Saturday, January 31, 2009

Nate's Journey Continues……………………….

On Thursday, January 29 Nate, Mom, Dad and Jocelyn met with Nate's Oncologist and Hematologist. It was a good meeting and we are all cautiously optimistic. The good news is that Nate is in a documented remission and his bone marrow showed no cancerous cells. The Dr. explained however, that another 2 rounds of chemotherapy increase the chances of a patient staying in remission by 25 to 30%. The Dr. doesn't feel Nate is anywhere near being strong enough to with stand another round of chemotherapy right now. Of course, Nate would like to be done with the whole experience, but the Dr. says she will see him weekly and continue to monitor his blood, bone marrow, heart and kidney functions and overall health. When she feels he is strong enough round 4 will occur. Nate left the hospital 2 weeks ago at 100 pounds and was 104 last week.
On Thursday, he had gained 6 pounds and is now a whopping 110. Nate is impatient like any 17 year old to continue his normal life and activities. He also has a slight documented hearing loss is his left ear and a greater loss in his right ear. This is due to one of the many antibiotics he received when he was septic this last time. He is seeing an Audiologist and Ear Specialist to see what can be done.
Thank you all for your love, prayers and continued support and interest. We are all grateful and will keep you updated about Nate's progress.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Kicking Cancer

Nate came home on Wednesday and has been sleeping a lot to start getting his strength back. We keep thinking that we have an idea of what each round of chemo will be like be each one brings its own challenges although I think that we are now expecting the unexpected.
Nate is focused on gaining strength and if the previous rounds are any indicator as soon as his strength returns he will be focused on returning life to normal.
The next step will be a bone marrow aspiration to asses his white blood cell count. Following that we will sit down with his doctors and discuss a bone marrow transplant, more rounds of chemo and other options. We will keep you posted.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Latest Update

The week between Christmas and New Years was difficult. After Nate returned to ICU, his kidney's failed. He had surgery on Sunday, December 28 to place the dialysis catheter in his left femoral artery (last time it was in the right) and they began dialysis. Nate was pretty sedated and out of it, but slowly improved. They moved him out of ICU on Sunday, January 4 and were able to remove the dialysis catheter on Tuesday the 6th. He also had a very severe bacterial infection in the blood and therefore had fevers between 104 and 105 until a couple of days ago.

After the call went out for platelets, the response from everyone was very humbling. From Wednesday, December 30 to Sunday, January 4, he received 3 units of platelets and 3 units of blood daily and everyone was a designated donation for him. We appreciate everyone's efforts.
We also received the wonderful news this past week that The City of Hope identified a perfect bone marrow/stem cell match for Nate. Although a transplant is not in the plan for the immediate future, it is great to know we have someone if and when this is necessary. Nate's Dr. hopes he will be one of the 25% of patient's who go into complete remission from the chemotherapy and never comes out.

We are grateful for each one of you and for your love, prayers and support.