Guitar Lessons

We've settled in to the hospital routine as much as one can. I slept well enough to feel refreshed. Well, let's not kid ourselves. I slept well enough to function.

William, on the other hand, slept and slept and slept. He has to get up through the night to pee to make sure he is flushing the chemo out of his body. This morning he was stirring a bit and he needed to swallow some medications. I tried to wake him a bit and he grumpily replied, "I had a rough night." I let him go back to sleep and gave up my quest to get food/calories in him today. The nurse reminded me that the Cisplatin he's on makes kids feel really sick, like the flu. Who likes eating when they have the flu? He eventually woke up around 2pm, but food was not in the plan today. I let my anxieties about his weight take a break.

William received a great treat this afternoon. Our friend, Wyatt, a very cool "teenager" as William puts it, came and gave him a guitar lesson. William loved it. William even had doctor permission to leave the floor and go outside. So we all headed outside and sat on a bench in the shade. Wyatt pulled out the cutest kid-sized guitar that was just the right size for William. After learning and practicing a few basic chords, William got tired so we headed back in and he got very excited to play games on Wyatt's iphone. Boys and technology...After Wyatt left, one of the Child Life guys came in with a Wii remote and William suddenly remembered it was Wonderful Wii Wednesday in the playroom with the other kids. William was exhausted, but couldn't pass that up. I know chemo gets progressively physically exhausting and I was reminded of that today as William was too tired to even play Wii while sitting down. He put his head on my shoulder to rest while bowling. We headed back to the room where he climbed back into bed and closed his eyes, but still listened to the conversations. When Ryan arrived from work, he came bearing McDonald's fries. William's nose is ultra-sensitive and dislikes the smells of everything. Almost. The exception is fries. As soon as Ryan opened the bag, William opened his eyes and perked up and said, "Those fries smell so good!" He ate 3 fries, closed his eyes and he was asleep.

The results from his CT scan show that the tumor has decreased in size 30-40%. We'll take it. It is responding and that is after only 2 cycles. The surgeon will try to remove the tumor after cycle 5. We're half way through cycle 3. I talked to Dr. Lee this time and he said it was within the round of normal and expected. Of course we would all like to see more of it gone, but the reality is still good. Patience and faith are always tested and strengthened together. We are praying and anxiously hoping to receive the results from the bone marrow biopsy tomorrow.