Day 66 - The Medicine Cabinet

     Caring for Evan without the assistance of the medical staff at CHoA has been an eye opening experience.  Each day Cristy and I are responsible for administering 19 doses of various drugs, not including any anti-anxiety or pain killer medicines, which we provide as needed.  We're still trying to iron out some of our timing so that it allows for meals, physical therapy activities around the house and rest periods.  Vomiting is still a concern, but it's not as frequent as it was a week ago.  Either Evan is adapting to the drugs or we're getting better at managing the side effects.

Most of the drugs that Evan must take daily.

     Evan has been quite a handful.  He's anticipating the shots and other drugs even more so than when he was hospitalized.  He proactively starts complaining of stomach pains and vomiting before the drugs are even given.  Combine that with his muscle deterioration and his fear of walking and we've certainly got our work cut out for us.  Cristy and I understand why he feels the way he does, however it doesn't stop us from trying to push and motivate him to take the steps necessary to get better.

Scheduled meds for today.

     The final spinal tap for this phase of chemotherapy is scheduled for Thursday.  While at the hospital Evan's primary doctor is going to sit down with Cristy, while I'm on speaker phone, and share with us the specifics of the next round of chemotherapy.  As I understand it Evan will get a 10 - 14 day break in between to allow for some healing.  As someone who is concerned with future infections I'm hoping for a moderate plan, but I also know that eradicating the cancer is our primary goal.

Getting some fresh air.

     All that being said, we're still ecstatic to be home.  These are all manageable situations and we've certainly seen Evan in worse shape before.  Within the next 7 days we'll be able to start peeling back some of his medications; namely the 6-MP and flagyl.  Depending on how his body responds we can also potentially pull the Ativan (anti-anxiety) and Zofran (anti-nausea).  Now that we're back home I'd expect the blog entries to decrease in frequency.  If you don't see many updates then treat that as good news or status-quo at the very least.  Nolan is as thrilled to have his big brother home as we are.

Family time!