June 8 update

First, I want to apologize for leaving everyone on a cliff-hanger last time. At the most recent chemo visit, the doctor had some great news for us. She had consulted with the lymphoma board and they all agreed that he was doing so well that he could skip both the radiation and the extra chemo. That means we are now halfway through the treatment, and (barring unfavorable blood tests that results in waiting an extra week) he will be all done with chemo before school starts in the fall.

This last time, lab results were borderline. They said the numbers were strong enough to continue the cycle he was on, but if he was starting a new cycle, they would have waited another week so his body could strengthen up some more. They said his bone marrow is getting tired. I’m not surprised, it has been working overtime for three months now. I’m trying to feed him more bone broth to support his marrow. Chicken noodle soup seems to be a lunchtime winner.

We seem to have gotten a handle on his nausea. It seems to be entirely related to the administration of the chemo, rather than the presence of the chemo in his body. A large part is from anxiety, but a significant part is also from flushing his line. Every time they administer a drug through his port, they have to do a blood draw (to make sure the line is clear and flowing properly) and then flush the line with saline. He can taste the flushing. The saline creates an unpleasant taste in his mouth, and then his focusing on it escalates it to nausea. So we start with skipping breakfast, then taking an anti-anxiety pill (Ativan/lorazepam) on the way to the hospital, along with an anti-nausea pill (Zofran/ondansetron). Once we are there, we get him distracted with his Chromebook and he watches YouTube videos of people playing Roblox (his favorite game platform). With the videos distracting him from the taste in his mouth, he only has to spit to get rid of the unpleasant flavor.

So here we stand at the halfway mark. Once his chemo is done, they said that they will continue to see him every three months to monitor his progress for a year, then every six months after that.