Round 4

Hello everyone!

We had our time off and are now back at the hospital since Monday, Oct 27, for round 4.
Zach is doing very well. He came throught the blood infection fine, we finished his antibiotics while at home.
As I said, Zach restarted chemo Monday, continuing the high dose of one and the addition of the new chemo, which he had last night. The last day he also gets his second dose of the experimental chemo. He ran a fever the first day and felt generally awful but it passed and he is now doing well. He started to get a rash as expected, but it also started to go away. The new chemo is blue...smurf blue and it turns his urine green...he thinks its cool.

We will be here longer than we have been this round as this round causes his counts to be lower longer..so we won't be out for Thanksgiving but there are two things: as dr homans said, Zach is Zach...he hasn't done anything as we expected.....and the other thing is we have so much to be thankful for, what better place to celebrate than at the place where he has been getting better.

Halloween is tomorrow and Zach is excited. We have games planned as well as child life planning a fun filled day.

Zach had a great time off. We had some snow, played in fall leaves and carved pumpkins.



Thats it for now. Thanks to all for the prayers!

more later....

Happy Fall
Steph and Zach

Update

Things were going well until Friday night, then we hit a little bump in the road. Zach started with a fever which got higher even with Tylenol and then had a reaction to one of the antiviral iv medications that they started. Protocol for kids with AML is to keep them throught the immunosupressed time as they stay longer in that period then with other cancers and that opens the door to more risks of infections. Friday night was an example. The blood cultures have shown an infection that was just starting, a strep infection which was in his blood. The final has not come back yet, but the dr feels that its probably and alpha strep (I'm not sure what that is") but that is what they watch for and what most AML kids are prone to after receiving the high dose chemo that he had last round. So, they started him within minutes on Vancomycin and Ceftazadine, both broad spectrum antibiotics that cover both gram negative and positive bacteria. So....he has progressivley gotten better and has remained fever free since Sunday. His appetite is back and so is his energy. I'm just glad that we were here because time is so important when an infection starts to invade your blood stream when you have no immune system.

He is getting better and it won't prolong his stay if his counts come up, fever is gone and he is having no issues. He can continue his antibiotics at home. It will be the last time we get to go home before the snow starts!!!

Uncle Bob and Aunt Yvette came up last Friday and visited. Zachs favorite new trick to play on staff is now the chopped off finger gadget that they brought for Zach. Its great....makes staff look twice. Zach had mercy on Uncle Bob and didn't attack him with the silly string we have, but he did drench him with his new squirt gun his new friend Sean got him!!!! Uncle Bob is a good sport and Aunt Yvette is too....they bring goodies when they come!! Thanks again for the goodies!!!!!




The tree's are beautiful here and in Burlington, they are peaking. In St Johnsbury its past peak. Its suppose to be getting colder now and I'm looking forward to it.
Tomorrow is suppose to be 74 and I think that is too warm for this time of year. I want cold!

Tomorrow some of the nurses and I are going to the new Target that just opned in Plattsburg New York which is a ferry ride across Lake Champlain. I'm so excited!!

Josh has an interview at the Williston fire department of Thursday at 5:30. This is for a paid on call position but it would open the door for him to get his EMT and then work in the emergency room and run fire/EMT calls for the fire station. Things are looking up for him.

So, this week his counts should come up and maybe we could get a break before round 4 starts.

Thanks to everyone for the continued support and prayers for Zach. WE can see God working everyday.

Happy Fall!
Steph and Zach

Update

hello everyone!

Zach is doing wonderfully! Thank you God!!!!! We are in the immunosuppressed period at this time, day 15 of the 28 day chemo cycle. His counts should start to recover around day 21. We got to go home last time on day 25 so......we will see.

Zach handled the chemo well and have had no unexpected complications or situations. He has had to receive 1 unit of blood and 1 unit of platelets which is par for the course.





We have plenty of fun while we are here. We have scared Penny (social worker) with various snake pranks, scared Dr Homanz and staff with our sound activated drop down spider, attacked staff with silly string, made cupcakes with child life, played video games with Father Tim and others and of course we try to keep up on school.

Josh comes daily to hang out with us. Yesterday we played cards and had popcorn and soda (Zach thought it was great!) and colored Halloween pictures to decorate the room. Of course, we watched Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

Josh is going to stay here in Vermont as some doors have opened for him. He wants a job as a firefighter as he just graduated from the fire academy...however....he has to volunteer for a while first. So.....he met up with a firefighter who said to gave him some helpful hints. Josh then read in the paper that the Williston fire department is still recruiting volunteers, so he called the fire chief who wants Josh to attend a meeting this Tuesday evening. If he secures a volunteer position he then can get his EMT and get a job in the ER at the hospital. So....things are looking promising for him and for my own selfishness, I'm glad he is staying because Zach enjoys him being around soooo much. He loves hangin' with his big brother.

Ok...thats it for today! Zach is looking forward to getting out and enjoying the colder weather. So am I!

Thanks again for all the prayers!!

Happy Fall
Steph and Zach