RT 14: BOOST DAY

Monday’s are never fun. It’s hard to get up early and get back into our routine. Especially lately since it has been in the 40’s in the morning and we just aren’t used to that kind of weather!! Caleb kept his head warm with his cute little beanie. First of all he didn’t want me to take his picture, and second of all I think James may have put it on backwards, but at any rate he looked adorable all bundled up!

We dropped Tyler off at school and then headed to St. Jude for Caleb’s first appointment. He had a psychology evaluation, which is standard protocol for all brain tumor patients. They like to study then over several years to watch for any changes in their behavior. They also tested motor function and a few other things. I was not allowed to stay with Caleb so he was with the psychologist for an hour and a half! I was surprised at the length and thoroughness, which seems silly for a 3 year old. But I think it will be good down the road to have a baseline in case anything changes.

After his Psych test we had a little bit of a break. I took this opportunity to meet with a family I met online through a friend. It’s always nice to connect with other St. Jude patients and hear their stories. I am happy to report that this family has a success story and their daughter is healthy, strong and cancer free! I just can’t wait to share Caleb’s story with people some day!

Then it was finally time for our afternoon Radiation appointment. Unfortunately they were running behind, so it was 3pm before Caleb was put under anesthesia. We played play-doh and played on his iPad, but I think we were both bored and over all the waiting!!!

Despite all the waiting, the nice part about today was he only got his “boost” treatment at the tumor bed site, so the treatment itself was only about 30 minutes compared to the hour and a half that his previous treatments were. We were out of recovery after a little over an hour total! I feel like we will finally be able to regain part of our day instead of his radiation treatments taking up so much of our day! He has early morning appointments the rest of the week so hopefully the rest of the week will go smoothly.

Caleb was definitely a little nauseous when he woke up. This is the first time he hasn’t immediately wanted his juice and snacks. I recognized right away that he wasn’t feeling well and they gave him a dose of Zofran to help. This kicked in pretty quickly and then he was back to eating. By the time we got home he sat down with a whole plate of mini cinnamon rolls to watch TV and rest.

Tomorrow marks the half way point of our radiation treatments. As the radiation builds up in him we have started to see a few side effects, like his hair falling out, and him feeling a little sick. But I am hoping he will continue to stay strong and energetic through the rest of his radiation!