thirsty?

Home from the Hospital for just a day before Kevin checked back into room 836 at GMC (just as we left it, but someone stole the remote) Kev had one crazy night and even a crazier day. The afore mentioned Neupogen shot was scheduled for sometime between 12 - 4 today, but we just narrowly beat the clock. Kev, being neutropenic, was very week. His throat is soar, which makes swallowing very hard so he was not drinking as much as he was supposed to. This, combined with other uncontrolable factors, left Kev dehydrated and ready for check in.

His vitals are still o.k., plasma and whites are a bit low, but not uncommon. Kevin is going through a very rough stint in this first cycle of treatment. He took a 36 hour drip of Methotrexate, a very strong chemo, but he continually impresses doctors, family, and friends of his strength throughout this stage of treatment.

On a different note... Dad flew out tonite from Philly via Scranton to pick up kevs car and other things. He should be in Apopka around noon -ish tomorrow for anyone interested in grabbing some lunch with him. I would give out his number, but once we put his cell number on a golf ball with "if found please call" on it and some drunk called at an unreasonable hour.. so we don't do that anymore.

homer

Today was the day to remove all the tubes, needles, and butt gowns to break out. If you wanna try and "feel Kevs pain" put a peice of duct tape on a particular hairy part of your body, leave it on four for days, then have someone else take it off!

Kev rolled home with Ma, it was a tough morning and long day. He arrived home with a stack of prescriptions and pages of directions. The plan is to keep him home and sterile. He does have to go into the Hospital once a day til Monday to get a Neupogen shot. This shot contradicts the last post that mentioned he would not be receiving any shots to boost his white blood cells. Not quite certain what changed, but it is defenitly good news!



Although he has lost his appettite he still gets cravings. Tonite for dinner he wanted pizza & wings from Bob's Subs ( sharon is to blame for the fact we got pizza from a sub shop, East End is better, but obviously not as good as the pizza from that weird little town in London!) Bare in mind, when you see pictures of Kevin on the site in the future and he looks like he is losing weight, that may not be the case. Due to his loss of appetite but eccentric cravings it may be we the family are just getting fatter!!

treatment

It was a rough night, but we made it through. Perhaps Kev even got some sleep. Lots of questions were asked and answered so Kevin could "have some sort of plan". It was determined by a new doctor (who looks like the chubby fella in that old 'laurel and hardy' comedy show) that we had to stay one more night in the Hospital before a weekend home.

Although Kev is Neutropenic, he cannot receive the plasma booster shots that would lessen his time in neutropenia because his chemo schedule is so intense and overlaps. We also learned today that there will be at least one whole week of chemotherapy the the spine. This will be further determined after a spinal tap, but there are concerns about a numb spot on his face.

Kev is loosing some weight and now even loosing his appetite... but he's still looking good.

boned!

We recently learned the cancer is in the bone marrow. This information phased no one on the staff and actually expected. With Burkitt's Lymphoma it is quite commen to see cancer cells in the marrow. Treatment will continue as is for now through the first cycle.

Kev is currently enthralled in a 36 hour chemo drip which ends tomorrow around 4pm. His status/vitals will be re-evaluated after the final bag-o-treatment to determine if he can spend the weekend at home.

back in...

Kevin is back on the 8th floor (geisinger medical center) to continue the chemotherapy. We came on Saturday for a quick poke, but the port that was placed in his chest to "facilitate" the chemo treatment is a little bugger. Albeit, taking a few tries before it's done right seems to be par for the course lately, someone jabbing a needle into an unseen target in your chest can be a bit unsettling. Saturday's target practice was short with only two pokes and two squeezes (one for sharon, another for lauren). Today was a hatrick, three pokes and three squeezes (mom took all three)!

Kevins blood results came back Neutropenic (look it up) so he is a little weak. Hopefully he will be up to posting in the near future. If not we'll keep ya posted.