Chemo day - september 25 2008

Thursday is chemo day, at least for the next 5 weeks or so. No food, no drink, as Charlie has to be put under a general for the intrathecal(read spinal) chemo and also have chemo through the port. The port was installed during the surgery the first week. They had to cut a flap of skin to imbed the portal to a substantial vein. They do this because the meds are so toxic they can degrade the circulatory system. (arteries and veins) Charlie gets a little freaked out seeing that big needle going for his chest, but pushes through. First things first, they do a blood draw, and find the platelet count is up to 368. Platelets are the things in blood that allow you clot, or stop bleeding when you cut yourself. Anything under 500 is considered low, thrombocytopenia to you in the know. This took from 10am to 12:30 and required another 1 1/2 hours of rest to make sure everything went well. That was the short day, next week will be more involved as they have to do a bone marrow aspiration again to check for defective blood cells.

Charlie laid with Matt while he read books and watched some cartoons. He had a little juice and crackers but was unable to hold himself up because of all the drugs in his system. Equilibrium was a bit uncooperative as Charlie tried to sit himself up, only to fall forward time and again. He was most pleased to recieve a stuffeed kitty and a lightning mcqueen matchbox car. He was sleeping fitfully and throwing up is becoming all too routine for him.