Crazy Week

This week has been crazy and horrible and ends bitterly happy. Monday the 14^th of Jan my homebound teacher came and I started school again, she is cool and I am really excited to work with her and best of all I get to stay on schedule with my peers and can rejoin them my senior year and graduate on time.

On Tuesday, the 15 of January I had my initial appointment with the Radiation Doctor and his team, he is a nice person who answered all my concerns. I must admit that Radiation scares me but I will have to deal with that when the time comes (about 11 months from now) unless my cancer doesn’t respond well to the chemo then it may be sooner. I also had to have a Brain and Spine MRI with contrast to measure the progress of the two cancer spots in my brain and the large area on my spine. They did this to see if the tumors are growing or responding to the chemo.

Wednesday the 16^th was when I had to have a bone marrow biopsy to check if the cancer had entered bone marrow, if that happens then I need a bone marrow transplant (you can Google it) also, it would decrease the chance that I would survive by 15%. The doctors told us that MRI results look great; the spots in my head and on my spine seem to be responding well to the chemo, great news! Although these areas are still there, they are not growing. Then on Wednesday (16^th of Jan) after I woke up from the bone marrow sedation, I was admitted to San Antonio Military Medical Center (AKA - prison where torture is legal) - when I say torture I mean chemotherapy and its side effects. The first torture was my knees; sever pain, the worst in my life, it felt like someone was taking a blender to the inside of my knees. It was to the point where I couldn’t walk without help, even with morphine. Then they started the 48 hour chemotherapy treatment consisting of Ara-C which was given over 3 hours and then 6 hours off and then chemo for 3 hours and 6 hours off…this cycle continued until Friday the 18^th of Jan. Of course it couldn’t be that simple, I ran a temperature ranging from 99.7 to 100.7 which caused alarm and the doctors decided to give me a round of IV antibiotics. I was very sick at my stomach and ache everywhere. My heart rate would jump from 98 beats to 214 which scared my dad and the doctors, it got better by itself so we think it was a result of the chemo or an equipment failure. My ache in my knees was still really bad so the doctor ordered X-Rays, he was looking for something called A-Vascular Necrosis (AVN) which is what they think I might be developing. It is something that happens from years of chemo and massive amounts of steroids. This is not a good thing, it is also called dead bone disease. There is no cure, they treat it with hyperbaric chamber and try to make you as comfortable as possible through pain control. I hope this isn’t what I get, for now I am just in a lot of pain.

Saturday the 19^th of Jan, it’s finally time to be paroled until Tuesday the 22^nd when I go back for blood counts. They expect my immune system to bottom out soon due to this intense chemo I just received. They say I will probably need blood transfusion and platelets to protect me from bleeding out. They are going to allow my parents to give me a shot at home, can you believe that? At the end of this round of chemo they give me a shot to help boost my immune system, the shot cannot be given for 12 hours after the last chemo. So if we choose we can be paroled (discharged) and give the shot at home. I choose parole!! So they teach my mom and dad how to do the shot and ask “okay, who want to do it”? I thought my mom was going to but my dad jump up and said he would do it. He cleaned my arm and pinched the area just like they showed but then he stabbed me the shot like it was a dart or something. I must admit knowing I can go home a day early is worth it, I am going to buy him a dart board for the practice. Finally we get home Saturday the 19^th and have to take my sister Sarah to the Airport, I will miss her and she really helped us when she was here, thank you Sarah!