Day 113 - New drugs and PICC issues

     The family returned to full force last night around 9:00, as we all returned to being under one roof.  After giving Evan his latest doses of medicine we topped him off with a late snack and got him to bed.  This morning we discovered that one of his PICC lines occluded (clogged) preventing us from administering drugs on one of the ports.  Cristy placed a call with the nursing team this morning for guidance and was asked to come to the clinic for assistance.

Waiting in the bathroom to scare nurse Jackie.

     Evan received a CT scan yesterday afternoon and the doctors needed time to review and put together a plan of action.  His organs did show larger growths on his spleen and liver, however the doctors feel confident these are the same kind of pus growths that are cropping up on his skin.  The revised schedule now includes an IV drip of Ambisome (anti-fungal) once a day, along with three times a day Cephalexin (antibiotic).  We also have been asked to increase his daily dosages of Voriconazole as the team discovered his dosages were not enough to sufficiently suppress his fungal levels.

Passing the time with some arts and crafts.

     A nurse is scheduled to come to the house later to show us how to administer the IV drip of Ambisome.  On the plus side a test will be conducted Monday to verify Evan's Voriconazole levels.  If bumping him from 9 mL daily to 11 mL puts him at a therapeutic level then we'll pull the Ambisome.  Fingers crossed that this change eliminates the fungi in Evan's body.
     Monday Evan will receive his last session of chemotherapy for this round.  As has been the case for the last few visits the dosage amounts will be increased for both drugs.  I'd expect Evan to experience the same symptoms he has lately.  On Monday we should also be able to find out more about his next round of chemotherapy.  The doctors have told us in the past that once we get into Maintenance things should normalize a bit.  For Evan's sake I hope they're right.

Play time!

     Looking forward to a quiet weekend.  With any luck Evan will get his calories in, work on his balance and spend some quality time with the family.