Getting Closer

The lower cyclophosphamide dose was used for this cycle and Tim seemed to feel a little better about it though he still encountered the same issues with nausea and threw up the same number of times that he did with the higher dose. We were hoping that the lower dose doesn’t beat his system up as much as the higher dose but as long as he feels that it went better I guess we’ll go with it and see how the rest of the cycle goes.

It’s been a week since his cycle 12 whammy and Tim had a rather lengthy nosebleed yesterday afternoon. We tried the recommended Afrin to get it to stop but even that didn’t do it. Sitting quietly with pressure for about 20 minutes was what did the trick. Other than that he felt as well as could be expected. Makes perfect sense since his platelet count came back down again. His red count was borderline and could wait a couple days if he didn’t want to hang around long enough for a transfusion of packed cells that day. It was also time for his next treatment of vincristine. He felt a little warm upon examination so they repeated taking his temperature which had been normal 20 minutes before when he walked into the clinic. Oh no. It was up to 102.6. They would not be letting his leave but instead admitted him to the hospital yet again. He had stubbed his toe almost a week ago and we were religiously treating it with Neosporin several times a day but they still were very concerned that there was always the possibility that the toe could be the source of the fever so they kept a close eye on it.

Tim was very disappointed because it was another weekend of big plans. Michael was coming home for the weekend, Rebecca had a piano recital that night, and he planned to make it to a game his soccer team was playing on Saturday. He had not as yet been able to attend a game because of treatment etc. and this was supposed to be the weekend he could go see them play. Since he wasn’t going anywhere, they went ahead and ordered up the 2 lumps each of platelets and packed red cells. Took a long time to get the fever down this time and his nurse said that he was probably starting to feel a little better when he started getting feisty. We cannot say enough about the wonderful staff both at the MSTI clinic and up on 4S of St Luke’s. They really work hard at trying to make your stay as comfortable as possible. He was released Sunday but stayed home with a low grade fever till Wednesday at which time he was to make his Senior Project Presentation. He managed to get that done.

That weekend Tim started to feel pretty good again and was able to participate in another autocross event. This time he and Bob raced the same car and much to Bob’s horror Tim beat him by about 2 seconds. Spanked him he did. Tim was all smiles; he’s really having fun now! Must be all that Xbox racing starting to pay off.


Thursday the following week brought the Mayors’ Awards to Youth. Tim was nominated by his Centennial guidance counselor and we attended the ceremony at city hall. It was a very inspiring evening with stories of accomplishments by many area students. Mayor Bieter commented that this event was something he and his office really looked forward to doing since a lot of other events don’t quite elicit the same joyous sentiments.



Timothy was interviewed by the Idaho Statesman earlier that day so it was indeed a busy day. The piece they did appeared on the paper’s front page and here is the link: http://www.idahostatesman.com/102/story/81344.html The length and prominent location of the piece was a bit of a surprise for us all.