Mr. Cheeks Goes to the Hospital: Recovering weekend

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Recovering weekend

Alan was mostly quiet Friday night, with a poop at midnight then settling back to sleep. Since the first cycle of chemotherapy finished yesterday the TPN is going through one of the PICC lines instead of his port. He had a mild fever last night - hopefully between the minocycline lock and the fact that we are no longer infusing anything through the port we can lick that infection.

Saturday morning we went down to Rehabilitation to see the visiting therapy dogs. Alan had a small bout of vomiting before we took him down. We hope the nausea will start to ease about a day or two after the end of chemo. There were a lot of big dogs this time and though Alan enjoyed watching them he didn't want to play. We'll try again next weekend. One sign that Alan is returning to normal is that he has started asking for specific soccer jerseys to wear or hold again. Not only is he asking for particular numbers, he is also asking for certain color/number combinations!

He is definitely feeling discomfort while pooping, even with all the laxatives, but feels better after being cleaned up, even if he doesn't like the process while it's taking place. Now that the first cycle of chemo is done Alan got a shot of Neulasta, a long-acting version of Neupogen (which means only one shot!).

Summer and her mom came to say good bye before they headed home. We were happy to see that Summer was walking on her own! Without the walker, Alan was much more charming to her and they had a fun visit. They popped bubbles together, Alan demonstrated some of his new toys, and Summer snapped self-portraits of them on her phone.

Doc H2 was on call Sunday morning so he came by with the other docs on rounds. The primary goal right now is to clear the infection from his lines before we try to find another solution for Alan's pain management. IV morphine is the main thing keeping us inpatient in the hospital since the other treatments can be managed on an outpatient basis. Overall Doc H2 is happy with the slow but steady progress. Right now Alan's treatment is about buying time - time to find new treatments, time for him to grow so we have increased surgical options.

We took Alan on another long walk on the sky-bridge, looping around twice by cutting through the Picken Tower. When we got back Alan played on the iPad in the 10th floor family room then it was back to his room for nephrostomy and G-tube dressing changes. He was pretty tired out by the process so he fell asleep soon after the dressing changes.