Middle Stretch
Round two (of four) of chemo. We arrived at Cooks early this morning for chest x-rays and bloodwork. His chest x-ray showed the mass mostly the same size, but his blood markers were extraordinary. This is good, bad and to be expected all at once. While shrinking his tumor is certainly the ultimate goal, seeing it die out is incredibly important. It's a tricky cancer and the chemo works well on certain parts of it, the dangerous ones. The teratoma is another story. It's less sensitive to the chemo, so while the volume of his tumor hasn't changed much, the menacing part is reacting extremely well. He is right on track. We will begin conversations in the next few weeks about what surgery will look like to remove the remaining mass.
His next stop this morning was surgery to remove his central line and insert a port. This will help faciliate his medication and labs and blood infusions and showers!! He tolerated it all very well and slept the rest of the day. Ideally we will only have to stay five days this week. During our time at home he managed to put on two pounds which is reassuring. He was living like a true college student the last week, sleeping in, eating often and ordering take out pizzas and quarter pounders in the middle of the night (those DoorDash gift cards are amazing).
We are celebrating good numbers and his continued good mood. We understand better the rhythm of treatments, naps, snacks, labs, transfusions, high days and low.
We are all attacking this the way we best can. Marme and BigDad are a constant and comforting presence. Darin and Taira have opened their home in ways that give this boy the ability to both be cared for and be comfortable every day he is out of the hospital. My sister holds my hand through every new lab and laughs with Strother about every other thing. Our friends and family near and far are providing meals, prayers, texts, gift cards for DoorDash, and encouragement and we feel that love. It all matters.
We are getting through this one day at a time and in the right direction. Strother is worth all this effort, I know you know.
