August 2nd, 2005
Hanging Out at Home and Meeting the New Teacher
Spencer’s immune system continues to be non-existent. His energy is good and lips continue to be fairly red (which indicates hemoglobin is not too low, when it gets low his lips start to get white). Next checkup at the oncologist is Thursday with Dr. Shaffer (Dr. Sharp is out). All that’s in the plan is CBC though it’s possible he’ll need red cells.
Today Spencer got to meet his Kindergarten Teacher, Mrs. Bates. She dropped by the house to say hello, get to know us, talk about special needs, and get a pictures of Spencer. It was a nice visit and helps remind me that life is about to get a little more normal.
The immune system shutdown is the most annoying phase of chemotherapy. Spencer feels fine. He occasionally gets a little cough or low grade fever, but we haven’t had anything serious. I got a virus and Friday to Monday had a fever and spent much of the time in bed. It was sort of a flashback to February and march when we all (except Spencer) got sick. So far, it appears that I managed to avoid getting Spencer sick. Either that or, as one friend suggested, Spencer’s immune system is more than 20 times more powerful than mine since his key counts are about 5% of mine and he hasn’t gotten sick.
At Spencer’s last oncologist visit, Dr. Sharp said that if we get through the next couple of weeks all right, the rest of it is “just putting in time” to finish the treatment. The treatment load on maintenance is lower even than the interim maintenance we already did. It’s long and I’m sure it will be frustrating, but it should be easier. I may even find time to have a real job.
