Slowly but Surely

Lou Lou asked Nate for a smile and this is what she got!

Sorry for the lack of updates.  There isn't a whole lot to report right now and I haven't really felt like writing about it.  Nate is doing much better, but he is far from recovered and we have no idea how much longer he will have to be in the hospital.  He is due to start round 4 of chemo a week from tomorrow, so we are praying that we get a few really good days with him at home before we have to check back in to the hospital and start this all over again.

Nate's electrolytes have pretty much returned to normal levels, thanks to IV supplementation.  Now we have to see if they can back off on the IV supplementation and begin giving it to him orally and see if the levels stay the same.  The good news is that the kidney doctors do not think this problem was due to kidney damage.  They think it was strictly due to the amount of vomiting he did and the fact that he wasn't eating anything for so long.  The vomiting has stopped...thank God.  We are still having them give him anti-nausea medication around the clock because we don't want to take any chances.  Unfortunately, as soon as he checked in to the hospital, diarrhea started.  This is probably due to the chemo or the electrolyte replenishment.  They have cultured his stool and everything is coming back fine.  It's already a problem because diarrhea is another way to lose electrolytes, but it really became a problem yesterday afternoon when Nate started rolling up in a ball in pain and moaning and crying.  I really scared and worried me at first.  I spent most of last night crying with worry.  After several talks with doctors and after paying really close attention to Nate's behavior, it seems that it must be stomach cramping from the diarrhea.  I'm praying that the pain and diarrhea will stop soon for my sweet, sweet boy.

The chemo is still doing it's work on his body because his ANC (immune system), hemoglobin (measure of red blood cells) and platelets are still dropping.  He gets shots every morning to help his ANC.  He got platelets on Tuesday at the clinic and got blood today.  Hoping that his ANC will come up tomorrow morning instead of continuing down and that his platelets will increase also, so that he doesn't need another platelet transfusion.  Then last night, he started to teeter on the edge of a fever, and again today during his blood transfusion.  It's important that he doesn't get a fever now that his ANC is low, because that will mean they have to start a whole new round of tests and start him on antibiotics and will delay his homecoming even further.

Nate is eating little bits here and there, but not a ton.  It seemed he was eating much more before they started the IV food (called TPN), even though he wasn't feeling great.  There is some controversy over whether or not the TPNs cause patients to not want to eat, but I really believe that it is decreasing Nate's appetite.  It also doesn't help that he is on a GI upset diet which means no dairy, and dairy is pretty much his favorite food group.

Nate is super tired and gets drained of energy quickly and is sleeping a lot.  When he is up, he is feeling pretty good and is acting more like his normal, goofy self...as evidenced by the photo above.  It's very important to us that we get him as strong as possible, as quickly as possible for round 4 and then get him through rounds 4 and 5 as strong as possible to prepare for surgery.  We don't have exact dates yet, but it looks like we will be heading to New York around November 7th for surgery.  Sometimes, it's scary how quickly everything seems to be moving by, but really I just want to get my baby through these treatments as quickly as possible.  I want him to be running and playing and being a kid again.