We're half way through the first round...

Today was Michael's fifth treatment out of the ten that make up his first round. He only received Vincristine today so it should have been a quick trip but it wasn't. We arrived on schedule at 11 am but the pharmacy hadn't sent up Michael's treatment and it didn't arrive until 10 minutes to 2 pm. Considering we sat in a small exam room with no lunch for over 2 hours, Michael was wonderful. At one point, he was just singing at the top of his lungs. I could see into the hall and all of the nurses were coming down and standing outside the door listening to him. They thought he was just adorable.

Dr. Kennedy agreed that Michael's port was injured and not infected so he can stop taking the antibiotic they gave him in the ER. They had no problem drawing blood from the site so he didn't dislodge anything. She said that there was probably some blood that was forced out of the port when he hit it. She also said the blood could follow the catheter which is why it appeared as a red line.

Apparently, Michael developed an ear infection between our visit to Dr. Swan yesterday and today so he is on another antibiotic. He is also anemic and Dr. Kennedy wants to treat him with vitamins with iron and not iron supplements because they could upset his already sensitive stomach. She said anemia is common among chemo patients so she wasn't surprised. Michael is also starting to experience some side effects from the Vincristine. His reflexes on the right side of his body were greatly diminished. Again, this is expected and will go away when he is done with chemotherapy.

Next week is the Vincristine only again so hopefully Michael won't have any nausea for a couple of weeks. We went for a late lunch today to one of Michael's favorite restaurants, The Spaghetti Warehouse. He ate a whole bowl of spaghetti, a meatball, a small loaf of italian bread, a pint of milk and a cup of vanilla ice cream so he definitely felt good today.

When you are going through something like we are experiencing, you meet some wonderful people. Kohl's Department Store sells teddy bears and donates a portion of the money to children's charities. Somebody bought a huge bag of them and dropped them off at the oncology unit today. Every child that had a treatment today got one to keep. There was also a bin of hats that a group of women knitted for the kids and everybody got to pick one of those also. It's the little things like that that make it bearable for the kids. And you can't understand the positive impact these little acts of kindness have on the recipients until you experience it yourself. I know I didn't but my life is now forever changed by the people that have reached out to our little boy.