Saturday, June 13, 2009

6/13/09 Lord of the Teen Room

Posted Jun 13, 2009 4:41pm

Chase completed his chemotherapy last Sunday (6/6) and slowly but surely his energy level and appetite are coming back. Unfortunately, he has suffered a weight loss while his appetite took a hiatus. Just this past week he weighed in at 102lbs. He was 107.8 when we checked in. Thankfully, he is eating now. I don't have to twist his arm to get him to eat, so my mission between now and when his counts come back up is to put those 5 lbs BACK on his bones and hopefully a bit more.

The big news this week....

The TEEN Room opened! Woo-hoo! The day it opened, Chase was the only teen on the Aflac floor so he was given the honor of cutting the ribbon with these huge scissors. David got some pictures on his phone of the whole thing as did the Family Life people. Hopefully, we can get them posted soon. Lucky for him, since there haven't been many teens on the floor, he has had the room basically to himself. Every time a nurse comes in the room looking for him, he's been in the teen room, sometimes for several hours.

They did a great job with the room, too. They have a very nice Samsung flat panel TV on the wall. I think it's about 40". They have a PS3 and Xbox 360 attached to that, which Chase has been playing a lot since he refuses to bring his own Xbox 360 to the hospital. They have a Wii (on a different wall), a dart board, a computer, and a touch screen game system that has a bunch of different puzzle and strategy games in it. And finally, they have a revolving table that has 3 sides with Foosball, Pool, and Hockey - not air, but moving players. I personally LOVE Foosball, but Chase has now refused to play me since I beat him 5 straight games. I was going to "let the Wookie win", but kind of forgot. I even offered to play him one-handed, but he still won't go for it. Oh well. Maybe he'll forget soon enough and I'll get a second chance.

Camp Sunshine starts tomorrow (the 14th), but Chase will not be going. We're not happy about it, but since his counts are nearing bottom, it would be too dangerous for him to be exposed to so many other kids, even if he kept a mask on. Camp Sunshine does offer Fall retreats and other events that he will be able to take advantage of though in the future, and next summer he'll be able to go to camp. It's a bit of a disappointment, but they're supposed to be doing some activities here at the hospital for in-bound patients.

On a bright note, there are teenage volunteers, called Volunteens, working at the hospital this summer. Chase has a 17 yr old Volunteen named Patrick who has been by twice and who comes twice a week. It's great for him, because it gives him someone close to his age to hang out with and play chess and video games with as well. Chase is very interested in becoming a volunteen himself next summer. I think that would be great for him, as well as for other patients, since he's been here as a patient. We'll definitely look into that.

That's about all for this week. It's all a waiting game right now for his counts to crash. I guess it's a good thing, but kind of annoying that his bone marrow has been described as "stubborn and strong" because it's taking its time to crash. He's been in the hospital for 12 days and we estimate that he'll be in here for another 10 to 12 days before he can get a break. So, until that time...we wait.

I hope that everyone is enjoying their summer! God Bless and thank you for continuing to keep Chase in your thoughts and prayers.

The O'Bannon Family

Saturday, June 6, 2009

6/06/09 Chemo Stinks!

Posted Jun 6, 2009 2:14pm

Chase had 11 great days at home this time between his chemo rounds, which was longer than the 1st time he was able to come home. We had a great time, too. There have been quite a few movies that have been released while he was in the hospital, and we were able to go see both Star Trek and Terminator Salvation. Chase highly recommends both by the way if you haven't already seen them. He also wanted to see Wolverine and Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian, but those will have to wait for DVD most likely. William and I ended up seeing Night at the Museum though on our own after Chase went back into the hospital and it was good as well.

Chase and William also had their friend, Robby, spend the night. We took all three boys up to Stone Mountain for an evening of fun at the Sky Hike, which is a three-level ropes course. You're tethered the entire time with a hook that is inside a track above your head to hold you up in case you loose your footing. I did the first level with the boys as did David, and before the end of that first level, I was almost minus one child when William decides to shake the rope I was walking on. He said it was more fun that way...I disagreed.

