Posts made in September, 2012

I’ve been pondering the magnitude of medical care Ethan has received thus far. I’m a numbers person by nature so it was therapeutic for me to compile the data. It’s probably missing some things but this is the treatment Ethan received during the 223 days of frontline therapy: 3 bone marrow aspirations 23 nights spent in the hospital 154 doses of oral chemotherapy 12 doses of intrathecal chemotherapy (in the spine) 58 doses of IV chemotherapy 80+ lab draws 14 procedures under anesthesia 5 transfusions of packed red blood cells 1 transfusion of platelets 3 x-rays and 1 echocardiogram hundreds of doses of supportive medications such as: bactrim, zofran, reglan, benadryl, omeprazole, ranitidine, oxycodone, oseltamivir, miralax, etc. Truly...

We are one week from the end of frontline therapy. Leukemia treatment works like this: 6-8 months of frontline (intense) chemotherapy followed by 3 years of maintenance chemotherapy. Frontline therapy consists of a lot of IV and spinal chemo: anywhere from 1 to 5 days a week, every week. Maintenance chemo consists of spinal chemo once every three months, IV chemo once a month and oral chemo given daily at home. So basically for the next three years 90% of the responsibility for maintaining my sons remission falls to me. No pressure. I will be relieved to get our clinic visits down to once per month. But if I’m being honest I’m weary of chemo. So much chemo for so long. I feel like three years is stretching before me like the giant dead marshes in The...