Tuesday, January 14, 2014

It All Depends on Your Point of View

So, the last few days have either been fantastic or not, depending on your point of view.

Yesterday, Adi started off the day fasting, because he was supposed to have an intrathecal. They had postponed the Vincristine he was supposed to get at night because his counts were trending downwards, but the IT was still a maybe.

When I arrived, Adi was playing happily -- he'd taken Concerta, which kept him calm, and hunger-free -- and all was well. He had his garbage trucks and his trash, and he worked with one of the teachers in the playroom on a couple of different activities. Everything was going smoothly.


Just after morning rounds, Adi's CBC came back, and his oncologist came in. In Hebrew, she told me that there was no blood in his eye, and I stared at her for a minute, until I understood that she meant there was no blood visible to the eye in his urine. OK. But, she continued, his counts were still trending downwards, so no IT. Maybe you want to take him home? But you have to promise that he'll drink constantly.

"I can't really promise that," I said, and we agreed that he'd stay in the hospital hooked up to fluids, but that we'd get an afternoon break to go to the mall.


With fasting no longer an issue, Adi went to help prepare (and eat) Belgian waffles.



After that, we hung out in the room for a while, and just as I fell asleep, my father-in-law arrived. He had cookies and other treats with him, which Adi was happy to help him eat, and then Saba stayed with Adi while I went home and met up with Guy. We got the other kids together and came back to take Adi to the mall with everybody.



We got Adi unhooked and headed over to the mall for dinner, and the requisite garbage truck purchase, natch. And then Adi and Guy went back to the hospital, and I took the other kids home.

Today, I came a little late because there was laundry to be done at home. So Guy hung out with Adi -- who was fasting because of a scheduled abdominal ultrasound. Once again, when I arrived, Adi was in the playroom, his trucks and trash cans around him.



He was friendly, sociable, and in a great mood. He was already post-US when I got there, so he didn't need to be fasting, but the Concerta kept him from feeling hunger (and totally chilled, probably because the dose is too high now that he's lost weight...), although he did agree to eat a piece of pizza that we made with the chef who comes on Tuesdays.



So, if you're coming at this from the perspective of someone who wants Adi to be happy, it's been a great couple of days. But on the leukemia-fighting front, it's been a little slow. We are back on the schedule to get Vincristine this evening, and we are set to have an IT tomorrow. Of course, that means we'll be fasting tomorrow... again. But hey, we'll also be starting a low-salt, low-sugar diet, so what's the difference?




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