Chemo Gets Another Shot

This is Christopher at Nemour's getting his port accessed just before his admission to Wolfson's to begin chemo...again.

On Monday Christopher began the first day of his new chemo protocol. Although the cancerous lesions were removed from both of his lungs, because his original cancer had metastasised he needs to be treated systemically to assure all cancer cells are destroyed. His new protocol will consist of 5 cycles using a combination of IFOSFAMIDE (Ifex) and ETOPOSIDE (VP-16, VePesid). He will have 5 straight days of the chemo with the 6th day being a post hydration period for 18 hours. The two drugs are administered through his port and actually only run for a total of 4 hours. The rest of the time is IV hydration and anti nausea meds every 6 hours. He is also receiving a drug called Mesna that is given immediately following the Ifex via IV to protect the bladder as this drug can cause bladder bleeding. There is also a possibility that he will experience confusion or seizures with the first few doses but so far the initial dose was okay. (Well I think the current "confusion" is natural :)

Other than that there is the usual nausea and vomiting-which he has unfortunately already experienced, hair loss-which will come in a couple weeks, and a drastic drop in his blood counts after about 10 days following treatment-which usually means a fever and trip to the ER and a more time on the 5th floor until he recovers. Oh and a new one this time is a drastic drop in blood pressure so he will be monitored closely for that. The list goes on but the other side effects usually come much later down the road. His total protocol should take about 6months give or take a few for complications. Whew!
Christopher is more apprehensive this time around. Partly because of the confusion/delusion possibility with this new Chemo and also he is dreading losing his hair again. He is 13 after all!
Not to mention he will be spending a lot of time in the hospital and missing his usual trips to CA. We will be celebrating Thanksgiving here at Wolfson's which should be interesting. The upside of that, however, is he has survived another year of this disease and is able to celebrate it at all!
Besides my sister is graciously bringing my parents up to visit us and will be bearing some real ("Non's") food! Something he is always thankful for!
I hope to get a video of Chris in the next couple days so that you can hear all this from his perspective.
I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving and am grateful to each and everyone of you for the support, encouragement and prayers that keep us going strong.
Much love and peace,
Patty

p.s. I couldn't close without showing you Christopher's matching thoracotomy scars. As the surgeon said "just large enough to get my hands in the cavity". Surgeons are odd.

Battle Scars!

Christopher is definitely not lacking any war wounds. The above picture is from his first Open Thoracotomy on the right lung. Though a very intense surgery Christopher bounced back and went in for more this past week with the second Open Thoracotomy on the left lung.

These are the images taken with a thorascope during his first surgery to remove the largest of the nodules on Christopher's left lung for biopsy and confirmation of metastases. A simple procedure compared to the two very invasive and complicated surgeries he had these past couple weeks.

Christopher is still at Wolfson's Children's Hospital recovering from his last surgery. The Surgeon, Dr. Dokler removed 3 lesions from the left lung and also implanted a double port that will be used for chemotherapy, blood work and other IV drugs. Two and a half days later he is still very uncomfortable and not very mobile. He has not really eaten or had much to drink which is not helping the healing process. His chest tube and nerve catheters were removed today so that was one good thing and, thanks to Katy, his XBox arrived with a long awaited game so fortunately he has his favorite distraction! If Chris can go all day tomorrow without IV pain medication and his chest x-rays are clear he may get to go home on Friday.

He will get another week or so to heal and then his chemo regime will begin. More to come on that plan of attack when we have the details.

For now we are happy that ideally both lungs are now free of metastases and there are no more surgeries planned for the near future!
Thanks, as always for all the support, positive thoughts and prayers.

Patty