The "H" Word

     The past few days have gone well. We have seen more of Ethen's personality returning, which is a cheering sight. However, as time has passed post-chemo, one of the latent effects of the therapy has shown up: mouth sores. These appear to be causing Ethen significant discomfort and probably pain. In all likelihood the sores have developed throughout the digestive tract, which obviously would amplify the discomfort and pain. This is a normal condition for chemo patients, and it unfortunately won't get better until Ethen's white blood cells return. As of today the cell counts were still in the negligible range. Pray that Ethen's bone marrow begins to churn out the WBCs so that he can fight the sores off. The increased levels of WBCs would also mean that we get to go home and reunite with our big kids for a short stint before the next round of chemotherapy—all the more reason to pray this happens soon! We are thankful that Ethen has progressed well in regard to oxygenation. He has been without oxygen supplementation all day today! He went most of the night last night without oxygen supplement, but needed a "whiff" (as they say) early this morning.
     Tomorrow Ethen will have a renal scan to determine the status of his kidneys. This scan will help to determine the course of action for the next round of chemotherapy. In short, Ethen's body had trouble filtering out the lysed cells and other byproducts of chemo. With this first exposure to chemo and the byproducts out of the way, Ethen's body may do fine with the next round. The scan will show how productive each kidney is, by which the doctors can evaluate how to approach the second round of chemo. Please pray his kidneys are fully functional so that the treatment can carry on as normal.