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“Am I Done Yet?”
By Margot | February 11, 2009
Sam has been asking the harder questions lately. He’s asked Neil and I separately if he’s all done with chemo. He asked me yesterday on the way home from the hospital, “Mom, when I’m done with this chemo will I have, like a year off?” He wanted to know how many rounds he has left and if he has to do it for the whole school year. I think a lot of it is related to his hair. He wants to know when it’s going to grow back. I can’t tell you how tough it is to answer these questions with your heart in your throat not actually knowing the answer to any of them. Sam had to write a paper last week about being a “risk taker.”  The instructions read, “When was the last time you took a risk? Why was it important to you?” Sam’s answer read as follows: “I went to school after I lost my hair. I really wanted to go because I love school. I kept my hood on for the rest of the day. But I still had fun.”   I’m always bugging him to fill up the page and write more but I kept my mouth shut on that one because it pretty much says it all.
He is at school today with 330 ANC. He went to basketball practice last night too. It’s amazing to watch him dive for the ball, take it down and do a spin dribble and shoot it all with a big grin on his face. Their team almost won last Saturday, they were ahead the whole game and only lost by three. It was a heart breaker. Sam seems to be feeling fine with lots of energy and if he’s up for school, we want him to go. I can’t say I don’t send him with some trepidation with low counts. I told him if anyone is coughing and hacking to move to the other side of the room. That should do it, don’t you think? Ha ha. We thought we might bounce back in last night but, so far so good. His red blood is 8.5 and platelets are 77. His counts went down much faster on this round. We have another blood check tomorrow and will see where we are. We start radiation today and are torturing ourselves as to whether or not it’s the right thing to do. Logically, there are no “right” answers but …Â
On an up note, Sam has been eating like a horse and has not felt sick or thrown up yet. Amazing for him. Usually any time he gets near IV chemo he is sick as a dog and we fight to keep weight on him.  His weight yesterday was 57 pounds. His highest ever.  He’s on some supplements that we think are helping. Now if we could just find some that will keep his counts high, we’ll be good. He’s been in a great mood and did lots of homework this past weekend with Uncle Matt who was in town - after which Uncle Matt took everyone to ToysRUs and got the boys Rock Band 2.  None of us wanted Uncle Matt to get on his plane yesterday.
Andy (AKA The Mayor) had a great birthday party at Pump it Up with lots of friends and has continued his birthday celebration with Maureen on Saturday, Uncle Matt while he was here and Mimi. He’s still working to see if there are any more presents coming.  He’s been doing great in basketball, he practices with Sam and Neil’s team and our team. He holds his own with the 8 to 10 year olds. He cried when we lost on Saturday. No one is supposed to keep score in the 5 to 7s but Andy does and takes it hard if we don’t win.Â
Charlie is good. He and I had a bagel this morning while waiting for the haircut place to open. We ran into Darcy there and sat with her. Afterwards as were going over to the haircut place he said, “That was so nice of Darcy to come.” It cracked me up. Also, there was a man waiting to get his haircut talking to Charlie after he got his cut and after we walked out the door, Charlie said, “Mom, I forgot to show him my Move It Move It dance” so we went back but then he got shy and the man ended up dancing for him.
VMA/HVA that we got back this week was about the same. VMA went down and HVA went up a little . The numbers were 40 and 36. Since it was taken on week three after chemo, we’ll take relatively stable, though I would have loved to see it keep going down. The good news is that LDH from yesterday was the lowest it’s been since April of last year: 630 so that’s a good sign that this round may be working.
More soon.
Margot
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Topics: Progress Reports | 3 Comments »
February 11th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Sam is such an amazing boy….what a perfect writing assignment for school. Happy Birthday to Andy!!! As always praying here in Washington.
With Hope
Abra McKean
February 12th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Glad to hear you guys had a nice trip. Hope things start going to right way with Sam. I have no doubt that you guys have made the “right” decision with Neil as the helm.
February 13th, 2009 at 4:59 am
I have found with kids, sometimes the most simple answer works… sometimes.
Your words have always helped Sam to be a risk taker and live life… those words will continue to come… followed by hugs!
Know that we think of you all every day !
Happy Bday to Andy !
xo, colleen