3rd dose

 

Wednesday morning we came to the clinic and were then checked into the inpatient unit for the 3rd dose of High Dose Methotrexate.  Carter had a 10:00 sedation scheduled for a lumbar puncture and chemo in his spinal fluid.  BUT, since he ate two tiny grape nuts (yes, that gross cereal.  Two teensy little nuggets) they couldn't do the sedation.  The next available time wasn't until 4:00 that afternoon.  We had 10 minutes before his 6 hour cut-off so he scarfed down a bowl of cereal and the fasting began.  It wasn't nearly as bad as I feared it would be.  He stayed busy all day, playing with play-do, playing in the rice box, riding the tricycle, etc.  He only asked for something to eat a few times.  They stared him on IV fluids right away so by the time 4:00 came around, he'd already met his urine parameters to begin the HDM.  We went in for the sedation, which went perfectly (he always takes more medicine than an average child of his size since he fights going to sleep) and I ordered food for him so it would be there when he woke up.  He immediately started eating his noodles with butter (his new favorite meal) and the fork just wasn't fast enough so he was shoving it in by the handful.  The nurse walked by and nearly passed out from laughing.  In between noodle bits, he would take a couple licks of his sucker or a bite of broccoli.  He ate almost the whole plate full of food.  It was impressive.  He then received Vincristine and then the HDM started.  6:00 last night is when that was done infusing and his level was at 82.  This morning at 6:00 it had dropped to 1.91.  They started the "rescue medicine" at noon and drew more blood.  It's now down to 1.05 which is higher at this point than the previous two times we've been here.  The nurse just increased the fluids so hopefully that will help to flush it out of his system.  We're still thinking and hoping that we'll be out of here sometime tomorrow.  

 He has been out of his room most of the time.  It's been so fun to see him have so much energy this whole month.  He's such a little sweetheart.

 A lady with her harp came in and played a few songs for Carter.  She gave him this little harp to play along with her.  He thought it was pretty neat.  Also, a different lady came around with her cat.  He's an older cat so he is really good and just sits there and lets you pet him.  Carter LOVED it.  When we heard that the cat was coming, we went back to our room to wait for him and Carter decided that he needed to put on his doggie pants because he though the cat would really like them.  Ah, the mind of a 3 year-old :)

 I had to include this picture.  My boys LOVE when Uncle Jerry comes to visit!

We're more than half-way through this round!  Only one more scheduled admission left.