Aidan Update 4/30

Hello dear friends,

Aidan is feeling much better. We will be discharged this afternoon after he receives more blood and platelets. We look forward to having a nice quiet weekend at home. This stay was much longer than anticipated. Aidan will probably be back at Children's during the second week of May for his 5th cycle. We should really get a place in the city as we are here much more often than we are home.

Aidan's belly is much better...no more cramping and much less poop. Everyone is happier.
He continues to hemorrhage from his bladder. He was on a morphine pump to control the pain from passing the blood clots. It was awful. He has been receiving platelets everyday (sometimes twice) to help control the bleeding. It seems to be improving slowly. We have been told it just takes time.

It has taken Aidan much longer to recover from this last chemo cycle (a common side effect from multiple rounds of chemotherapy). Usually his white blood cell counts are at zero for 5 days or so. Today is day 15 and we are just starting to see a few...very scary. I guess this has provided us a little glimpse as to what the next couple of months going into transplant will be like.

We have some great news to share! Aidan had his MRI on Monday and the scan was encouraging. His brain looks remarkably better and his spine looks about the same. If you recall, there have been questionable areas in the spine with previous studies. It is uncertain whether they are post-operative changes, scar tissue from the multiple surgeries and infection, or tumor spread. Typically, if you see good response to chemo in the brain, the spine usually improves as well. That leads one to believe that these changes are more likely to be scarring. That being said, when you are dealing with an aggressive tumor, the last thing you want to do is make assumptions and be led blindly. Aidan's 5th cycle and the myeloblative chemo prior to stem cell will be telling as to our next step if no further MRI changes are seen. We may need to make some very difficult decisions as to radiation treatment in the next few months. Sometimes it is hard to focus on just one day at time. We are just so very thankful that he has been showing good response and pray that we are blessed with wisdom to guide us in making good decisions for his future care.

That's all for now as I have to pack up so we can leave downtown just in time for Friday rush hour traffic. It's truly absurd!

Thank you for all of your good wishes, prayers, and support. They are so appreciated.