Not that I'm a fan of the song or the band, but it seemed and appropriate way to write the title. Much has happened in our little world over the past week, all of it positive. Let me set the current scene. I am sitting outside the Tate family (Karli's family) park home down in Busselton. Karli is off for a walk and our little man is sleeping soundly in his room. On Wednesday, Dr Marianne gave us the go ahead to wander down this way with the assurance that they work very closely with the Bunbury Hospital and she would have no reservations with them rendering some assistance to us should we need it. needless to say, by the time we got back home we were already sorting things out and were packing the car first thing Thursday morning. We will be back for Wednesday. The reason for our pass was because Oliver's neutrophils had been high for a while (highish for a child with cancer and undergoing chemo) and since he didn't receive treatment on Wednesday, he was probably in the best place to safely go away somewhere. So here we are. Not all is well - Karli did wake me up at 5.50am to tell me she was going for a walk. I can only put it down to the cool sea and country air.
On Wednesday we were informed that the study that Oliver is on has been suspended due to an unacceptable level of toxicity in patients on Oliver's treatment arm. This sounds bad, but what it means is that the benefits they were seeing from giving the vinblastine weren't enough to justify the side-effects. This means that Oliver skipped his treatment Wednesday (he was due vinblastine) and will now begin his next cycle Christmas Eve. He will be moved back on to the standard treatment arm and since this is the start of a new phase, there will be some other changes.
At the moment, we have been told that because of Oliver's size, he is not due any more doxorubicin as was first thought. Initially we were told he needed to meet a minimum accumulated dose, but this doesn't apply because Oliver's dose was calculated per kg and not by surface area like some of the larger and older children are. Because he is not receiving vinblastine, it also means he won't be receiving weekly treatments, so he will only be receiving chemo for the first 5-6 days of every 3 week cycle. That is very exciting. We will probably still need to take him in for blood tests each week, but that's no big deal. I suppose that will mean I need to make a decision about what I will do with work as well. He will still need to have his magnesium and fluconazole each day, and his bactrim each weekend, but it would seem that things are getting a little better.
Merry Christmas to us.
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