Cycle 2, Day -1

Steven's comment for the day is, "When you're feeling good in the hospital, it's like being in jail. I'm ready to have some fun."

Steven is day -1 now, which means he will get his stem cells back tomorrow. Today has been mixed for Steven, he woke up and was the sickest he's been so far, for about an hour until the antinausea medications started doing their magic.

After the antinausea medications kicked in, he began feeling the best he's felt since the chemo started. This created a different problem for him.

Target Stores visits St. Jude 4 times a year and puts on a dinner and party at Target House in the evening, then a big party at St. Jude Hospital the next day.

Steven was here for Target's Fall visit, it was during his radiation and he attended and had a great time. Target's came last night for their Winter visit and put on a big dinner at Target House, which Steven wasn't there for. Today, they had a big party at the hospital, with a band and magician, games, pizza, ice cream sundaes, and all sorts of toys. I'd realized that Steven would miss it when they delayed his bone marrow transplant, but had avoided bringing it up.

Target representatives visited the Bone Marrow Transplant ward this morning and brought T-shirts, scarves, and toys for all the inpatients. Steven got the 10th Lemony Snicket book and the Harry Potter Diagon Alley game he'd been wanting. The visit from the Target representative reminded him of the party and he promptly switched his hospital shirt for the Target shirt, put on the scarf and his mask and his boots, unplugged his IV, and asked to go down to the party.

Patients in the Bone Marrow Transplant ward aren't allowed to leave the floor, and when we told him that, he collapsed in sobs. I tried to placate him, but to add insult to injury, we couldn't play his new game either because we needed three players, and all the Child Life staff who are available to do stuff like that were at the Target party.

We paged his Child Life buddy Emily, but she was busy today and never could make it to see him. The chaplain who wanted to play chess with him wasn't here today either, but his teacher Miss Brooke did visit, and the three of us played his game for a while.

Tonight when it was time to go to bed, he started sobbing that he wanted a playmate, he missed being in San Diego where he'd have twelve visitors a day in the hospital and multiple people available to play or hang out with him. Guess having your mother for a playmate 20 hours a day or so gets old after a while...

If everything goes well tomorrow with his stem cell infusion, it's possible he could go home tomorrow. He's had a low-grade fever, so it's also possible they may keep him a couple of days longer.

The other fly in the ointment is that Sean is sick, we've kept him home from school the last two days. Nothing serious, a cold or sinus infection, but in two or three days Steven isn't going to have any white blood cells. I called one of Sean's classmates' parents and got the name of a pediatrician, who saw Sean today and gave him an antibiotic.

We're really happy that he's feeling better. I'm going to see what I can do to drum up some visitors for him tomorrow.

- Kathleen