July 25, 2013

Thursday
Weight 14.12 kg
ACH Unit 1
Nurses; Kelcey, Sarah and Janey

I have to say my son it never gets easier to leave home and leave your mom and sisters behind,but we are getting close to the end.  We have officially started your maintenance cycles as all your remission tests came back positive showing no signs of cancer in your body.  Your maintenance protocol is still considered pretty aggressive treatment but should be easier on your body; it has to be aggressive to make sure it still kills any un-detectable cancer cells as they will still metabolize fast.  Things have started off well except taking your predisone, which you continue to bring back up.  I am trying to mask the taste in apple juice and other foods but it is not really helping.  I am working with the Pharmacist to see what we can do to make this process a little easier.

This trip is also a bit easier for two more reasons.  The first reason being you are excited to come back to "your" hospital.  Our time spent in the Medicine Hat hospital was good, but I think we have grown used to our surroundings, nurses, families and routines in Alberta Children's Hospital.  I know for myself I re-enforced how special a program it really is, in-particular being surrounded by other friends and families in the same situation.  Its hard to describe, but everything changed when you were diagnosed and its something that really is unique to a family that is going through or gone through this devastating journey.  In unit 1, you can still have down days but as we have said before you live through a lot of the other families around you. In Medicine Hat, we were isolated from this type of support and your mother and I struggled a bit to keep ourselves positive, it was just different..  As usual, you had a very warm welcoming from the nursing staff and after spending the day in clinic and a couple hours on the unit you had already initiated a full out water fight; this made you smile ear to ear.

The second reason its easier coming back is mom and sisters are soon to follow, they are coming on Saturday.  Its been such a critical part of your treatment to be as normal as a family as we can be.  To this point it has been your mom and I in Calgary with you in hospital and just us when we are out.  Mom has been the yo-yo bouncing back and forth trying to keep our lives here and your sisters lives at home working.  Now that its summer we are all going to stay up here together and get to do some things as a family, extending our time together.  When we are together we see such huge lifts in your attitude and determiner and this comes out in your energy, mood and appetite.  Chemo can take care of cancer cells but it takes family to make sure you believe and support your treatments mentally as well.  The ladies should be around with us until we get to head back home in about 2 weeks.

Love,

Dad