Last week of treatment before the break

Sebastian was admitted Monday night for his last week of MTX treatment. Yesterday was the "hard" day, and this time Michi stayed the whole day with him. It's hard because he gets the spinal taps on Tuesdays, and therefore cannot eat or drink anything before he gets the anaesthetic for the procedure.

Michi said he was very angry about going into the treatment room and said he did NOT want his back to be looked at by the doctor. So they had to give him a sedative before the anaesthetic, something extra this time, in order to get him to calm down. This extra drug made him sleep even longer afterwards, but at least it wasn't a fight this time to keep him laying down after the procedure. Normally, you have to lie flat for an hour afterwards to prevent "spinal headaches". Sebastian usually hates this, and fights it the whole time.

But it's done!!! He will have to have a few more during treatment, but I am so glad that at least for this phase, the spinals are done. He was hooked up to the infusion yesterday, so hopefully we can go home Thursday evening or Friday morning.

I am looking forward to this phase being over with, because the hospital stays are BORING, for us all. The next phase will just be outpatient, given that Sebastian doesn't have any complications or fevers.

There have been a wave of new patients at the hospital the past two months, more than normal. I read on a listserv that I subscribed to (for parents of kids with ALL), a description of how one mom could recognize the newbies. "The child still has hair and the parents have that deer in the headlights look about them" - that's what I see in these new parents now, and that was us just a few months ago. Amazing how life with cancer can seem like the new "normal" only after a short time. We still have a long ways to go in the treatment, but I am glad at the end of every day that we are reaching the treatment goal.