The latest

We had a much better week thank God!
As soon as I figure out how to get my camera to take a good video of Christopher I will let him continue to fill you in on the latest with his battle.
Right now the biggst battle seems to be with the healing of his "stump" .
He survived the last emergency visit to the hospital a little over a week ago for high fever and a low BP scare and is now doing very well. He ended up staying for only 3 days which was amazing considering how hard he crashed.
The following week we saw Dr. O'Connor, hoping to get his stitches removed and be that much closer to getting his new leg. However, the wound (scar) on the right side was not looking so good so she decided to keep the stitches intact until July 10th.
It seems chemo is not great for the healing process and Dr. O'Connor is concerned about the next 3 weeks of chemo possibly interfering. Normally she would open up the area again (minor surgery) and remove the excess scabbing and wounded tissue and reattach the skin. But because Chris cannot go without continuing his chemo process this will have to wait. We are hoping and praying, as is Dr. O'Connor, that she can keep this level of amputation. So please help us pray for some better healing of that area!
Tomorrow morning Christopher will be admitted for round 8 of his chemo protocol. He will have 3 weeks in a row and then a little reprieve.
Until then he has enjoyed being able to have had a week at home to relax. Today he had a wonderful visit from his Uncle Tom, Aunt Jose and his four cousins...many thanks to them for making such a big difference in his day!
Hope to get some live video soon...
Lots of thanks and peace to all of you!
Patty

Darn those fevers!

Well we almost made a complete week out of the hospital.

With the exception of the first couple days following the "nasty" round of chemo Christopher has been feeling really good all week. This morning, however, he woke up with an excruciating headache complete with a fever of 103.2. We were hoping the shot he got last week would help keep his counts up and fevers down (you'd think so at $3,500 a pop!).

In any case he is back at Nemours getting fluids and antibiotics via IV and it looks like he will be admitted to Wolfson's this afternoon. as his counts dropped from 9,570 to 42. When the fever is down for over 24 hours and the counts go back up at least to 500, providing there is no infection he can go home.

Monday he is due to go back to Mayo to have his stitches removed. He is still doing very well adjusting to his "stump" but is anxious for the prosthetic which should be in about another month if all is healing according to plan.

I don't think he is physically feeling quite as yucky as he looks in the picture but mentally he is probably feeling much worse. The fevers are always a big downer after you think you are in the clear for a while.

I want to thank Debbie and Jane for going the extra mile and contacting the boys from Lincoln Park...Chris is sporting the hoodie they sent him and has framed the autographed album cover.

It was a huge bright spot in his day!

As always and as Chris has said earlier, we appreciate all the love and encouragement from family and friends. We feel truly blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful people.

Peace, Patty

East meets West

When Christopher got home from his surgery at Mayo he asked to go back to Dr. Jiang, a Dr. practicing Chinese medicine in Orange Park, FL. The weeks following his previous treatments with him were the best weeks he has had physically, following chemo. Although Dr. Jiang cannot do much in the way of offering traditional Chinese herbs as it interferes with the Chemo, he can help boost Christopher's immune system as well as help him with the side effects of Chemo.
I have had great success with Dr. Jiang and I am grateful Chris was not only open to his treatments but confident with it's results. Many thanks to Dr. Jiang and Eastern philosophies!

Adjusting to the "stump"

We were lucky enough to spend this past week at home after leaving Mayo last Saturday.

Christopher is doing great adjusting to his new leg, or as he refers to it "the stump". It is amazing how he is managing himself and not really needing much in the way of pain medication.

His grandmother, Sheri was here with us and was a great help and source of support for him.

He is anxious to get his new prosthetic as relying on crutches is tough and getting old. It will be, however, another 6-8 weeks before that happens.

We did get some great news last week regarding the pathology report. It seem that the tumor actually showed almost 80% necrosis as opposed to little or no necrosis first reported on the MRI prior to surgery. Chris was very excited about this as it means that the last 10 weeks of chemo was in fact somewhat successful...thank God!

He begins his new chemo regime tomorrow, at which time we will find out the new protocol which will probably be any where from 6-8 more months?

In the meantime he is eating a lot, has pretty good energy and overall feeling very well.

Now that we are back to the usual routine and the surgery is over with we will continue to keep you all updated as things unfold.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support and prayers!

Peace, Patty