Induction Day 10

If bad news comes in threes then we just got our third one out of the way.

The biopsy results on Nathan's testicle came back positive - there were leukemic cells present inside his testes.  We were hoping that the torsion of the appendix epidydimus was the sole cause of his swelling and discomfort, but unfortunately that was not it.  We are not completely sure how this affects everything yet, other than now we know that Nathan will require radiation therapy to his testes.  Dr Ali was not certain if it would be after induction or sometime in the next few weeks.  I know we have to keep rolling with it, but it sure would be nice if there were answers to all these questions - this is getting more and more frustrating.

Other than that we had a very interesting morning.  Nathan decided that he was NOT going for more leg needles today and Shelley could not convince him to get moving and allow her to put the Emla cream on his legs.  They phoned me, and though Nathan knew that he needed the treatments, and he agreed that he had to get them, he still wasn't going.... While we were talking this through with him, he took the Emla cream and put it on his own thighs and covered it up with an opsite covering.  He then proceeded to put the cream over his port, bandaged that up and was ready to go.  Kind of surprised Shelley and I, but Nathan is all about control.  He wants to feel like he has some control over what is happening to his body and who can fault that.  Shelley and Nathan met me at the Cancer center a little after our 8:30 appointment, as it was closer to 9 they were waiting for us, and we went right into the first room.  We discussed how he was going to get the leg needles, and we assured him that nurse Andrea was way better than the ped nurses and he finally agreed to get going.  We did his left leg first,(with him taking off the opsite covering and removing the cream) and it hurt a bit but he breathed through it and kept control.  When we moved over to the right leg, he was busy making funny faces at his mother pretending that it hurt (or really pretending that it did not) and that one was a piece of cake.  He was also very agreeable at getting his port accessed - even his counting was to a small number and darn quick.  He even was helpful when Dr Ali did a checkup on him and did everything as asked when asked - which is a little unusual.  Did we mention yet that his temperament seems to be a lot better on the Prednisone steroid than it was on the Dexamethasone.

He was given fresh frozen plasma that takes a couple hours so he and his mother had a pretty good morning, at least playing and behaving wise.  Shelley and I did take this latest news hard at first, and it is still tough to understand why we keep getting more piled onto an overflowing plate but with the support and love from family and friends I'm sure we will get through this one too.  (took awhile to get my positive attitude going on this one today but I think I've got it there.)

Nathan has nothing on Thursday but he will get platelets before his leg needles on Friday morning.  We are still hopeful that we will finally get to talk to Dr Lewis from Calgary before too long.  It is starting to feel like Nathan's treatment isn't as urgent/important as it once was to the medical staff and that is starting to get to us.