He is in London...or should be anyway

He should have had is first day in London today, and big tourist day tomorrow. We haven't heard from him yet, but that is typical...he doesn't call home much. I guess we will assume he is there and having a good time.

His first chemo pill will be Monday night, so let's pray that he doesn't get too sick.

Blood work results okay

His blood results came back normal except his white count was a skooch low. Skooch was actually the term used by the doctor, but I have yet to find the definition of skooch in the medical dictionary.

This clears Tony to do the next round of chemo medicine. He will start the next five-day set of pills on Monday.

He leaves tomorrow for two weeks in London and Scotland with the flute choir.

He played lots of flute today

He practiced flute with the flute choir for about three hours today preparing for the Scotland trip. He said his lips were quivering and his arm and fingers were tired, but what can you expect when he hasn't practiced more than 30 minutes at a time since January; and only a few days at that. He is in for another three-hour practice session tomorrow.

His hair is coming back lots now. Close to half his head has visible, but very short, darkening hair growth. Just the part in the back top is still clear.

He leaves Saturday for the Scotland trip, and starts his week of chemo medicine on Monday in London. We could use some prayers that he won't have any significant side effects while he is there.

All seems well

He has been riding his bike, playing disc golf, and spent the night sleeping out in a tent at a friend's graduation party. Tonight, he is at a hockey game.

We can see a hair line of darker growth starting to form. It isn't anywhere near long, but something is coming back.

Blood tests high but normal

The blood test results came back in the normal range, but near the high end. The doctors are trying to get him in the middle of the range, so they may adjust his medication down. We hope they leave it alone since he is getting ready to go to Scotland after next week. Last time they tried to adjust him down, he ended up being too low on the next test, and we don't want him too low while traveling.

Still waiting for results

Yesterday was nice, and he climbed most of the way up Flattop mountain with his sister and a friend. He got pretty winded, but that should help increase his endurance.

We still don't have results of the blood tests to see if we need to adjust medication.

Waiting for results

Results of the blood tests should be in tomorrow. Medication levels will be adjusted as necessary depending on the results.

He has been riding his bike, and played disc golf yesterday. Today he is playing ultimate Frisbee with friends and plans to attend a performance of the flute choir he is going to Scotland and London with.

Bike ride and band

Today he went for a bike ride and played in a band concert. The junior high invites alumni to play with them for a couple of songs in the final concert, and he participated.

Tomorrow he gets some blood tests done to see if medication levels are where they need to be.

Slow starts but finish strong

He seems to wake up kind of groggy, but that gradually lifts until, by evening, he seems back to his usual energy. Last night, we dropped him off about 9:30 to play tennis with friends. During the day, he did quite a bit of homework for the Western Civilization class that he is taking by correspondence.

He has decided not to play softball this summer. He figured out that with his trip to Scotland and London with the flute choir, his two weeks at church camp, his leaving for college in August, and a week or two he expects to miss for medical reasons, that he could only play in 4 or 5 of the 16 game season; hardly worth the $55 player fee.

Biking, Disc golf, and Hair

He went for a 4 or 5 mile bike ride, and played disc golf. He isn't feeling quite well, but that is probably the antibiotic he is on. The bike ride seemed to tire him out...he still has quite a bit of endurance to build back up.

We are seeing what appears to be the beginnings of hair growth all over his head. It is all white peach-fuzz right now.

Doing good

He is feeling good. Since last post, he has played Disc Golf, and practiced softball with plans to play on Thursday. Tonight he is going out with one of his friends.

He found out he can't quite do without the nausea medicine during the week he takes the chemo medicine. So long as he takes it though, he feels good.

Tomorrow we have plans to disc golf again and perhaps ride bikes somewhere.

He is feeling good again!

He is feeling good now. He would have played softball tonight, but the anti-nausea medicine he takes along with the chemo says to avoid the sun and overheating. So he can probably make ball games for three weeks and then maybe miss one.

He is going to try and go without the anti-nausea because we may have figured out how to control it but eating small amounts all day to keep his stomach from being empty.

He met with a neurologist and oncologist today and both are encouraging him to go ahead with plans for going to Scotland and London at the end of May.

Thanks for your prayers and please keep them up...they are working.

He is feeling good this morning

He seems to have had a good night. Last night he sprang back to alertness about 7:00PM after sleeping most of the day. He slept well through the night, and still seemed to feel good this morning too.

Maybe we have turned a corner? Maybe your prayers have worked!! Thank you!

He is really tired

The doctor gave him an antibiotic for the low-grade fever (100.7 deg F). Hopefully that will take care of it, and we can get through the rest of the week without any more surprises.

He is really tired, and falls asleep easily. But when he is awake, he seems perfectly fine.

Better, but not good yet.

Last night went much better. He slept through the night. Either the nausea medication worked or perhaps the snack before bed worked (a friend said keeping a little food in the stomach at all times seemed to help them through the chemo nausea).

He is running a low-grade temperature, so he has a doctor appointment today to check things out. He is also feeling much more tired than he has before.

I thought the hard part of all this was over (surgery, radiation + chemo), and that it would be an easy coast from here. Apparently I was mistaken.

Thanks for any prayers you can offer.

First round of followup chemo...not so good so far

He took his first followup chemo pill last night, and got very very very nauseous about 4 hours later. The pill is about double what he had taken during radiation treatments, so we expected some sickness, but nothing that would prevent normal activities at perhaps a reduced pace. Last night's reaction definitely would have prevented any normal activity.

The doctor will prescribe some medication to help with the nausea, and see where we go from here.

He is Home!

He got in a little early Thursday night, and had a group of about 20 meet him at the airport. Thanks to everyone who met him!

Friday, he played Frisbee golf in Peter's Creek park, and was song leader and chaperon at an overnight lock-in for the high school church group. Tonight he went to a choir concert his sister was in, and is out with his friends now. He won't be allowed to drive until October or later, so he will be looking for rides once-in-a-while.

From here on (up to a year or two), he will have a four-week cycle of chemo treatment. The cycle is five days of treatment followed by 23 days off with a blood test during that time to monitor his health and medicine levels. The chemo dosage is higher that it was during radiation, so there may be some side effects he didn't have before. There will also be an MRI near the end of summer.

Blog updates might be less frequent now. Maybe once a week or so...definitely when we get blood test and MRI results, and as we see how the new chemo dosage works out.

Thanks for following his progress, and thanks a bunch for your prayers.