ALL about Caleb

chemo started yesterday after all. caleb's counts were up. he went w/ Chris to New Braunfels that evening w/ a iv hydration backpack hooked up to his port. it had a lead short enough to limit a 3 1/2 year old's movement. but otherwise, caleb was fine & walking around. the medicine (zofran) that counters the nausea was set up through it & he didn't get sick. he did pee a lot & chris said he woke up all wet in the middle of the night at 2 am to find pee under him & caleb (yuk!) & caleb woke up again at 4 am needing to pee badly. chris had a urinal but realized it was too late when he felt something wet on his leg (hee hee hee) & then heard it hit the carpet (hee hee hee-am i so wrong that i find that funny?). but that was it. everything's going great. i thought his counts were going to go down but they told chris it's not so much his counts going down as it is keeping him hydrated. the next phase after this is called maintenance where he's a normal kid & we just give him his medicines at home. at that point, i may not be blogging as frequently...

i know, i know...i really should be asleep at this hour. just wanted to get an update in...caleb's counts weren't high enough (800...need to be 1000) so he didn't get his chemo...he & chris came back early today. he's doing great. hopefully he'll be ready for it when he goes up on tuesday...

caleb's completely back to normal (with a little extra weight gain due to his appetite coming back). but it sucks cause here we go to the peak of this rollercoaster ride..tomorrow he gets his new chemo called ara-c (cytarabine)& thioguanine (t-6) & cyclophosphamide (sp?) & his spinal tap. one is an iv push. one is an iv to be sent home in a backpack with a batterypack attached. and the t-6 is gonna be given orally at home from here on out til the end (another 2 1/2 years). chris is gonna take caleb tomorrow & will be staying in new braunfels with his mom monday thru thursday. i'm not worried. i'm comfortable with the fact that chris will be close to facilities that can help caleb if something goes wrong (which i'm sure won't!).

quick update. all is great. i'm back at work (workshops all this week-it's nice getting back into the swing of things). the kids are great!!! caleb has been eating again. he's gained some weight. caitlyn's been a little mean to him. i think she's taking advantage while he's still weak. & she's quick, too. she had him on the ground pressing the side of his head into the floor one time. today she pushed him in his belly (& again he was on the ground). i told her not to be mean to him cause he's gonna remember when he's better & then i sat her in the "thinking chair". he's had his strength back for the past couple of days & has been walking more & more. he's not as stiff anymore.

caleb's doing great. his counts have come up exept his granulocytes (white blood cell that are infection fighters). doc thinks he can start treatment on the 15th if those have come up by then. if not, it will be put off another week. caleb's walking better & is very moody but more of a great mood than a grouchy mood which is great. caitlyn has been great (except for a little bit this afternoon when i took her to my school so i could clean the classroom-she was very whiny (sp?) ).

caleb had a slight fever this evening. at 8:00 it was 100.5 & went up to 100.9. at 9:00 it was 101 then went back down to 100.7. we called doctor's answering service right away. he's really good about returning our calls but we were worried after 15 minutes had passed. at 8:20 chris called the answering service back & happened to speak w/ the exact same lady who said she'll page him again & that it usually takes half an hour. chris told her no, it never takes dr half an hour. at about 8:50 chris called again & spoke w/ a different girl & i told him to tell them to call dr directly at his home. dr said to go ahead & drive up to the e.r. & to go ahead & give him tylenol 3; caleb had an appt set up for tomorrow anyway. chris said he'll tell dr about what happened tomorrow at the appt. i didn't go cause caleb's fever seemed to be going down. it didn't feel like the scary fever he had a few weeks ago so i'm not worried. in fact, i spoke w/ chris a little while ago & he said caleb was at 99. thank God!!!! just got off the phone w/ him & caleb is back to normal at 97.9. yay!!! always better safe than sorry.

