Day 278: Long Day Of Chemo

Cristian has been having a great week. He is smiling, playing, saying new words, it’s wonderful. He plays with his sister, most of the time, until she starts hitting. We are working on that. The other big development is that his hair loss has continued. At this point he only has hair left in what is normally the bald spot of a grown man. No hair, don’t care! But nonetheless we march on and push towards the end of this chapter!

We arrived at the hospital just after 8am and started with the usual blood tests to see if his body was strong enough to handle the chemo. The results took a while to come back, but unlike last week we received positive results. We started with some fluids and waited our turn to go in. While waiting, Cristian was full of energy and even broke out into some head banging!

Once we received the green light, we headed into do the procedure (lumbar puncture) and then over to the clinic. The lumbar puncture was fairly quick as usual, but in clinic the chemo he received required a fluids before and after. Cristian was a trooper the entire day. He stayed in a good mood while watching his new binge PJ Masks and playing with cars.

We are now in a big push of chemo for the next two weeks. Between hospital administered or given at home, Cristian will receive chemo every day for the next 14 days. This will also include us giving shots 6 times which are tough, no one likes shots. These chemo’s are expected to make Cristian lose the rest of his hair, and most likely have low energy. We are also planning that Cristian will need some transfusions of red blood cells. He has had these before, each lasting about four hours, and usually gives him a good bump.

As we head towards Thanksgiving this week, our plans are to isolate and hold it just with our little family. While this is a bummer, it by far beats potentially having Cristian head to the hospital for an infection while he has no immune system. Even so, we are extremely thankful for all the things in our life. We have shelter, food, jobs, support from friends and family, and God leading the way. We wish everyone else a happy and safe thanksgiving!