We all LOVED being home together! From walks to the park, pumpkin carving, early trick or treating in our neighborhood, couch snuggles, and everything in between.
We readmitted yesterday for our FINAL round of Elliott’s high dose chemo with stem cell rescue! All four of us felt the weight of coming into this again, because it’s so hard on each of us, but also came into it with some big excitement about being DONE!
The day was much rougher than we expected. The catheter placement took three separate attempts and Elliott just kept crying “please stop nurses!” A second dose of verced (a mild sedative frequently used in preop) and some numbing cream and they finally got it placed. However, due to the delay in the catheter placement…the chemo they had ready expired so we had to wait for pharmacy to remake it. They finally got it sent back up and started around 10:40pm and we did our first bath and central line cleaning at 3:15am. These will now continue into late Thursday night/early Friday morning, every 6 hours.
As far as what comes next after treatment - we have been getting that vision in pieces. We know he will have weekly therapies (PT, OT & speech) and will have a scan done sometime after this treatment cycle and then every 3 months. We have been looking forward to this next chapter with so much excitement of being DONE & have started talking with him about getting to ring the bell too! 🔔
With the excitement of being done so close, I spoke with Dr Meeker about the timing of his central line removal. It’s sounding like they want to leave it in until after his first 3 month follow up scan. The reasoning being that there very likely could be progression of the cancer and if so, they would use the central line to sedate him for radiation treatment. We have always known that his current treatment plan was to "prevent or delay" radiation. We just didn't realize that was still a possibility with having his last set of scans show NED (no evidence of disease). We will continue to hope & pray that this treatment we have done allows him to stay in remission, but are feeling some heaviness about knowing we may not truly be "done."
Please continue to pray with us for this current hospital stay, and that Elliott is able to walk out and be in remission and STAY in remission. Pray for Tate and I as we navigate the fear of progression/relapse after believing we were at the finish line. Pray for Amelia to be reminded that she is still so important to us through everything. We have seen miracles already, and we know God’s not done yet.
