One Week Wrap Up

Monday: 

Matthew was moved from the ICU to the Oncology floor finally. It took a lot of arguing between my mom and the ICU doctors though because they wanted him to stay in the bed until Thursday. They had him in a bed with a mattress full of air that rotated him so he wouldn't get bed sores, and they wanted to put him in like a diaper so he wouldn't get out of bed at all. They didn't even want him to get out and sit in a chair. My parents wouldn't let that happen though. They made the nurses let the poor kid get out and use the bathroom like a normal person, and after a lot of back and forth with the doctors he was able to get back up to the Oncology floor with doctors that understand his needs and what he is capable of. 

Tuesday:

Fevers, vomiting, pain, still not eating.

Wednesday:

Hannah ditched school to hang out at the hospital, Matthew came off of his Morphine pump, still not eating.

Thursday: 

This is the day we got the results back from his marrow sample. Here is a note from my dad summarizing what we learned:

"In speaking with Dr.Williams on the Bone Marrow Report, we learned the following:

The secondary Sarcoma cancer that was found in the first report is basically a mute point to talk about and not a real risk to Matthew at this time.

The Germ Cell cancer, however, has spread and is now in his bones, which is what caused us to bring him to PCH on January 1st.  The treatment that Dr.Williams wants to go with is 1 to 2 cycles of Andramycin/Ifosmide chemotherapy with bone marrow samples between cycles.  If not responding well they will change to another chemotherapy and plan for a bone marrow transplant.

With the transplant they will take some good bone marrow from him and freeze it.  My understanding is that another chemotherapy treatment will kill all the marrow in his bones, including what is left of the Germ Cell Cancer.  The good marrow will then be replaced and allowed to grow back.  This process can take up to eight weeks.  During this bone marrow transplant he will be isolated in a room and all visitors and staff will be requited to wear masks, and I think Dr. Williams said that he would have a sanitary tent around his bed at all times.  The projected time frame on the transplant will be 4-5 months out.  If the next few cycles of treatment have the effect we hope for, hopefully the bone marrow transplant can be avoided. If not, I fear that what Matthew has already gone through might just be the easy part."

Friday:

I spent the day at the hospital with T watching movies, youtube, and playing games. A magician named Jason Flores came and performed for us for like 20 minutes. He was legit. His tricks were crazy and impressive and made me mad because I just wanted to know how he did them. One of these days I'm going to search for an explanation of his tricks on Google. You can find him on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/user/jasnflores/videos

Pictures I found on his Facebook:

I knew it.

Saturday:

T had no fevers and he is looking really good! Color is coming back to his face and he is more vibrant. He's joking a lot more and pretty much back to normal...except for his appetite. He's still eating like a bird. His stomach has shrunk so much, and he has to take medicine through his IV because occasionally eating makes him nauseous and sometimes he'll throw up his meals.

After I graduated high school I went to Spain and Italy with the foreign language department. While in Spain I had a dish called churros con chocolate, which is pretty self explanatory, but the chocolate they dip the churros in was like a really thick version of hot chocolate. Ever since Matthew learned about that dessert he has craved it. Over the years he has brought up the fact that he wants churros con chocolate quite frequently, so I decided that I would make him some and take it to the hospital as a surprise. I found a few different websites with recipes before I decided on what seemed like the best one. The recipe was actually pretty simple...the hardest part was tracking down the right chocolate and perfecting the churro frying technique. Sakeri and I worked on the dessert for just over an hour before it was delicious enough to take, but it actually turned out really good and tasted pretty close to how I remember it tasting in Spain. When I brought it into T's room and explained to him what I did his whole face lit up. I could tell that it made him really happy, and that was totally worth it. I'm also glad I was able to make it for him because his punk brother who is serving his mission in Spain ate churros con chocolate and wrote Matthew a letter rubbing it in to him. So Chad, now Matthew has had it too.

His friends are weird and cool, and Matthew's stay at the hospital would be unbearable without their visits.

Sunday (Today):

Matthew is still doing good, but we fear he might spike another fever tonight which will push back the date he can come home. He had a bunch of friends visit him tonight, and then after they left my parents and I just hung out with T. The family time was nice. It's something we don't get a lot of these days.

Mom and Hannah made beanies with cute flower buttons and donated them to the cancer floor. They're sitting on a table in a little lobby area before you enter the halls of the oncology floor with other beanies people have donated. Mom put 12 of them out last night, and today there were only 3 left. It was really cool because early this evening I was sitting out in the lobby with mom, and a woman walked by pushing her young daughter in a wheelchair. The mom stopped, grabbed one of the beanies and put it on the little girl's head. The girl was so cute and got really excited to put something warm and pretty on her balding head. It's cool to see that they are being used and appreciated.