David called it quits after the first level, which is 12 feet off the ground, especially when the boys decided to go up to the third level, which is 40 ft off the ground!! I was determined to at least do one more level, so I headed off with them. Not so sure that I'll do that again though. It wasn't that bad until you hit the last set of ropes that are nothing more than swinging U-shaped ropes. You're tethered, but it still is scary.

The next night, Chase and William were able to go to Boys Scouts and also took Robby with them. I was really happy for him that he was able to go. Aside from attending the Court of Honor, that was the first Boy Scout meeting that he's been able to attend since late March.

But all good things must come to an end, and Chase was readmitted to the hospital on June 2 for his 3rd round of chemo. Before he came up to the Aflac floor, he entered through the clinic where they did another bone marrow aspiration (sampling), spinal tap, and infusion of chemo into his spinal fluid. He went through it without any problems! We won't get the analysis results for probably two weeks, but preliminary exams of his blood by his doctor showed no signs of leukemia cells in his blood - hooray! Hopefully, when the result come back they will show that the Philadelphia chromosome is either still barely detectable or no signs of it at all.

Before they could perform either test, Chase had to be sedated. He likes to try and fight the sedation though, and this time was no different. He's hilarious, too. He was sitting up as it was being administered saying, "Never." As in he was never going to sleep and then shaking his head to try and clear it from the fog of the sedation. Finally, his eyes rolled and he fell back on the pillow. That was our cue to exit until the procedure was over.

Good new though....we are back on the "big room" wing of the floor! No longer packed like sardines. This room isn't as large as the great big room we ended up in the first month, but considerably larger than the one we had last month. Chase even went to go check it out and saw that it was empty and wanted it back, mainly because he could see into the play room easily to see who was in there. However, having the larger room means that it is easier for William to come spend the night. Not to mention that the couch/bed I have to use is FAR more comfortable as well.

So, we're now settled in our home for the next month. Chase was fussing at first about the nurses. "Robert left me," he said, because Robert had to spend some time on the BMT (Bone Marrow Transplant) wing as did Rebecca. He was getting all new nurses at first and, "None of them are any fun." Eventually though he has gotten Rebecca, Robert, and Marlene back so he's much happier. It's funny how we get attached to certain nurses, but I feel like they make a real different in him. They know Chase, his personality, and they really take time to talk to him.

Now onto the reason why I entitled this update "Chemo Stinks!". We were warned that the 2nd round of chemo would be the easiest, and it was. Chase had little no problems with it, had plenty of energy, was barely sick, and had no fevers. This round is shorter by 3 days and only has 2 chemos administered, but the concentration of chemo is much stronger and he is feeling it unfortunately. He has been battling low-grade recurring fevers (less than 101 F) daily and extreme fatigue. Although he checked into the hospital weighing 107, he's now down to 104.7 because he has had very little appetite. On Wednesday night, he was very sick all of a sudden and threw up along with a higher fever. He's had small bouts of nausea, but hasn't thrown up again thankfully. Also, his fever hasn't hit a high enough level that going back on the "pole" for 3 days for fluids and antibiotics were necessary.

Right now, I am battling him to eat and drink. He's going back on the pole tonight for fluids unless he consumes enough on his own. Robert has been threatening him with that since last night. He was also fussing about Chase sleeping too much and said that he was going to give him a wake up call this morning, which he did. Granted I had already gotten him up, but barely. Robert has learned that Chase likes to hear stories and he's promised to tell Chase about a pretty back wreck that he was in, but first Chase has to drink a significant amount and walk out to the nurse's station.

Chase's chemo should be done by Sunday, and then it's a matter of waiting. We're just hoping that his counts will rebound quickly enough for him to go to Camp Sunshine. Right now the schedule doesn't looks too promising for that as the camp starts on the 14th, but we're going to pray that it will work out for him.

Thank you for continuing to keep Chase in your thoughts and prayers. It means a great deal to all of us and we're extremely fortunate to have such a wonderful network of family and friends to support his treatment and recovery.

God Bless and please enjoy your summer weather!!

The O'Bannon Family