Cycle 3, Day -4: Here we go again...

Steven was admitted last night in preparation for his next bone marrow transplant. The chemo starts today. We are praying that this cycle will go as smoothly as the last (without the chicken pox fiasco).

All the doctors in the bone marrow transplant clinic are laughing because Steven appears to be the first person in the history of St. Jude to get the chicken pox immune globulin shot and not have to go into isolation. They seem to be of the opinion that I intimidated the infectious disease control people into not putting Steven into quarantine. Ken the nurse practitioner asked me if I'd represent him for his next tax audit.

We're not starting out in perfect condition, Steven woke up yesterday a little congested, sneezing, and feeling generally crummy. Me, I woke up with a sore throat and glands and feeling like I'd been run over by a truck. Twice. Steven and I are together almost constantly these days, if I'm getting sick, it's likely he is also.

They checked him out at the hospital and they seem to feel that he's good to go for chemo despite the possible onset of illness, so we're standing in line, preparing to step on the BMT rollercoaster again, all systems go for 9 am Sunday.

Steven's MRI results from earlier this week came back OK, normal brain and spine. I haven't actually laid my eyes on the reports yet, but that's the news from the bone marrow transplant doctor and Ken the nurse practitioner.

Steven got his lumbar puncture done on Wednesday under local anesthesia, with Dr. Mark the behavioral medicine doctor present to help him relax. He did really well, a couple of whimpers which he later admitted were due to fear, not actual pain. The results of the lumbar puncture were also clear, this is very good news.

Steven got a second EKG this week, due to an anomaly they noticed on his previous week's EKG. The anomaly showed up on the second EKG as well and the bone marrow transplant doctor consulted with a cardiologist. The decision was to go ahead with the full dose of chemo for this cycle, then re-evaluate his EKG before the next cycle, if the anomaly is any worse, they may reduce the cyclophosphamide.

On another note, Sean made the honor roll at his school, and received an award last Friday. In addition, he received the Father Pugh Award (Father Pugh is the priest at the church associated with the school he's attending), for "for witnessing our faith through actions and words, and representing the school in a Christ-like manner". We are very proud of him, and we are also thinking that Father Pugh didn't see him at dinner last night.

-Kathleen