With Dad at Clinic

Today we went to clinic. Adam has to visit the Hematology/Oncology clinic once a week, at least for now. The clinic is to go over his progress with the doctor's and nurses , due testing if needed, take labs if necessary and any collection of things that may be required for his treatment prior and after chemo.

This week was my first clinic with Adam. He and his mother went last week and I popped in for a little while during my lunch. Today, we spent the entire day together running from one area of the hospital to the other. A Bone scan was scheduled. This was to determine and to make sure the cancer has not metastasized into the bone. They injected some nuclear fluid into Adam and then had to wait 90 minutes and then would scan his entire body. So while we waited we had a chest x-ray, and I also was taught how to "flush" his picc line. We also had lunch.

Then the bone scan was completed which took about an hour. Then back up to clinic for weigh in, height check and a visit with the Doctor.

The preliminary results of the bone scan were positive. No cancer in the bone! This is great news. We expected this, but it is always good to have it confirmed. The other news is that the chest x-ray showed "remarkable" (the doctor's words) shrinking in the diseased areas of the neck, clavicle and sternum. Of course we were unable to tell the masses in lungs, but tests will be performed soon to give us an idea of how those are being wiped out.

This was all good news, but unfortunately Adam's blood counts were way down. This is not good, as this makes him vulnerable to any type of virus or infection that may be flying around in the air. Which during this time of year, there are all kinds of those bugs around. So we must be very careful not to expose him to any type of infection.

Over-all clinic was a good experience and we received very favorable news. The next clinic will be on the 22nd, and then he will be admitted on Dec. 30th for his second round of chemo.