News from the doctors

After weeks of waiting, we have finally heard from the tumor board about what the next step is in Remington's treatment...... it's wait. The doctor's want us to have Remi go thru two more treatments and then they will take another picture of his tumor to check the size. They have determined that the tumor has shrunk by 80% so far. Remi is a victim of his own success. Because it has been reduced so much they want to see how much more they can shrink the tumor before he goes into surgery. If he stays on schedule, that means the first part of July will be his surgery date. At this time they are going to remove his third rib for sure, the ribs next to it will have to wait and see what they find when they get inside.
Remington's counts are up, that means today is the start of the next round of chemo therapy. This will be the 5 day course of treatment. If there is no side effects, Remi will go home tomorrow afternoon some time. He will then come in to the clinic for daily treatments for the rest of the week. We will try to be more proactive in keeping the blog up to date. Take care.

CT and Bone Scan

Remington's blood counts came up quickly and hence he was in the hospital during his 10th birthday. He has now completed his sixth chemotherapy treatment. He is definitely a Jackson and becomes a bit ornery when he does not eat and his blood sugars are low.

On April 8, 2009, Remington had a CT scan and a Bone Scan to measure the progression of the tumor. The CT scan demonstrated that Remington's tumor now measures 4 inches by 2 inches. The Bone Scan revealed there was decrease in the intensity in the 4th, 8th, and 9th lateral left ribs. ( less likely they are going to have to take his ribs). Now, we wait for the physicians to discuss when Remington will undergo surgery. The physicians will discuss Remington's case in the next couple of weeks.

Remington's spirits are high and he has a great attitude. Thanks for all the support.

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.