08/08/2014

It has been awhile since my last post and as stated earlier no news is good news.  We are nearing the end of Chemo treatments for Evan and there does seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel and I am expectantly optimistic that it is not a train.

Evan is currently in the hospital for his LAST round of "red devil" and if all goes well he will be released on Saturday night.  He will then have about 10 days off and have two straight sessions of Mexotrexate for the final rounds.  Evan will then have a series of tests to determine if the Osteosarcoma has stayed away or come back to play.  I think, for me this is the most stressful time as until the tests are done and read there is no way of knowing by looking at Evan if he is truly free of the disease.  He is well, thriving and surprising his pediatrician on his overall growth.  The pediatrician told Meghan that he is of average height and weight for his age and this is not expected for a cancer patient.  Hopefully this is a positive sign that we have indeed beaten the beast.  We are well aware of the fact that the cancer can recur at anytime and the first five years are the ones to be most watched.  Evan will probably be scanned every six months for those first five years to make sure that he stays cancer free. 
He will start school when everyone else does in a few weeks but when hospitalized he will be tutored by a teacher on staff  at the hospital.  Meghan had to make arrangements to alert the school district when he is under treatment so his absence from regular school days is not counted against him.  In this district after a certain number of days the student is not allowed to continue on to the next grade but must repeat the grade and we are talking kindergarten here.  Hopefully the first month will be the only one messed up and the rest will be normal.
Since I last wrote, the bad port was successfully removed and a new one cell port was re-implanted.  This one is in the middle of his chest and the tube in in the Vena Cava in his neck.  He was able to complete the entire round of red devil and mexothrxate but it took a few extra weeks as he was not able to meet counts on a few occasions.  This was not unexpected and in fact he is meeting counts on a more regular basis that most kids, another positive.

I will post again if we have an event and especially will post at the end of Chemo.  I appreciated all who have followed this journey; one that I hope is coming to a close.