MONDAY......MONDAY'S!!! CHEMO: DAY 4

 I've always hated Monday's.... NOW..... I really hate them!! And so does Riley!
Today was a bad day right from the start..... Hunter fights me everyday to go to school and today was no exception. And it's not just school it's to get out of bed...to eat breakfast....to put his clothes on....to put his socks on.....to put his shoes on.... to put his backpack on....etc. etc. By the times 9:10 a.m. came around, I was done for the day!
Riley counts down the days to go to the hospital and he said on Saturday night, "mom, do we go to the hospital, not tomorrow, not tomorrow but tomorrow?" I said No, not tomorrow but tomorrow. He got all teared up and said "no, I wish we didn't have to go for 10 more days".  And of course he worried about it all day Sunday too.
At least when we got to the Hospital he didn't fight me on getting in the stroller. The fighting began in the room when we needed to access his port. And I don't mean a small fight.... It took 2 nurses, me and my mom to hold him down and he was still kicking and screaming. This is after 20 min of negotiation, be patient, bribing, me using the "mommy look", and finally just getting mad and doing it.
THAT WAS TOUGH
Not just the fight but the angry words he says to me. I know that he doesn't mean them and it's the only way he can get his anger out but it's hard to hear.

Today's poison is Vincristine (again) and Doxorubicin. 

Doxorubicin is RED! Some people pee red for a couple of days after.

Doxorubicin is a more dangerous drug, in fact each person can only have so much of this drug in their whole life. There is a lifetime max, but Riley will only be getting about 1/4 of that amount, throughout his treatments. He will only get this drug 4 times. This drug hits the system harder and can lower the blood count significantly. The other thing this drug does is causes damage to the heart muscle, sometimes it won't show up for 5, 10 even 20 years later. It also causes high levels of Uric Acid in the blood which can damage the kidneys......SUPER!  It also does what's called "Radiation Recall", which means it tricks the body into thinking it is getting radiation again and ALL the side effects of radiation come back, along with the side effects of this drug and Vincristine.
In fact this is so serious, if Riley even looks too sick, we need to take him to the hospital, if he throws up more then a couple of times or A lot one or two times, they want to see him. We have to watch for fever, constipation, diariah, belly ache, if he looks sick or doesn't act like himself: then we have to take him to the hospital and they will admit him. I have to admit, I'm a little scared of this drug!
Here are his counts:

 WEEK: 1  2  3   4     

  HGB:   14.1    12.9       ??      11.7     (less then 8 is bad)   

  Hct:    41.8%    37.8%   35%  33.2%   (less then 24% is bad)   

  WBC:  10.5      4.7         3.6    4.2   (5.5 is a low normal)

  PLTS:   621      288        272    347  (less then 30 is bad)    

  ANC:   7.6       3.0          2.2     1.5 (less the 1 or .5 is bad)

CHEMO: here we come.......

This is a huge step for Riley, he moved from his stroller to the chemo chairs... which is a big deal for him!!
After another fighting round to get his port out and 4 hours later...... we were headed home! 


 Riley's hair has been shedding like crazy for almost a week now.....the final decision to shave his hair came tonight when Ri was eating some ice cream and he looked in his bowl to find HAIR in it...!! Suprise!! So off to the salon!!

PRE- Hair Cut Pic

Not so sure about this!

All done, thank goodness!! What a ruff day!

Back of my Mow-Hawk.... oh yeah!!

Dad got his hair cut too!! He's my support system!!

He may not be Spider-man, but he is OUR REAL LIFE HERO!!!