25/2/10 Day 104. Thursday RCH day

Delayed start................!
Prepared ourselves for the 1st day of O's next round of medications. Bags, laptops, food, games for a 9 hour day connected to a pump. Up at 6.30, out by 7.30, hospital 8.30, trouble getting blood from O's Hickman line. Pumped him with fluids for an hour, better luck with extracting blood, await results, then we were told that his neutrophils are too low. Tooo looow! We were told that he was booming along...Disconnected at 11.00. We have to wait another week...... We drove home quietly, disappointed..
Damn leukeamia is messing with our heads.

23/2/10 Day 103. Tuesday.

He's back....
After 5 days of unwellness, we have a happy, busy Owen back. Up and dressed for school. No phone calls to pick him up from the sickbay. No throwing up. And when I get home, he is out in the backyard, sorting out his garden. Too easy...

21/2/10 Day 101. Weekend

4 days of unwellness. Owen has had enough by this point. He has finished his chemo for this round and his bloods are improving but he has been throwing up constantly for 4 days. This photo is at 8am. He bravely pulls himself out of bed, lays on the couch, holding a sick bowl. He has no food in the stomach, but this does not stop the vomitting. And then we coax him to take some medication to prevent lung infections, which he does, knowing that it will make him throw up. He cries as he takes it, and sure enough, within minutes he empties out what little is in him. He does not give up... he tries again.

Sunday afternoon, he perked up, picked produce from his garden, went to his favourite place, Bunnings, for potting mix and herbs, finished off the herb garden, and helped me with work around the house. He ate a sausage, drank freshly queezed juice and felt good, before he slumped that evening. You can see that the weight is starting to fall off him. Hopefully he will be right to go back to school on Monday.

The harvest... Beans, tomatoes and capsicums..

18/2/10 Day 98. Royal Childrens Day

Lumbar Puncture and Dr Waters.

We are coming to the end of this 29 Day cycle and then O will repeat it. He is tracking really well with good results on his blood. His internal health is improving and Dr Waters is pleased. However, Owen is outwardly unwell, having only eaten a packet of Doritos and a dim sim (Savoury flavours and all that we could convince him to eat) which he bought up later on that day.

Look at the hair. Could be an Afro......

13/2/10 Day 94. 3 month Anniversary

Wow, 3 months and all is good...
The Big O is technically unwell but he is doing well. His blood tests show that he is not able to protect himself if he gets a cold. But, as a cancer patient he is doing really well... And we know as we sit with these young beautiful people, once a week.
His tastes have changed which is normal when you are on cancer medication. He does not like sweet food anymore. Owen now loves savoury food. Salt, and savoury. He will accept a a beautiful Phillipa's brownie, take one bite then hand it back. Yukk....
He wakes up with nausea, throws up, has a small breakfast then is off to school. I never liked school at all.... So, there is something wonderful about his school that makes him want to go.. Impressive!..
Joel went off to a Trevor Barker(AFL footballer who died from cancer) camp today. It is based around playing sport with cancer patients, cancer survivors, and brothers and sisters of cancer patients. Despite his apprehensions, he will love it....
Update: He loved it big time. Played basketball with Andrew Gaze, AFL with 2 St Kilda players, Rugby with a Melbourne Storm player, Parkour around Southgate, Hockey, La Crosse, etc, etc etc. A highlight - Wheelchair basketball!.....
Thank you to Challenge (Childrens with cancer charity)

11/2/10 Day 92. Lumbar Puncture, Day Oncology and the Dreaded Injections

Owen has been at school everyday apart from Thursdays. He has a constant high temperature (Usually between 37 -38 degrees with 38.5 being the trigger to start heading into Emergency), which makes us as his parents, very, very twitchy, but we will all have to get used to this. We also had a Parent/Teacher interview one afternoon, and the verdict is that he just has slipped in nicely, exactly as we all would have wanted. We are so pleased, that he can get back to being a schoolboy again....
Thursday, Royal Childrens day. Leave home at 8.30am, back at 7.30pm. Another loooong day.... Theatre visit, lumbar puncture and catch up with Dr Waters. Everything is on track...
Day Oncology. Drugs into his Hickman line and then the dreaded monthly double injection, slowly into the thighs. I held his hands and fought back tears as he grimaced and squeezed mine. I have tears writing about this, because there is nothing more fearful in life than the smell of alcohol swabs and seeing 2 syringes sitting on a trolley waiting for you. And they are not the baby ones either. The anxiety levels go through the roof for myself and The Big O but he takes his injections without protest....
He waits 2 hours in case of an allergic reaction, then 250ml of blood over 2.5 hours.
Thank you to the wonderful nurses at the Childrens.... Thank you to Owen and all the other children who endure medical treatment for showing me what "tough" really means.....

4/2/10 Day 85. Day Oncology

Thursdays are Owens regular day back to Royal Childrens. We have weekly checkups from his Guardian Angel, Dr Waters....
Lee and Owen were out the door at 7.30, delivering Joel and Luke to supportive friends to look after them. Then off to the hospital for a finger prick then a lumbar puncture. Dr waters next, then into day oncology because in only 7 days of his new medication, he needs 500ml of new blood. Looks like he is getting knocked around by his medication as we were warned. Leave hospital at 7.30, home by 8.00. Big Day! Thought we would be home by lunch.......
He will be feeling great tomorrow......

1/2/10 Day 81. He's Back......................... to schooool...Yay!!

Owen is back.... Back to school. First day back since November 12th when he came home complaining of a sore knee joint..

He packed everything up in readiness days before, and was up and dressed, ready to go before 8am. We delayed his start by an hour so his new teacher, Joel Snowden could give his classmates a background on Owen. I caught up with O that evening and it was business as usual. No fuss, just a happy boy who liked his first day back at school..
To think I worried all morning...