March 17, 2006

March 17, 2006

Hello Everyone,

Gabriel was in the hospital last Monday thru Saturday. I'd taken him to the hospital because he had a fever of 102.4. After getting to the hospital an hour later his temperature was gone. With this cancer, however, doctor's can not take any chances. Normal protocol is to monitor his labs for 48hrs as well as give antibiotics for the duration of his stay. When monitoring his labs they look for a number of viruses he may have or may be growing. Fortunately, Gabriel labs were negative (no viruses ...). Why where we still in the hospital after 48hrs?

Gabriel counts went from low to very low during our stay. In my last long email I wrote about Neutropenia. He was neutropenic, but this time his ability to fight infections, etc went to 0. The doctor told me it would be dangerous to send him home with his counts being this low even though he seemed fine. She wanted him to reach 200 before leaving. His counts went up slowly. On Thursday, he got a blood transfusion because his hemoglobin was 7, hoping to give him a boost. By Saturday his ANC (Neutrophils count) had reached 157. The doctor allowed us to go home because his counts where recovering. YAY!

This week we started Phase 3 of his 3 year protocol 'Augmented Maintenance Interim'. Starting a new phase required his ANC to reach 750 and platelets 75. His ANC was over 1000, Platelets where 489, and Hemoglobin almost 11. He'd recovered awesomely starting his new phase Wednesday with a spinal tab or lumbar puncture (IT MTX) and two IV chemos. Returning Thursday for PEG a chemo given by IM (shot). The chemos given in this phase aren’t new with exception of MTX given thru IV. This Chemo most commonly causes light sensitivity, lowers counts, and nausea among other things. They will be increasing his dosage every week by 50 as long as Gabriel counts are okay. Please pray for him with this new Chemo.

Gabriel is trying to through balls. He uses a forward arm motion, but the ball ends up behind him. He's become interested in being chased by Steve and me. He'll try to run out of his hospital room whenever he gets a chance so we can catch him. He still wrestles with Justin faithfully.

I am enrolling him with a development program because some of the chemo he is receiving could affect his development. Yesterday I met with a Rep to assess Gabriel. My testimony is his motor skills are high; he needs only speech therapy because he doesn't talk or say words. He communicates with his hands and sounds. This may not be a development problem but I have requested speech therapy as well as a development therapist to work with him to prevent or teach him to supplement in the future if the chemo affects him.

Wednesday, Gabriel made a new friend named Christian in Clinic. Christian is 17 years old, he has Lymphoma (sp). He was diagnosed in August and must have six months of chemo. He talked to me about how hard the chemo is for him sometimes. "Some days it makes me weak or I feel sick." He can't wait until this is over so he can enjoy his senior year of high school next year. I will always remember him telling me, "I know God has already healed me and Gabriel is healed too." What an encouragement, what a fighter! I don't know how the chemo makes Gabriel feel because he can't tell me when he hurts or where. I know something is wrong by him crying or wanting to be held. I watch him for signs and still I don't everything he struggles with. I enjoyed talking to Christian because he told me what Gabriel can't and to be honest I almost cried in front of him.

There are many wonderful fighters I meet who battle this cancer. I hope I can tell you about more. Please pray for Kayla and her family as she begins the most intense chemo to prepare her for a bone marrow transplant, which doctors to tell her Grandparents, is a last resort providing her a 40% cure chance. Angela (her grandmother) believes God for a miracle and hoping to survive this time. She told me God has the last word. Kayla will be receiving her bone marrow April 15. Her father can't be found and her mother left two Thursday’s ago, I pray she's returned home. Please keep this family in your prayers and in your hearts.

We thank all of you for your prayers and support.

Angela