End of 1st Phase of Chemo - what's next?

The 6th Chemo marks the end of Phase 1 of the Chemo Treatment.

In 3 week's time (16th Nov) will be the appointment to meet with the Orthopedic Surgeon.
This appointment will reveal the followings:

a. the state of the tumour in the right leg (fibula)
b. where and how to remove the tumour via surgery
c. how much of the leg could be saved?(amputation was the initial proposal before chemo started)

As of today, the hardened lump has disappeared on the right leg after the chemos.
But we can still see with the naked eye that the right calf is slightly swollen and bigger than the left.

Xray, CT Scan and MRI will be scheduled in a fortnight's time.

Please pray that God will be gracious and save Samuel's leg.

Amen.

Day 2 & 3 of Treatment

Relatively smooth for the last 2 days.

Sam will start the day with breakfast, have soup for lunch and will avoid food for dinner.
That's because at 8pm is the start of the 2 hrs monster drip called Ifosomide, which causes nausea and vomitting. So Sam decides the best way is to avoid food completely, and sleep by 9pm. Actually, its a pretty good strategy by the boy.

Meanwhile, it will be flushing drips throughout the night till 11am tomorrow, where the final drip of Doxo (4hrs) will begin. After that, it's home sweet home. We surely are looking forward to that.

Cheers.

Day 1 of treatment

We didn't manage to get the A ward that Claire wanted very much. Instead, we are in a 4 bedder B1 ward. There are just 2 occupiers at the moment, Sam and another boy around his age. So it's not so bad after all. Just hoping that the beds don't get filled up in the next few days, so that we can use the space around us. Day 1 treatment started only at 3pm. We have now finished with the Vincristine, Epotopside and Ifosamide. It's flushing time, from now to tomorrow 11am before the administration of the last drug, Doxorubin. That will the completion of the first cycle, which takes a 24 hours. 3 cycles of this same treatment will complete this round of treatment. Samuel is now taking the treatment with stride. He read his story books, watch some TV, played with his PSP, got to computer games and Facebook. He ate a little bit of noodles for dinner, and is taking sufficient liquid. By 9:30pm, he is tired and went to bed after saying a short prayer. Mummy will spend the night with Sam at the hospital.

Preparing for 6th chemo next Mon 17 Oct

Thank you once again for praying for Samuel during his 5th chemo.
I know of a group of friends who prayed fervently for him for 3 hrs!
Thank you for your deep love for Samuel. We had a breakthrough when
Samuel took some meals that time.

Frankly, I was quite disturbed during our stay in B1 ward.
Some concerned friends and family members who visited
the patient opposite us seemed to have a tug of war between religion.
Very disturbing as some of them were 'forcing' the eight year old
 to choose between Jesus and Buddha in order to ursher in the ONE to
help her ! First night, there were prayers up to 11 pm ...
Miraculously through it all, Samuel still experienced a deep sense of
HIS PEACE and he slept through the commotion!

For 6th chemo, please pray for HIS provision for a A Ward.
I had been cooking simple meals for him in the hospital using
the hotpot as he rejects hospital meals. Pray that HE will help
me in Samuel's meal preparation.

Please pray for God's protection upon Samuel as he needed a
blood transfusion last week due to low Hb. Pray that
chemotheraphy will effectively eradicate the cancer cells and
for His protection to spare his good cells and whole being.

Often times, Samuel withdraws into his own room
to do his own things. Pray that we will be able to meet his needs
physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Sam has sore throat in the first weekend back home.
The GCSF jab on friday made him lethargic the following day.
We kept a watchful eye over him.
Thankfully, he recovered and this week, he is back to his usual self

Sunday was particularly nice as we have Ezra (Sam's best friend) at our house.
It brought joy to Sam as they chatted almost endlessly.
The next hospital consultation was planned for Sam & Ezra to be together, so the boys are really looking forward to it.

The massive lump on his right calf surrounding the tumour seemed to have disappeared to the naked eye after 5 rounds of chemo treatment
We don't know the condition of the bone tumour at this moment though.
Has it shrunk, is it still the same as before....?

We will need to wait for the completion of the 6th chemo treatment.
Only then will the orthopedic surgeon examine Sam and decide on the next action
Its pretty frustrating as the doc simply refused to tell us anything. Not even a word of encouragement.
In fact, we got ticked off for arranging a session to meet with the surgeon ahead of schedule.....

Well, MOH certainly trained their doctors well, all with good brains but i wonder why are their hearts and that little element of EQ?

Anyway, we still trust that God will save the leg and the need to amputate will not be necessary.
Please pray along....thanks.