"where are mommy's keys???"

Yes in today's blog you will hear a story about Mommy's keys. Today went pretty well. Austin's counts were ready for chemo. His platelets were 58 and they were suppose to be above 50 to do chemo. Patel laughed and said we are pushing the limit but we have pushed before and been okay. His white count was 3 which low normal is 4.1 so I thought that was pretty good for being up on his own. His red cells are 11.9. So Austin got cytoxin and topotecan today. He stayed awake the whole time for chemo. He watched a few movies and played with his toys for a little while. He mostly enjoyed snacking. We were finished up and in out car by 1:30 and our appointment at CTRC was 2:00. Austin fell asleep before we could leave the parking garage. We then picked up food and ate in the car and was 14 minutes late. Thought they did not take us back until 3:30. Go figure. It was the usual CTRC disorganized but I keep telling myself this is a research center. So you first get asked all the same questions by a nurse, then and resident and then the actual doctor came in. When the intern came in he acted like they couldn't be able to do the radiation. I looked at him like what? But when Dr. Eng came in he was very confident in doing the radiation. He explained that the tumor is very small there and there was less then 1% of him loosing his eye site. The only spot that he wants to radiate is the eye. He feels since they got everything out of the chest that the chemo will kill what is left. As far as the arm goes, he says it probably won't show up on there CT so would be hard to locate to do and if he worries that if he does radiation to his arm it will harm it from growing. One arm would be longer then the other. As far as his eye he said there would not be that noticeable but yes one would be smaller then the other. But you would have to really stare at it. He feels his treatment will take two and half weeks. Tomorrow they will do the CT scan to line it up and make his face mask and cradle. I am not sure they have to tattoo him or not but if they do they will do it tomorrow. Austin saw some familiar faces today and was friendly to some but also didn't like having to wait so long. He remembered where the playroom was and wore himself out playing.

Okay, now for the story of where are Mommy's keys?. While I finishing up talking to Dr. Eng Austin got a hold of my keys and was playing like the exam table was a car. Unfortunately I wasn't paying attention and he decided to stick my keys in the one of the holes at the foot of the bed. All I heard were my keys drop and he put his hands up like where did they go? I figured I would just stick my hand in there and pull them out. So when the doctor's left I tried sticking my hand in there but they were too far down. His nurse came in and I told her what happened. She laughed and tried to get them out. Low and behold they had to call maintenance to open up the bottom of the bed to get them out. Luckily it didn't take the maintenance man that long to get them out. Austin just smiled when they were able to find them. Silly boy.

Tomorrow we will go to Patel's office for chemo at 8:30 and then at CTRC at 12:30 for a 1:00 scan. They will be using anesthesia so we have NPO instructions to follow. He will be hooked up to fluids tonight. So that will help out with out time. We probably will do fluids again tomorrow night too. So busy morning but hopefully will be home late afternoon.

Elizabeth