Cycle 3, Day +23: A Last Fling

We bid goodbye to Doug's family on Tuesday evening. Steven managed to cram in an extra round of golf on Monday with his Gramps, then Grammie, Gramps, and Aunt Wendy offered to watch the kids on Monday night so Doug and I could go out, something that hasn't happened since January.

I met with Steven's neuro-oncologist Dr. Gajjar on Tuesday to discuss Steven's hearing loss. He felt very strongly that Steven should go ahead with a full dose of cisplatin this next round because he feels it is an effective drug, and the dose of cisplatin that Steven is receiving on this four-cycle protocol is half of what he would receive on a standard eight-cycle protocol. He also said that Steven's hearing loss (now) is high-frequency and mostly above the frequency range for speech. So, we're planning to follow Dr. Gajjar's advice.

Wednesday morning I decided to take Steven and drive to Nashville, about 220 miles from Memphis. We rented a car and stayed near Opryland, where the Grand Ole Opry is broadcast. We couldn't see it because they only broadcast on Friday and Saturday nights, and we had to be back in Memphis for appointments on Friday.

We got there Wednesday night and ate at the Rainforest Cafe. Thursday we went to the Nashville zoo, in the evening we attended a Mystery Theatre dinner downtown, where Steven was the only child in attendance and much attention was lavished on him by the performers.

Friday morning we started back, stopping to eat and for some sightseeing in beautiful Natchez Trace State Park. It was a warm, sunny, and beautiful day, there were trees teeming with butterflies.

Neither of us felt much like hurrying back, our stop in Natchez Trace caused us to have to drive 95 mph in order to get to St. Jude late for his 3pm appointment.

After his appointment, we met Doug and Sean at Avis (who finally has decided they will rent cars to me) and went to see the new Disney movie Home On The Range, then out for some famous Memphis barbeque at Rendezvous.

This morning, Target House had a brunch for all the kids, followed by an egg hunt.

After the egg hunt, we took off for a local lake, called "Catch 'Em Lake", where Steven and Sean unsuccessfully tried to catch a catfish, and mom tried to thread raw chicken livers onto a fish hook (think of trying to make jello stay on a fish hook and you'll get the idea).

Steven will be admitted to the hospital tonight, in preparation for his last round of chemo. We're praying that it goes well, no more hearing loss, that he keeps his spirits up.

-Kathleen