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.

Latest news

Remington has had a pretty good week all things considered. He went in to the hospital on Tuesday for a blood transfusion because his levels were so low. While we were there, Remi started to get a low grade fever. He had to spend the night in the hospital getting IV antibiotics and fluids. The hospital let him come home on Wednesday. He was able to go to the Reid School and see his little sister perform in the school talent show. Samara was very excited that her big brother could come watch her dance. She was so cute at the show! Remi's counts are still low but, he is doing very well right now. He has a few sores in his mouth and is pretty tired during the day. He is keeping his chin up though. His feeding tube has been removed so it is very important that he eats every day. That is his battle right now, eat even if it doesn't feel good or taste good. The doctor will put the feeding tube back in if he doesn't keep his weight up. He knows it is sink or swim now. We'll update every one when the next event occurs. God bless you all.

Remi's next treatment

Remington now has his port-a-cath and is getting his medicine through that. He no longer has the central line in his right bicep. The home health nurse came by this morning and took a blood sample for his labs. He is now at his lowest point. His white blood cell count is now zero. He will be going into the hospital in the morning for a blood transfusion to help get his counts back up quicker. He was pretty nervous about getting his port-a-cath accessed this morning but, they put some numbing cream on the access site and he didn't feel a thing when the needle went in. He was still pretty upset when he saw the access needle though. He has not had any mouth sores or major nausea yet. We are hoping it will stay that way! Remington will now have about 2 weeks to recover before he is scheduled to start the next round of chemo. Remington says to tell all of you thank you for your thoughts and prayers over the past few months. He also says thanks to all his friends at Reid school for the cool artwork and notes. He is hoping to be able to come to the talent show on Thursday and see everyone perform.

The next round

Remington has made it into the hospital today. He now has a porta-cath on his chest under the skin. He was not very happy when he woke up from surgery. The doctor is waiting on Remington's blood chemistry to make sure everything is ok before they start the next round of chemo therapy. If everything is safe he will start this afternoon with his first dose. This round will last for 48 hours. Remington says to tell everyone hello and thank you.