Cycle 1, Day +2: Discharge Day, Really This Time

We got discharged yesterday around 6:30 pm.

Steven finally perked up for a bit, was feeling well when he got back to Target House and was able to spend some quality time playing with Sean and visiting with Doug's parents, who are visiting for a week.

Then around 9, he crashed and started vomiting again, like usual turning down all the oral meds to control the vomiting.

We waited until the worst of the vomiting seemed to be over, then gave him sublingual zofran, it goes under his tongue and requires no swallowing. That got him settled enough to give him some of the other antinausea meds and he had a peaceful night.

Woke up around 8 am feeling well, but started vomiting again around 11 am. We took him back to St. Jude at noon, where he received IV zofran, ativan, and decadron (a steroid), all to help his nausea.

Despite the meds, he vomited most of the day, finally stopping around 3pm. The male nurse at St. Jude brought him down to the car in a wheelchair and picked up and put him into his seat for us to drive home to Target House. Doug carried him upstairs when we got back to our room. We also got some IV zofran to give him at home.

It's now officially been over a week with no food. He's got IV fluids, so he's not dehydrated, but he's beginning to look like a bag of bones. The constant nausea is wearing him down, he wants so much to feel better.

We are anticipating the next week and his white blood cell counts, which will go to zero, the probable blood transfusions, the possible fever.

We want nothing more than for him to feel better, that and to feel that we aren't making him sick for nothing, that the drugs are working, that they are killing his tumor.

Praying for a better tomorrow for him-- this all seems so barbaric...

- Kathleen