ENCORE! ENCORE!

No one can sing the praises of a boy louder than their Mom, here is a communique from our Hero's Mom:

This child is amazing.He really worked through that two weeks of intensive chemo really well. We were able to maintain control of vomiting and nausea, along with other aches and pains. He had to go in daily for a hour of hydration and then take the medicine for two weeks. It is over! So exciting.We went in yesterday for our PEG (sober shot in the hammy both legs) and Vincristine (IV Push). None of us got any sleep due to the anticipation of the hurt that was to come. We drugged him up good, and wouldn’t you just know it, they were running an hour late. We finally got in, completely sauced as we were hoping he would be for the PEG but was for his labs. No alarm on this one. He actually asked me at a point a half hour later. Did I get my shot yet? He had to lift up his shirt to check to see if his IV was in his port to remember. That’s the wonderful thing about that Adivan, it sauces you up, gets rid of a lot of the anxiety, makes you drunk, and also makes you forget.We had a great appointment with the dr. and she informed us that this next phase of treatment beginning roughly 2/6, after a couple of weeks he should be good to go on vacation, school and a variety of things he hasn’t been able to do since treatment is mainly oral meds and his levels should be “up”. He is doing really well. His unbelievable Italian/Greek hair is putting up a fantastic fight. Dry as a haystack, 1/4 left, but still hanging on for awhile longer. He knows now that it is going, so we feel better about that.We finally got to the clinic for the “shot” and were told that his levels were pretty low (to be expected after two long arguace rounds of chemo, and he needed to stay for a platelet transfusion and blood transfusion. (He was having headaches over the weekend that we attributed to the Cytrabine, but the Dr. actually said that is attributed to the low, low Hematocrit 16.2). Ummm, that adds an automatic 1.5 wait for the blood bank to bring his match and a mere 8 hours to the visit. We checked in at 930a and left at 745p. Long boring awful day.After he received the platelets they gave him his “shot”, he took it well as can be expected. They had me hold him face down into my neck so he couldn’t see the two nurses coming at him. When it was done through the tears he asked “why is everybody being mean to me”. The nurses got him a Star Wars ship. Unbelievable that they know just exactly what he likes and loves. Sort of tells you how much we are there.Today it was as if nothing was happening. Actually Paul has been sick with a fever, and he is the one that seems like he has been through the ringer. Joe is on top of his game. I guess it’s the new blood. He is “studdly” as dad says.We decided we more than likely (after looking at our treatment maps) that we probably just completed the longest hardest part of what Joe will have to face in the next few months. The “Study” arm of the phase will be over next week, and we are back to Standard treatment for the remaining 3 phases, Interim Maintenance, Delayed Intensification, and ahhh...Maintenance.Thank you to everyone for the prayers to our Joe and our family. They are truly working through him and us. We are so proud of Joe.

Stay tuned...