1 more hour left!!!

Jack did pretty good last night with sleeping.  He tossed and turned a lot and we ended up getting a new rommate around 4 AM so that always wakes us up a bit.  We got up around 6:45 this morning thinking we would give Jack his shot at 7, but the pharmacy was behind so we didn’t end up giving his shot until 8 which meant we didn’t start the 10 hour infusion of antibody until after 9 AM.  He did really well today.  He didn’t have any pain and it wasn’t until 6 hours in that he started to get a fever.  We were able to go to the playroom and say goodbye to a few our friends here.  It is really strange saying bye to them…

Jack fell asleep about 2 hours ago and he is starting to get a fever again, but they are still giving him the ok to go home.  Dr Eshun came in to visit and he thinks that Jack has done so very well and is so happy for him.  He really is a wonderful Dr and we feel very lucky that he was the one to take over Jack’s care from the beginning.  He really believes in Jack and really cares for him so very much and that is always a huge comfort in a Dr.

We should be leaving here in about a hour and a half after Jack gets unhooked.  We are so looking forward to going home and sleeping in our own bed.  We can’t wait to see Braden either!!  Jack has missed him so mu

Day 3 of antibody is done!!  1 more day to go!!!  Jack did well last night but he did end up with a low fever which we had to wake him to give him Tylenol but other than that he slept like a rock.  He got up early this AM because we had to give him his shot at 8:00 so we could start treatment at 9.  He did good and didn’t really complain at all about it.  We had my friend Melissa pay us a visit which was great.  She brought him Mario Bros socks and he was so very happy about that!  He put them on right away and then proceeded to put them on all of his Mario guys.

He started feeling a little cruddy around hour 5 and got a fever but after some Tylenol and Motrin he perked right up and he was back in play mode.  He played tons with our nurse Katie today.  We got a new roommate but due to some issues (non medical) they had, they are now gone and we have our own room again.  Jack and I went to the playroom this afternoon and he had a great time in there even though he was pretty much the only child in there!  After making our way back to the room, Zac came to bring dinner and visit for a bit.  Katie’s shift was over so we had to say our “good-byes” because she won’t be here tomorrow when we leave.  I got a little teary eyed saying bye to her…it’s hard when she has taken such good care of Jack so many times and now we won’t see her.

Jack is now fully unhooked again and sleeping.  Dr Wood told us that we are going home tomorrow night as long as all goes as well as today did so keep your fingers crossed that we will be home this time tomorrow night!  We are doing Jack’s shot a little earlier tomorrow so we should be done with the antibody by 6:30 PM and on our way home a hour later.

I ran into one our favorite Dr’s today and she was telling me how proud she was of Jack and just how well he has done.  I, of course, started crying and she was telling me how she heard another Dr talk about coming to the end of treatment and what a good way to approach it was.  She said that when you first are diagnosed you are constantly nervous about every little thing that is going on in that moment.  When you are done with treatment, you are constantly worried about what lies ahead.  Soon you will be nervous and worried about how much time you are away from the hospital and then it starts changing to only being nervous right before a scan.  After that your thoughts start changing and when your child complains about a hurt leg your first thought is, “What did you hit it on, what were you playing, what happened?” instead of having the worry of cancer.  She said it is very gradual and totally normal to be freaking out like I am.  I so look forward to that time when Jack complains of something and we don’t jump at the phone to call Dr Eshun.

Here are a few pics from the last few days:

Jack with Uncle Scott

Jack and Aunt Nikki and his huge Luigi:

Jack and me:

Jack and his Mario Guys and his little puffy face:

Jack and Katie playing:

Day 2 of antibody treatment is over!  Jack is asleep now and the nurse is in the process of unhooking him completely for the night.  They figure that since he doesn’t really need any meds through the night, they will unhook him until he needs to be hooked back up in the morning to start day 3 of antibody treatment.  Jack will be able to move around while he sleeps more and hopefully have a little bit of time to run around in the morning before they hook him back up again.

Jack did ok as far as today goes. Nikki came to visit us while our friend, Angie, stayed with Braden.  Jack had a good time when she was here and kept her busy playing with him.  We got him to make a few laps around the floor just to get his legs some exercise since he didn’t get out of bed much at all.  After she left, he started to spike a fever and his belly pain came back again.  He wasn’t feeling too well at all and he said he felt a little dizzy…we are guessing it is from all the pain meds that he is on while the antibody is running.  He ended up falling asleep and took a good nap and woke up pretty refreshed.  Zac came and brought us dinner and hung out with Jack while I took a quick shower.  He didn’t eat much of a dinner, but he did well.  He doesn’t have a fever now so hopefully it will stay away for the night.  We are still roomate free so that also makes a difference when you are trying to be comfortable in the small hopsital rooms.  Oh how I hope we don’t get a roommate in the middle of the night!

We plan on starting treatment at 8 tomorrow morning so we will be able to end early tomorrow night and then that may be our last night here!  CRAZY!!

Here is the link to Jack’s news story:

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/health/child-beats-cancer-immunotherapy-03292011

Thank you to Alexis and Fox 10 for doing a story on our Jackers!!  Thank  you for spreading the word about Neuroblastoma and our hopes of raising money for research!

Jack had a good night last night.  He had one little hiccup when his red line of his broviac split near the base of it so we had to do a line repair at 4 AM, but Jack actually did really good.  He was woken up out of deep sleep with all the lights on and having to take off his dressing to fix his line, but he didn’t complain a bit.  He woke up talking about a new Wii game and how we needed to play it.  After he was done with the change, they tried to flush it and it wouldn’t flush so there was a blood clot.  We had to wait for the glue to dry before putting anything in his line so around 8 AM they put in a little medicine to break up the clot and about a half hour later, they pulled it out.  The line was working perfectly and we were set to start on day 2.  The 10 hour infusion of the antibody started around 11 today because of the delay of the line fix, so he will be done around 9 tonight.  We will start early tomorrow in hopes of starting even earlier on Thursday.

So far so good with pain today.  We are almost to the magic 3 hour mark but hopefully all will go well.

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers!  We so very appreciate you following along with us through this journey…

Turn on Fox 10 now!!  Jack’s story is coming on!!  Didn’t know it was happening so soon so sorry it is such late notice!!