Chase had a day of ups and downs today, but it MOST definitely was on a very positive upswing by the time I arrived at the hospital tonight (around 8:30 pm).
Dad (David) had duty last night, which according to him was fairly peaceful. Chase had a small nosebleed during the night. He's always been prone to them, so it wasn't anything alarming. He slept through the night without any other issues thankfully.
This morning, after receiving his Cytarabine, an IV injection every 12 hrs, Chase became ill. I hated to hear that he had been sick, but on a positive note, this is only the fourth time he's gotten sick in his six days of chemo. I'm no expert (are any of us?), but that's seems to be pretty good stats if you ask me. Anyway, he was given some extra nausea medication and slept some more until early this afternoon. He also had another blood transfusions today. Once done and recovered, that's when the "fun" time began.
Chase started his physical therapy!! Woo-hoo!! With the help of two physical therapists, Chase walked down the hall and down to the game room where he played Pac Man, Galaga, and Donkey Kong on those big arcade type units (Saint, you may have to come check out their collection). As Chase put it, he played those "really old" games. Old?? Heck, I remember when Pac Man came out for the Atari home system - but I digress. He had a great time and Dad took some pictures of his first walk and game play, which I'll post once we get them off his phone.
Chase also walked around the nurse's station and took a ride in a wheelchair, too - "Dad-powered". Oh, and I forgot to mention that David battled Chase in chess last night and LOST. My own defeat can't be far around the corner.
Let's see what else went on....OH! He moved! Chase's new casa is much bigger than before, which is great. We were pretty much bumping into everything as we moved around. Considering we're going to be here for several more weeks, this new room is a HUGE improvement. So, if you had the room number before or the phone, both have changed. We're still on the same floor, but down what used to be the old bone marrow transplant wing (operating rooms I think that have been renovated into patient rooms). They try to reserve these for AML patients and they have a special HEPA air filtration system, too. When Chase leaves this hall, he's supposed to wear a mask now.
Anything else? Well, I came into the room tonight with my Chic-fil-A dinner that I had yet to eat. He took my sandwich out of the bag and at a 1/4 of it - the turkey! Good thing I had already eaten the fries on the way here and wasn't starving. Just kidding. :) I was thrilled to have him try and scarf my food. He has also "oohed" at a few food and restaurant commercials. Encouraging stuff indeed!! He ate a bit of cafeteria oatmeal tonight before I got here and it absolutely received the thumbs DOWN. Sorry CHOA Cafeteria, but you've got nothin' on Nonna's Irish oatmeal.
Oh, and he received some books from teachers at the Barrow PLC!! What a great gift and much appreciated. I may have to read a couple of those myself.
Chase says, "Thank you for all of the books! They look really good."
He's used to having some SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) time at home, something we're going to pick back up here now that he's feeling more like himself.
One last thing for tonight, CHOA has a program called "Beads of Courage: Bead Journey - Every bead tells a story...track your cancer or blood condition treatment." This is really cool!! Chase received a strand last night with beads on it that spell his name. Then I was given a little booklet with all kinds of procedures listed in it and a corresponding bead for each one. So, now I have to try and go back and recall (thanks to carepages, I hope that will be easier) all of the things he's had done to him and/or gone through because he gets a bead for EACH occurrence. Once we get it started, we'll get a picture put up. I think it's a wonderfully symbolic way to track his journey and to see at the end just how much he faced and conquered.
That's all for tonight! I'm being summoned to a chess game. I hope everyone takes care and has a great evening (or day depending on when you read this update). Thank you for your continued prayers and support!
God Bless!
The O'Bannon Family
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