Thursday, February 17, 2005
9/16/04
Jacob finished the last round of chemo end of August. He's had two more MRIs confirming that he's in remission. He started radiation Monday, and he's already completed four sessions - more than a 10th of the way through the whole five-days-a-week-for-6-weeks thing. If everything stays exactly on schedule (not particularly likely) he'll finish Oct 22 - the day before his 12th birthday. There's a link to pix below.
He did really well with chemo - made it through all six sessions without a single blood transfusion, fever or extra hospital admission (all the chemo was in-patient), which, I guess, is some kind of record. When he wasn't in the hospital he biked and skateboarded and boogie boarded and played video games with his friends in the neighborhood.
The last session chemo was hairier (though Jacob is not), both because the toxicity had built up so he was sicker, and because he was really tired of it. He had a loony drug reaction during which he figured out how to raise his bed half way to the ceiling and then fell out of it while I was out of the room looking for a broom to sweep up a bowl of cocoa puffs he'd spilled.
Our room-mate pushed the emergency button, so seven nurses and two docs came tearing down the hall in full adrenalin mode. Poor Jacob was on the floor: crazed with benedryl, all the wind knocked out of him, more than half naked and surrounded by cocoa puffs which crunched under the feet of all the emergency responders. But he was fine and it's done, done, done.
Radiation is scary - the machine is hugely out of human scale, and it swivels silently and smoothly around him like a industrial robot, which i guess it is. I watch on a monitor from a control room. They are able to shape the beam incredibly tightly so only the parts that are meant to be irradiated get zapped. Unfortunately, that includes his whole brain and spine. He's been nauseous from the first day, which isn't great, since the effects are supposed to be cumulative. But the technicians are young and fun, and chat with him about music and video games, and the whole thing only takes half and hour, including waiting room time (Jacob's least favorite thing.)
He's back in school nearly full time, and seems into it in a way he hasn't been in the past. I have high hopes for this year, academically, which I didn't expect to have. Last week he went to a three-day camping trip with his class. He had a blast. A raccoon climbed on one girl's head during the night (or on the tent above her head) and she screamed a lot; that's the main thing I heard about, so far. It was almost surreal having him gone after being with him almost 24 hours a day. I thought I would be nervous, but I wasn't. It helped a lot that his blood counts, which had been pretty low, staged a comeback just in time.
Ellie's all moved into her house. Alex and his girlfriend Letty went back this weekend and helped her paint. See pix of the kitchen cabinets - cherry red, and the walls are green. She likes her graduate program, especially her game theory class. Her boyfriend, also named Jacob, just got a job that will allow him to stay in Philly, so she is thrilled. She really likes this guy.
I'm not planning to go back to work until radiation is done, but luckily I have a couple things lined up so I don't have to feel entirely irrelevant to the working world.
Young's company got new funding which is good, but it meant that he had to take over as VP of engineering, but he's being a pretty good sport about it.
Our dog, Sparky, learned to bring the tennis ball ball right back to your feet when you play fetch. He's a pretty great dog.
He did really well with chemo - made it through all six sessions without a single blood transfusion, fever or extra hospital admission (all the chemo was in-patient), which, I guess, is some kind of record. When he wasn't in the hospital he biked and skateboarded and boogie boarded and played video games with his friends in the neighborhood.
The last session chemo was hairier (though Jacob is not), both because the toxicity had built up so he was sicker, and because he was really tired of it. He had a loony drug reaction during which he figured out how to raise his bed half way to the ceiling and then fell out of it while I was out of the room looking for a broom to sweep up a bowl of cocoa puffs he'd spilled.
Our room-mate pushed the emergency button, so seven nurses and two docs came tearing down the hall in full adrenalin mode. Poor Jacob was on the floor: crazed with benedryl, all the wind knocked out of him, more than half naked and surrounded by cocoa puffs which crunched under the feet of all the emergency responders. But he was fine and it's done, done, done.
Radiation is scary - the machine is hugely out of human scale, and it swivels silently and smoothly around him like a industrial robot, which i guess it is. I watch on a monitor from a control room. They are able to shape the beam incredibly tightly so only the parts that are meant to be irradiated get zapped. Unfortunately, that includes his whole brain and spine. He's been nauseous from the first day, which isn't great, since the effects are supposed to be cumulative. But the technicians are young and fun, and chat with him about music and video games, and the whole thing only takes half and hour, including waiting room time (Jacob's least favorite thing.)
He's back in school nearly full time, and seems into it in a way he hasn't been in the past. I have high hopes for this year, academically, which I didn't expect to have. Last week he went to a three-day camping trip with his class. He had a blast. A raccoon climbed on one girl's head during the night (or on the tent above her head) and she screamed a lot; that's the main thing I heard about, so far. It was almost surreal having him gone after being with him almost 24 hours a day. I thought I would be nervous, but I wasn't. It helped a lot that his blood counts, which had been pretty low, staged a comeback just in time.
Ellie's all moved into her house. Alex and his girlfriend Letty went back this weekend and helped her paint. See pix of the kitchen cabinets - cherry red, and the walls are green. She likes her graduate program, especially her game theory class. Her boyfriend, also named Jacob, just got a job that will allow him to stay in Philly, so she is thrilled. She really likes this guy.
I'm not planning to go back to work until radiation is done, but luckily I have a couple things lined up so I don't have to feel entirely irrelevant to the working world.
Young's company got new funding which is good, but it meant that he had to take over as VP of engineering, but he's being a pretty good sport about it.
Our dog, Sparky, learned to bring the tennis ball ball right back to your feet when you play fetch. He's a pretty great dog.
# posted by Jacob's Dad @ 12:30 PM 
