We're in the home stretch...

Michael had his third to the last chemo treatment today. We had a nice surprise when we arrived at the hospital - Bearamy, from Build A Bear, was in the unit and he had a stuffed friend and an outfit for each of the children there. Michael chose a bunny and then dressed him in a soccer outfit complete with a ball and shin guards.

There were no problems with his blood counts or the medications today but he seemed very tired all day. And when we were leaving the hospital, he was having a problem lifting his feet. He tripped a couple of times but was holding my hand so he didn't fall.

A similar thing happened last week. After we got home, Michael was watching one of his favorite cartoons while I made dinner and I heard a loud "thud". I hurried to check on him and found him on the floor in front of the TV. He always dances during the theme song to the show and when he tried that night, he fell because his arms and legs were "too heavy". Dr. Kennedy feels this is a side effect of the Vincristine and since he will only receive that particular drug one more time, hopefully these feelings will go away very soon.

I also learned a valuable lesson last week that I would like to share with you in hopes that you will learn from my mistake. If your child likes to snuggle in your bed during the night and if your bedroom has beige carpet and a white quilt - Do Not, under any circumstances, feed your child spaghetti with tomato sauce and strawberry ice cream for dinner if there is any chance he may be ill during the night. Yep - I learned that one the hard way. When Jeff got home from work at 12:30am, he found Michael throwing up, the washing machine running and me scrubbing the carpet next to the bed.

Michael was still vomiting when the sun came up so we kept him home from school on Friday. Jeff was home with him and our little buddy was finally able to keep some Zofran down in the early afternoon so by the time I got home from work, he was back to his old self. He had no problem taking the Zofran tonight so I am hoping tonight goes better than last week. If not, we had a very bland, colorless dinner tonight!

I moved next week's treatment to Friday since Michael is in a square dance demonstration at school Thursday night and we don't want him to miss it. I've had some computer problems of late so I don't want to download any of my pictures right now. As soon as I fix the problem, I do have some pictures to share with you. In the meantime, please keep Michael in your thoughts and prayers, JoAnne.