A good day

Posted by: Mommy

CJ’s monthly chemo was on Tuesday. His ANC was 1700, just about perfect. The rest of his numbers were pretty good also. After last month’s melt down at clinic I have been talking to CJ a lot about chemo and why we have to do it. I have been doing my best to get through to him that sometimes we have to do things even if we don’t want to, and that is no reason to throw a fit. I also explained to him how much easier it is when he is good at chemo and holds still. After a month of talking we got to go see if it paid off. CJ was in a good mood on chemo day, he had no problems with his blood test, or the doctor giving him his check up, but this is pretty normal. Then the nurse came in to give him chemo, and brought help just in case. CJ was the perfect angel. He even talked and joked with them the whole time. One of the nurses was asking him about the zoo, and if he knew they had some dinosaurs at the zoo now. CJ looked at her funny and as serious as he could and told her she had to be wrong because dinosaurs are extinct. After chemo was finished the nurse went and got him free zoo passes for being so good, so he could see the dinosaurs. I am very proud of CJ, and hope this will be the new norm. After it was finished he told me it just hurts a little, but he is tough. I tried to tell him if he used the magic cream they gave him it wouldn’t hurt at all. He said he was tough and he didn’t need it. He has never like the magic cream, so we let him go without as long as he wants to.

Next week CJ starts kindergarten. He is very excited about it, and asks me everyday how many more days until he gets to go to school everyday. CJ has always loved school, and loves to learn. We drive down the road and play games where I give him a letter and he tells me words that start with that letter, (usually animals). He also wants to know how words are spelled, so far I am able to tell him, I just hope he doesn’t get to the hard words soon, since I am terrible speller.

take the good with the bad

Posted by Mommy:

CJ had his monthly chemo on the 22nd of June. It started out very good. He was in a good mood, had no issues with the doctor, or the finger poke. He was just talking and playing the entire time. His ANC was 1900, which you can’t get better than that. It is not too high that the chemo is not working, and it is not too low where he is at risk of an infection. I was very happy with this since the week before we had to go to our family doctor because CJ’s allergies have been acting up. His eyes were getting yucky and needed some drops to clear them up. Like I said everything was going good. That is until we get to the chemo room. As soon as we walked into the chemo room, which is a big room with several big reclining chairs, toys, TV’s, and lots of fun looking things, CJ decided he wanted to go home. To bad we hadn’t got the chemo done yet. After three times cleaning his port area, and two nurses and myself making him hold still we finished chemo. The normally easy thing that doesn’t take 5 minutes took 20 minutes. We left with both me and CJ upset. All he would tell me is he didn’t want to get chemo today. I tried to explain that sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do, I know I didn’t want to help two nurses hold my son down to put these chemicals into his body that I know makes him feel bad for the next couple of days, but we have to. By the time we got home he was over it, and playing just as nothing happened. I know it can be a good thing that CJ is very strong willed and stands up for what he wants, but some days I wish he would just go with the flow, it would be so much less stressful on both of us.