I have a few minutes in between working to update you on the past two weeks since I know some of you do not Facebook. (lucky you!!) Lucas finished the last dose of Erwinia this past Friday. Everything seems to be going as planned. No allergic reactions and his body is responding like the doctors expect. He is also finishing his last 7 day dose of Decadron tonight. The home health nurse is coming today to access his port and draw blood. If his counts are good we are scheduled for inpatient on Tuesday to receive another round of High Dose Methotrexate. 24 hours of the chemo and then he gets fluids to flush it out. Once his levels are good, we get to go home. The biggest problem we will have is the "fallout" from the chemo will hit right around Christmas. We are keeping our fingers crossed that all goes well.
Tomorrow also requires another Spinal tap. Last week we had another horrible experience with pre-op nursing staff. Two of the nurses that took care of Lucas were completely inept in their knowledge of general nursing. They were unable (or simply refused) to follow orders given to them by APN's and doctors. Not to mention, the nurse that was supposed to access Lucas' port MISSED it completely the first time and had the audacity to ask if it he always had a hard time getting blood return. Then she had to poke him again and tried to make up for it with him. Fool!!! He doesn't forgive or forget that easily. The other nurse told us that our APN said we didn't need blood work after they asked for it and five minutes later she was confronted and questioned why she didn't draw the blood work. Her answer,"The poke was traumatic for the patient and you (APN) said not to draw blood." What the APN actually said was that she didn't need to wait for results to do the procedure. On a positive note, the check-in staff and the recovery nurses are ALWAYS kind and caring and attentive. I am not sure how there is such a HUGE disconnect in the middle.
I have to get back to work. As always, thank you for reading and I will try for another update at the end of the week at the latest.
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