Chemo: Day 1

Thursday, September 6

This morning they picked him up around 9 and took him down to radiology for breathing tests on his lungs. He hated that because it caused him so much pain. After his breathing test, my parents and Matthew met the doctor that will be taking care of him while he is home between chemo treatments. This doctor told Matthew that the cancer he has is the same one that Lance Armstrong had, and because he beat it Matthew could too. Matthew's form of this cancer is more rare than Lance's because it started by his heart, but it was cool for him to relate the disease to a famous figure. Even though he's had all of his awards and medals revoked, he's still cool for surviving the cancer. Livestrong!

He was scheduled to have a surgery at 1PM today to have a port put into his chest to allow an easy access point for the chemo therapy. He sat and waited all day for his operation, again not being able to eat or drink anything. Later in the day, his IV somehow fell out which stopped the pain medication from getting into T's system. It was probably out for about 40 minutes before they took him downstairs and the anesthesiologist put him to sleep. He didn't even get down to the operating room until around 3:30 because they prioritize the kids according to age, not sickness, so his procedure just kept getting pushed back. After the doctors were done, they told my parents that they had to put the port into the muscle because he has no body fat. They said that he must be an athletic kid because he has zero body fat. What a stud!

While they were putting in his port they also took another marrow sample. This one was successful and will tell the doctors more than the last four did. Unfortunately, he is back to square one with recovering from the intense pain caused by the needle that drilled through his pelvic bone. Once he was awake they took him back upstairs to his room to hook him back up to his morphine drip. He almost earned another night in the ICU because his oxygen levels were so low and he was running a fever of 102. However, they were able to stabilize him after the morphine took some of the edge off of his pain. In his room, my parents had to constantly put ice rags on his head to try and counteract his fever. This lasted for at least 40 minutes before his fever came down to 101.

The anesthesiologist wanted him to have a chest xray to see if he had any clots in his lungs. So, even though he was in the most pain he has been in since this all started, they had to lift him to put a metal plate under his back and have him hold his breath to check for clots. This visibly killed him. The good news is that they found no clots, and besides a little fluid, his lungs were normal. This was a huge miracle because if there were any clots in his lungs he could have had a stroke or a collapsed lung.

Mom and dad kept pushing his morphine every 10 minutes and were finally able to substantially bring down his pain. Around 9:50PM, the doctors had stabilized him enough to begin his chemo therapy to begin shrinking his tumor. This treatment lasted a couple of hours.

He's going to have to get chemo every day for the next five days. Then, if he is stable enough and without fever, he can come home for about 21 days before he has to go back to the hospital for his next five days of chemo. After that, he'll be home for 21 days, more chemo, home for 21 days, more chemo, surgery to remove the tumor, then two more cycles of chemo to make sure that the cells are dead. His surgery to remove to tumor will consist of the doctors opening up his chest like an open heart surgery, breaking the sternum, and cutting out the tumor. I spoke to Jarrett's dad who has had the same surgery for his heart, and he said that the recovery was simple. His chest was just a little tender where they had broken his sternum, and there was mild pain when he coughed. This will be a great day because it will mean that the end is near and his cancer is almost gone.

Although the road ahead of us seems long and impossible, we have faith that the prayers of everyone and Matthew's strength will beat this cancer. It's amazing to us to see how many people are pulling together to help us in this time of need. We feel very loved and thankful to have our friends and family near, and although Matthew is so drugged out we can tell that he can feel the love and support as well. There is nothing but hope and positivity here.