Good Days...

Jacob had some very good days starting out for transplant.  I was expecting him to be way sick right away like he was with all the other rounds of chemo that he's had.  Well, thankfully the Busulfan he got for the first four days is actually a "mild" chemo compared to some.  It's hard to believe there is such as thing as a "mild" chemo...especially since this is the one that will wipe out all his bone marrow! It's not really mild, it's just that the side effects don't show up right away...sort of a delayed reaction.  Whatever the reason, I'll take it cuz his first few days in the hospital this time were pretty good.  He ate like a champ without nausea and he showered every day and got out of bed to sit in the rocker or whatever he could do to just get up and move a little.

On friday, we had a very exciting visit from Jacob's Uncle Nick, Aunt Vanessa and their new baby girl Allie.  Nick has always been very close to Jacob and a huge part of his life.  About 8 months ago, Nick and Vanessa moved to Connecticut to be close to Vanessa's family while she finished the last of her schooling and had her baby! It was hard to see them go knowing we wouldn't get to meet little Allie as a teenie tiny newborn.  Well, they finally moved back last week and we were super excited to see them and meet little Allie.  She is so cute and sweet and well, according to Nick and Vanessa, she's way more fun now than she was when she was newborn anyway.

So cute!

Saturday was the first day that Jacob's nausea got stronger than the medicine's he takes to prevent it and he threw up.  He takes a medicine every 12 hours called Kytril that does a pretty good job of keeping him from throwing up, but the longer he's on the chemo, the more it builds in his system and then he needs something in addition to the Kytril.  He uses benadryl and phenergren for this and it works good and quickly.  The only downside is that it makes him really sleepy. Jacob is trying to keep his schedule "normal" this time as much as possible, but when ben-phen knocks him out to sleep for several hours during the day, it's harder to sleep at night.  So far, he's doing pretty good though at keeping his days and nights where they belong.

Saturday was also the last day of Busulfan and on Sunday he moved on to the stronger and high dose chemo, Cytoxin.  This one is a lot harder and we saw big changes pretty quick.  First off, he is much more nauseous and needs the ben-phen pretty much every four hours.  He also started retaining water right away and he's put on about 5 pounds in just a couple of days. Somehow this chemo makes the body hold on to water and it can actually damage his bladder. ugh! This is also one of the chemos that causes mouth sores and we saw those start by Sunday afternoon. By monday, we could almost just watch those sores grow in his mouth.  The best way I can describe what I'm seeing and what he seems to feel is to imagine drinking a cup full of boiling water and then swish it around in your mouth for a bit before you swallow it... then watch what happens to your mouth, gums, throat and even the gut. Remember though, he gets the chemo through IV in his central line, so it goes in to his blood stream.  The damage to his skin and mouth are coming from the inside out! This stuff is horrible...it's so hard to accept that all this is for his good, to make him better.

Reading a book written by a little boy (Superhero)  who had a brain tumor...

My little (well, not so little) champ is still eating though, despite all the sores in his mouth he is determined to eat all that he can get down while he still can just to try and stay off TPN for as long as possible. Monday, the Dr. installed a pain medicine pump to his IV pole. This seems to be helping a little by putting him in control of when he can have the medicine.  He gets a smaller "continuous" dose going all the time and he can push a button to get more when he needs it. 6 days seems so early to start all of this, he's never been this sick this quickly. It's hard realizing that he's going to need these pain medicines for so many more days this time than he ever has before.  I hate it! ...and yet I'm grateful that they have the resources and are doing everything possible to keep him comfortable through this process.   

Too bad he wasn't this bald on Easter, that head would have made a great easter egg! Haha... (sorry jacob, you know how I love your bald head <3 )