A light at the end of the tunnel

Last chemo! Last chemo!

We checked into Primary Children’s Medical Center to begin Andrew’s last round of chemotherapy today. If you think I’m excited now, wait until next week when we ring the bell and walk out of the inpatient unit for what we hope is the last time.

We had an encouraging visit with our attending physician in the clinic this morning. He told us that because of the stage in which Andrew’s cancer was diagnosed and the treatment he received, the odds that Burkitt’s Lymphoma will rear its ugly head again are slim to none. We’ll believe it when we see it, but it was such a relief to hear those words.

If no further complications block our path, we will return just before Easter for scans, and to remove the PICC line. We will return for scans every three months for the next two years. If the cancer does not return in that time, he will be officially cured.

There could be other long-term complications from chemotherapy and Andrew’s chance of getting leukemia is a little higher than the rest of us, but there isn’t much we can do about that, so I’m going to celebrate first and worry about those things later.

This is my “I just want to get back to my movie” face.

We were finally able to ask about getting back to life-as-usual after chemotherapy is over. If the scans are clear and the PICC line comes out in time, Spring Break is on for the first week of April. We aren’t going to make any reservations or commitments, but we are brainstorming ideas and if all goes well, we are going somewhere to celebrate our freedom.

Andrew has clearance to return to school as soon as his immune system bounces back and he feels well enough. After Spring Break sounds good to me.

There are still a lot of “ifs” ahead of us, but hope feels good right now.

In the meantime, we are in the hospital. Our spinal tap was scheduled later than usual today, so everything is on a later schedule. Andrew was NPO until about three o’ clock. He hasn’t had much of an appetite lately, but knowing that he couldn’t eat made him hungry, so it was a long morning. He was able to drink Sprite, apple juice and water until 11:00, so at least we had that.

We will begin a second round of CYM. That will probably begin very late tonight because we started later than usual, and it will take several hours to pump Andrew full of the fluids that will hydrate him and adjust his PH to balance the acid in the Methotrexate.

We have been assigned to K Pod. It’s the dungeon, or island, depending on how you look at it. We officially have our worst view ever, but at least our room has a couch. I sleep much better on the couches than the pull-out chairs, so we’ll survive without the view.

All that matters now is LAST CHEMO!!

A room with a view

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