Nothing in this road is ever easy. I thought that when chemo shrank my son's kidney tumor and it was removed during surgery, that treatment would be simpler, easier afterwards. I find that I can hardly breathe a sigh of relief because if it isn't one thing it's another.
Technically, my son is in remission and his chemo now is sort of a mopping up of any malignant cells that may have been left behind. We find that this point in his treatment his bone marrow is having difficulty producing white blood cells and his neutrophil count has been low. Whereas before, he would need only 2-4 doses of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor(G-CSF) after chemo to bring his counts up, this time he needed 7 doses in all before it reached a safe enough level for him to undergo chemo.
He had course 15 of chemo yesterday and we were discharged from the hospital today. Thankfully, he didn't experience any vomiting this time and our stay was uneventful. The actinomycin-d, which caused his platelets to crash and his liver enzymes to reach the roof was no longer given and instead his dosage of doxorubicin was increased. His scheduled chemo treatment is until course 19 but I am hopeful that the last session will be dropped and we can celebrate a merry Christmas after course 18. Of course, it all depends on his oncologist. I just pray that he may finish his few remaining treatments without any hitches.
