First week off Radiation

On Monday, I took John to the hospital and a friend took two of my kids to the doctor.  John was admitted to the hospital for possible pneumonia.  Carson had pink eye and Thomas had an ear infection.  John's doctors were unable to find the source of his infection but he definitely had one this time.  By Tuesday afternoon John was looking a lot better and on Wednesday he felt a lot better.  Thursday he was able to come home.  On Thursday I took Daniel to the doctor and he had both an ear infection and pink eye.

John sure confused the doctors during his hospital stay.  His ANC count only drops if he has had chemo.  He has not had chemo for 3 or 4 weeks.  On Monday his ANC was 4600 and on Wednesday it was only 700.  No one had a guess as to why his blood would do that.  So he actually stayed an extra day just so they could watch what his blood was going to do.  It stayed the same, so the doctors decided it probably wasn't going to drop any more, so they let him come home.  The lowest his blood count can be in order to leave the hospital is 500.

Some good news- John was able to eat his first solid meal today in over a month. With radiation to his head and neck, it has been too painful for him to drink even water (he's been on IV fluids to stay hydrated). He's lost over 50 pounds since the diagnosis and 20 pounds in March alone. Nothing he ate tasted normal but at least he is able to eat again and get the nutrition he needs to help his body heal a little faster.

We  will meet next week with Dr. Wright to decide when to start the next round of chemo.  I keep saying that we are about to do our last long week of chemo.  Now March is almost over and we still haven't gotten over this mile-marker.  Hopefully John's body will recover quickly so he can finally get over this last long one.