One year ago today..
It is true what they say about what a difference a year makes. One year ago Zachary went through what would be 14 hours of surgery and the beginning of a 47 day hospital stay. How Paula and I long for the days when all our children had to care about on this Valentines Day was the great anticipation of a decorated shoe box soon full of Valentines from their friends and classmates.
Now, they worry about their brother and the battle that continues as he struggles to adjust to his maintenance program. I would not say that it has been as easy as the Doctors may lead you to think. Zach spent 3 days in the hospital last week due to low blood counts which led to neutropenic fever (this was after the first full month of treatment). When fever arrives they do not mess around. Hospitalization happens. They pumped him full of antibiotics and pain meds which did indeed make him better (as they always have). He loses his appetite for 2 days after the vinorelbine is administered but it does come back (of course with help from marinol). I also would mention that he does bounce back much quicker overall and his blood counts were very good going into the start of his second month of treatments.
We are now going to travel to Lockport Illinois to have these done. This should make a difference in how much of the day is taken up for a couple of reasons. First the drive time will be cut down considerably and the wait to get his chemo will be less due to fact that fewer people will be at this satellite office. There is a never ending stream of cancer patients at Loyola and everyone waits their turn to be treated. Most wait times are 2 to 3 hours just to get blood results and the chemo administered at a minimum (often longer) combine that with an hour to an hour and a half commute each way and you really can see how quickly he day is lost.
Zachary does not complain and still does many things you would expect an 18 year old (19 in April) would do. That age sounds pretty sweet when you think we started this journey while Zach was still 15 and many other children have not made it. We continue the hopeful outlook and will report again after Zachary has his 3 month scans net month (we can feel the scanxiety building already).
Last but not least we give praise to the heavenly father whose grace has kept Zachary here with us.
We love our family, friends and community so much. Happy Valentines Day to all of you.
Please remember to pray for others that are having a hard time or have lost their loved ones.
Love,
Kevin, Paula, James, Zachary, Gage and Sierra( thank God for the girl because when it comes to boys, I quote Forrest Gump “Stupid is as stupid does”.
>>>>Most of posts on this blog are written by Kevin McCulloch (Zach's Dad) and copied from http://www.carepages.com/ in an effort to share their thoughts, their hopes, their dreams and their frustrations while they help Zach battle cancer.
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