Jackson Started Chemo Today

Jackson was admitted to UCSF Children's Hospital on Monday to begin his chemotherapy. They gave him his first dose of Cysplatin shortly after midnight. He is doing well. He threw up a couple times today. He is on zofran, an anti-nausea med, and he also has a patch of some sort behind his ear for nausea. If he needs more meds for nausea we use benadryl first and if that doesn't help he can have adavan. We have just been hangin' out here in the room. I make trips to the playroom for toys and games to keep us busy. He hasn't had much interest in going down to the playroom, I don't think he is feeling that up to it.

Tomorrow, Jackson gets a dose of a chemo called Cytoxin. They say he will probably get nauseous during the infusion. He will have another dose of Cytoxin on Thursday morning, and he will be hydrated 12-24 hours after that infusion. He has been on hydration since he has been inpatient, but they have to flush the chemo drugs out of his system to prevent bladder and kidney damage. The test his urine every 1-2 hours to check for signs of any problems.

Hopefully on Friday morning he will get discharged and we will go to family house for a few days until his outpatient visit on Monday. He will get a dose of vincristine on Monday and they will also do blood work. Sometime during this hospital stay, the nurses will instruct me how to do subcutaneous injections for Jackson. 24 hours after his last dose of chem, I will have to give daily injections of a drug called GCSF that helps boost his blood cell count. This will go on for 10 days after each cycle of chemo.

I received his final MRI report today. It says no evidence of recurrent medulloblastoma and the oncologist confirmed that the spinal tap came back clear. Our prayers are being answered each step of the way, so please keep praying for Jackson!

Jenise