Yes, Nurse Evelyn, we are home!!
9-7-2006
Jaymun's blood counts are on the way up this week so the
doctors let us come home for a bit. Tuesday morning he will be readmitted back
to the hospital for another round of chemo. So it's a bittersweet homecoming.
Jaymun and I are enjoying the short visit home, but we know it's back to the
land of medicine and IV's for us in a few short days. When we go back, we will
be staying for another five weeks or so and the type of chemo treatment will be
very similar to the one we just finished with.
When we got home Wednesday night, the Visiting Nurse
Association arrived around 8:30 PM to teach us how to administer his IV meds
and flush his lines, etc. Just one
reminder of how much our lives have changed. Who would have thought that we
would ever need to learn how to administer antibiotics through a central line
tube?
The kids seem to be really enamored of their baby brother.
They constantly gather around him, watching his every smile and facial gesture-and
he's happy to oblige! He never has a lack of people to snuggle with him. It
makes me so sad that they aren't able to spend more time getting to know
him-their short visits to the hospital just aren't the same as being home
surrounded by family all day long. We are trying to appreciate this little
respite in our week and just enjoy the time we do have with each other, but
it's hard when we have the looming date of another round of chemo coming up.
Jaymun will have another spinal tap done Tuesday morning and
they administer a dose of chemo to his spinal fluid. Apparently the cancer
cells like to congregate in that place and so it's important that the doctor
makes sure that doesn't happen. We will find out the results of his bone marrow
aspiration that was done this past Tuesday as well. When he first began chemotherapy,
he didn't appear to have any bone marrow cells infected. Let's just hope that's
still the case...
I'm not sure what people may want to know about Jaymun's
treatment. I'm going to try to cover as many areas as I can through my entries
here, but if anyone is intensely interested in his exact type of leukemia, Dave
will put links in the leukemia section of this website. There are many different types of leukemia out
there. Jaymun's particular leukemia is called acute myeloid leukemia, which you can read more about if you would
like to understand the whole medical picture. Personally, I sometimes can get
overloaded with information when it comes to learning about all of this-it's
hard enough to just get through the day and take care of the things that a
newborn requires, much less try to educate myself on a disease.
Dave and I are aware that people are checking out the
website and we are going to try to update everything, such as more photos and
entries, etc. over the weekend. Be patient with us-there is a lot to learn
about building a website and neither of us has an abundance of extra time
lately. It does seem to be an easier way of communicating with everyone, since
Dave is really stretched thin with trying to run a business as well. I do want
to address an upcoming leukemia fundraiser that one of his customers is
involved with, since they are collecting donations and need them by the end of
September. So check back here and we will try to get everyone that information
on here as soon as possible!
-Jennifer
