Tumor Reduction & The Plan

Remington had a X ray of his chest performed with this round of chemotherapy. The tumor has shrunk another 50%. The tumor now covers 5 ribs instead of 8 ribs. Hey! The doctors have told us after the next round of chemotherapy he will have a CT scan. The doctors will be able to use the CT scan to measure the size of the tumor. Remington case then will be discussed will the members of the Tumor Board and a surgery date should be given. The doctors have lowered the medication dosage with his last chemotherapy round in hopes that we can start his next chemotherapy on March 30th the day before his 10th birthday.
We want to thank all of Reid School for the celebrating Remington birthday and Olive Garden for donating the food. Reid school raised $705.00 to pay for his treatments. Remington loved seeing all of the students wearing their clothing on backwards to help celebrate his birthday. We can't thank you all enough for the support it gives us. We have the courage, the confidence and a can do attitude to see this all the way.
We love you lots,
The Jackson Family

Waiting for the next round

Labs were drawn earlier this week and Remington's platelets are still down around 31. To start the next round of chemo therapy he needs to be at 75. His home health nurse will be coming by tomorrow morning to draw another set of labs. If his numbers are up high enough, Remi will start on Monday morning. That is the hope right now. If he is delayed too much longer, Remington will not be able to go to his own birthday party. We are planning on having it at Bouncing off the walls. Unfortunately, he will be at the bottom of his cycle on his birthday if he goes past next Wednesday before he starts. He could go, but he would have to wear a mask and could not play on the slides with his friends. That would really suck! well, let's keep our fingers crossed.........

Remi's first trip

We have made some progress with getting Remington and the family back on something closer to a "normal" life. We took a road trip down to Sedona Arizona to see Remington and Samara's Great-Grandmother for her 93rd birthday. Remi had labs drawn Thursday morning and we hit the road soon after that. We received a call from Primary Children's that afternoon when we were in sothern Utah right around Panguich. his platelets were very low and they wanted us to come in and get a transfusion. Obviously we could not go to Primary, so they scheduled the transfusion with the hospital in St. George. The family then diverted across the bottom of Utah over to St. George and found the hospital. They were waiting for us and completed his transfusion in about an hour and a half! Thank you James! We then continued our trip to Sedona, spending the night in Paige Arizona. The kids had a wonderful time in Sedona seeing their Great-Grandmother. She loved seeing us as well. The trip back to Salt Lake City was pretty uneventful and long. On the way we say the Grand Canyon as well as some old indian dwellings. Remington and Sam really liked that. Now it is back to the treatment routine and lab work. Remi is not too thrilled about that, but what can you do?

Good treatment this week

Remington has completed his 5 day course of chemo therapy. He had no reactions or problems! This has been one of the best treatments so far... His only complaint is that he is getting tired pretty quickly. This will take some time for him to get used to, he has always been a high energy kid. The home health nurse will be by this week to start taking blood samples for the lab. We will then know how he is doing with his counts. My personal opinion based on the way he is acting is that he will be going into the infusion lab for whole blood to replace his red blood cells soon. That is why he gets tired so quickly. We will have to see. Our hope is that he will be feeling good enough for a trip down to Sedona Arizona to visit his great Grandmother. Her birthday is this weekend and she will be 94 years old. Remington also wants to go see the Grand Canyon if we can. Since we will be driving past it on our way to Sedona, we will probably make a quick detour and go see the South rim. Remington is pretty excited about that. I will update the blog again as soon as something changes. ( hopefully for the better)

Treatment status so far

Remington was able to come home Tuesday afternoon from the hospital. He had no major problems while under observation up in ICS on the 4th floor. He was very happy and so were we!
Yesterday he went to the infusion lab for his treatment. It took almost 3 hours but, once again there were no problems. he will be going back to the lab today and Friday for his last two treatments for this course. The doctor says he wants to give Remi 1 or 2 more treatments before he starts taking chest x-rays to measure the tumor. Either way, progress is being made! So far the only symptom Remington is experiencing is his energy level is very low and he gets tired very quickly. I can live with that! There will be another posting when something happens or next week some time. Thank you for everything.

Round #5

Today is the 16th and Remington has been admitted to the hospital for observation. They have changed the dose of Cytoxin that he is getting. (He is now getting a full strength dose.) The doctors want to keep him under observation for the next 24 hours to make sure Remington does not have any bad reactions to the new medication levels. So far he has had a great day. (At least as much as he can considering the fact that he is stuck in the hospital until tomorrow afternoon at least.) We are hoping that it stays that way. I will update the blog tomorrow afternoon to let everyone know how things pan out. Thank you for the support you have all shown us during this little adventure.

p.s.
remington wanted to give you a quick run down on the side effects that he has been experiencing.
1. he is dizzy
2. his eyes are dialated ( bright light hurts him)
3. his stomach is a little queasy
4. and he has a pretty good headache.
(not too bad considering they are pumping toxic chemicals into his body)

Remington's status

Hello everyone, Remington is recovering very well from his last round of chemo. His white blood counts are above 3000 and his ANC is above the minimums as well. The only thing holding him back from starting is his platelet count. Remington has to be above 75 before they will start. (he is at 28 right now) Remi will have labs drawn on Sunday morning to find out how far he has improved. This next round will be the 5 day course. He would normally get this in the outpatient labs and not have to be admitted but, they are going to increase the strength of the chemotherapy dose this time and are going to want to watch him closely for the first couple of days. After this round the doctors will be taking an x-ray of his chest to see just how much the tumor has shrunk and if it is time to remove it. I am sure they are going to want to shrink it as much as possible before surgery. Remington is getting used to his Port-a-cath now and doesn't get nearly so upset when we have to access or de-access it now. It is so much easier than flushing his central line twice a day and having to keep it clean and dry all the time. Two days ago Remington lost two of his molars on the left side in the same day. He has brand new teeth showing thru his gums already. He is growing up fast, even with the toxins being used to kill the tumor. We will post pictures soon.