Yo! Another visit today. For the fourth week in a row, they knocked him out, because momma said knock him out. After four straight weeks, he’s about had it with being cold cocked so they can stick needles in his spine. He’s ready for something else.
Which is good, because he’s moving on to something else! Well, technically he has six more days of Consolidation, but no more treatments. So, today is Day 49 of treatment, day 21 of Consolidation, but it’s getting as confusing as the Mayan calendar to keep track of.
Next week is a week off. I don’t know what we will do with such freedom, but it probably will involve sitting around and also eating food. Maybe get the mail. Text some people. Make meat helmets. Luge lessons. And what was I saying?
Oh, yes, so on to Interim Maintenance, which sounds like something I need to do with my chest hair every so often. Next treatment is two weeks from today, and then Interim Maintenance lasts two months. Treatments will be 10 days apart in this phase, and all of the treatments are count dependent. So he will get labs taken at home the day before each treatment and they’ll make sure his body has recovered enough from the previous treatment to get injected with more Spidey serum or whatever the heck they call it.
They expect his counts to be pretty good with the treatment schedule he’s on and how he’s responding. He should also be pretty good energy wise and immune wise and also smartass wise (sorry Wendy). He’s also looking forward to not only flirting with the nurses on treatment days, but also with home health nurses when they come to draw labs. We don’t have the heart to tell him everybody is getting paid to be nice to him.
So, today Wendy took some video of the Treatment Day Experience, which is, at some point, probably going to be the name of an exhibit at a casino in Las Vegas. It’s so hard to know what to share, and what not to. We don’t want to make anybody sad, or hork your groove at all. But we also want to share this experience as much as we can, because then it’s less scary, more understood. But if you don’t wanna watch the video, don’t. You’re still our friend, as long as you keep giving us presents at Christmas. There’s nothing crazy or graphic at all, it’s just a day at the hospital.
We did take out a couple of parts where he’s most sad. Nothing crazy, it’s just hard days up there. He’s amazing and resilient and worth it to the max. Also, he accidentally put on Bella’s pig kicking shirt today, so there’s some cleavage here.
The care he gets at PCMC is remarkable. Every single person up there deserves a kiss on the face, yea, even on the mouth part of the face. And your love and support and unwavering and seemingly boundless kindness continues to lift us up far beyond what we deserve or could possibly expect.
Every day is an eternity, and one day closer to the start of a new chapter.
Up yours, Leukemia!