Joe completed his
(hopefully) last day of chemo on 12/1. His last five day
treatment was fairly uneventful. Joe got sick on the last day but
he got over it fairly quickly and has felt pretty good ever
since.
We had lots of visitors the last week
which always makes things go faster. Uncle Bob and Aunt Laura,
Uncle Jim and Nick, Aunt Kathy and Betsy, Linda and her son
Mark, Nana and Pop-Pop, Miss Buffalo (Emilee Ballaro) and even
Santa made a visit. It really helps keep Joe from getting bored
and his parents from losing their sanity.
Joe had his PICC line removed Saturday
night (about 12 hours after we got home) because it sprung a
leak. The original plan had been to leave it in for a few weeks
but after it got a hole in it the home care nurses came out and
checked it and decided it should come out. So Joe no longer has
a central line. It's good and bad. Good because it lessens the
chance of him getting an infection but bad because all the blood
draws will require a needle going forward. I guess after all
Joe's been through it isn't a big deal.
I think the plan is to have Joe's scans
done in early January. They will include an MRI, CT Scan, leg
and chest X-Ray, bone scan and renal scan. Hopefully those will
all be clear and then Joe can get back to being a little boy
again instead of a cancer patient.