(ok donna, i know your birthday was yesterday but i just logged on to post today so pleeease forgive the belated banner. hope you like the shirt! & tell my brother he better have treated you well yesterday or i'll have to do some ass kicking next time i see him :) ) caleb's doing MUCH better with that tylenol 3. yesterday he attempted walking & he's walking like crazy this morning. he's very stiff. his knees don't bend very much so when he walks his butt sticks out & so does his belly. it's funny to watch. i'm just glad he's getting back to his old self. don't know if i mentioned it or not but his chemo won't start until the 22nd. chris is gonna take him & spend the night w/ his mom in new braunfels that mon,tue,wed,& thurs. then they'll probably come back to del rio for the weekend & go back the 29th (monday thru thurs) or the 30th (tues thru friday). that hasn't been made clear yet... i need to go through the notes to see what affects the drugs are gonna have on him. when caleb was first diagnosed, we were given a huge notebook in the H.O.T.s (hematology, oncology, transplant) ward that contains lots of information on his illness. i thought that was very nice. it's my bible & i keep all the printouts of his counts in it & need to refer to it from time to time. also, don't know if i mentioned this either but we've finally moved to my aunt sharon's house. alot of our things are stored at my grandparent's house. i hope to have a garage sale when caleb gets better. i can't wait for him to get better!!! i want to take them out to fairs & kid-friendly goings-on around the city. i'm glad he'll be able to go trick or treating (he should at least). he'll need september to recuperate & october should be back to normal. i bought him this cool power ranger outfit for halloween. he's gonna love it!!! caitlyn is into princesses right now so i'll have to find her one. update on that medical bill from the kiddoes births that i was reported to the credit bureau for...i think the ethics people found something cause when i called the collection agency, it seemed as if the $2,000+ bill was deleted, at least momentarily, until all this mess is resolved. i wouldn't be surprised if something illegal had been going on.

what a wonderful storm we just had!!! we needed that rain. the clouds were beautiful!!! anyway, last night was hard for poor mijo. he had been complaining about his legs hurting before he went to sleep & we kept him warm with blankies to help & gave him some tylenol which helped him sleep. at about 2 am he woke up. he stayed up the rest of the night. it was hard cause i had just gone to sleep at 1:30 (still enjoying my late nights before school hours start). chris & i took turns staying up with him & the whole time he was crying or super grouchy. we gave him tylenol again which usually does the trick but for some reason it didn't work. we called the doctor this morning & told him so he prescribed tylenol 3 w/ codeine. caleb still hasn't slept yet but he is in such a great, lovable mood (he didn't even want me to touch him last night) because of the tylenol 3. so for now, he's doing good. i remember when i had my wisdom teeth out i had tylenol 3 & it was awesome, so i know he's doing good! ;)

i'm sorry, that last post was confusing. we've sold our house in order to save money (it was already up for sale before caleb got sick because we had plans to build). we will be saving a big chunk on the mortgage & electricity. we don't want to end up financially upside down in case anything should happen down the road. we're just taking precautions. my aunt offered her house to us so that we could save that much more money instead of renting. she's living w/ her parents (my grandparents) in the meantime & has said we use her house however long we want (how selfless is that!). i hope to move out of her house by march so we can rent or find something w/ a lower house payment than we were paying before. our old house was too big anyway. caleb is doing fair. he's been very lethargic. i've had to give him water with a syringe cause he doesn't want to drink anything. he's already lost 4 pounds. i was happy cause he was asking for food today. he only nibbles here & there. i was giving him baby food through a 10ml syringe the other day cause there was a point where he didn't eat at all. it's been a little rough. he's been really cold & he's always covered with a blanket. caitlyn has been acting out BIG TIME!!! she was never whiny but she's mimicking him now so that makes it tough. & she eats the same foods we offer him to try to thicken him up (which are several small things throughout the day) except she'll eat everything. she's turning into a chunky monkey!!! i don't want to tell her no she can't have it yet her brother can. and they're not big servings either. i'll have to figure something out. it's not a weight problem yet but we do need to watch what she eats a little better (chris took her for the 3 yr physical & i think he said she's on the border). chemo is gonna start on 8/15. it was pushed a week cause caleb's counts are still recovering from the fever. thanks to each of you for keeping us in mind & prayer. my heart goes out to the families in our town that have had tragedies recently with their young boys in separate events, please keep them in your prayers too (& i'm sure you already do).