find any cancer anymore, but if they stop giving him his medicine it will come back again.
He has to go to Campbelltown for a line flush on Wednesday next week, Westmead clinic on the friday after that to book in for his stay and back in for his next dose of Methotrexate on Sunday 24th October.
He is still unable to go to school as whooping cough is running rampant there still.