... 7........

Kam went to the cancer clinic on Friday for his weekly check-up and possible admission for his next round of chemotherapy. He made counts and was admitted to the hospital yesterday. Last night he got his 7th (to last) round of chemotherapy. This is the medicine that causes the blisters on his hands and feet. A very rare and unfortunate side effect. He has already experienced blisters to both feet the previous round of chemotherapy, that seem to be healing well. One of his cancer doctors told him "you know that's really weird, right?" I explained to Kam that was doctor code for "you've been super interesting and we plan to talk about you at our next conference with all our doctor nerd buddies."

He also had his monitoring chest CT his last hospital admission, which showed the 5 nodules in his lungs remain unchanged since his initial diagnosis in April. Furthermore, the oncology team and radiologist said the appearance of these nodules "don't look like cancer." All things considered, this was the best news we could get! The plan is to keep watching them for any changes.

So far, this hospital stay, he has remained quite "boring." Which, in the cancer world, is a very very good thing. It's never good news as the patient or family to be interesting or exciting to your medical providers. He underwent a screening echocardiogram (an ultrasound of his heart) yesterday to monitor for any heart side effects, known to be possible with one of his chemotherapy medications. This turned out normal and unchanged. For now, Kameron mostly rests. He occasionally asks for food or watches videos on his phone. We like boring. Boring means you get to go home, once your treatment is done, as anticipated. 

Today, we got some unexpected good news. One of the oncology doctors (Kam has a team of 4 doctors) rounded and notified us that his next chemotherapy cycle, some of the medication can be done in their office and he may not need to stay in the hospital next week! This was very wonderful and exciting news. No offense hospital, thanks for saving our man-cub and all, but we would LOVE to see you a lot less than we already have to! This means of his 6 chemotherapy treatments he has left--- only 4 more would require a hospital admission. 

Should Kam make counts for each of the 6 remaining chemotherapy treatments, he will likely be discharged on or around his birthday. Please keep this in your prayers. Kam has been brave and strong this entire battle. He has continued to desire to be done in time for his birthday and Christmas. We want this so badly for him and would welcome any and all prayers in this regard. Also, he has started to talk more about what he wants to do after this battle is over for him. Please also keep this in prayer. We know that whatever Kameron sets his mind to, he does. And he does it with excellence and strength. Thank you friends, for joining us in heart and prayer for our guy. It really means a lot to our entire family.  

Last Two Week Break, Misfortune, and Fortune Cookies

Kameron made counts and was admitted to the hospital again this morning for his next regimen of chemotherapy. Yes, he is hospitalized each time he gets chemo. No, it's (unfortunately) not possible for him to do this outpatient due to the type of chemotherapy his specific cancer requires. The good news is he has 8 treatments left for his osteosarcoma protocol. He has 7 left after this current hospitalization.

This regimen of chemo is the one that will, inevitably, cause sores to his hands and feet. This rare side effect is unfortunately, anticipated to worsen each combo (he gets 2 of these back to back) that he does. He is expected to have 6 of the 8 remaining rounds with this form of chemotherapy. The plan for now is to trudge ahead and continue with the protocol until Kameron cannot tolerate it anymore. If/when that happens, the plan then is to do half of the dose. These are what we call in medicine "a rock and a hard place" kinds of decisions.

Kameron enjoyed this last 2 week break from chemotherapy that he is expected to have. After his next two rounds, things will speed up for the last 6 treatments with only a couple 1 week breaks in-between. We remain hopeful and prayerful that his chemo treatments will be done in time for his birthday and Christmas.  He spent this break playing video games with friends and his brothers. He also got to spend time with his cat Petey. These two have really bonded over these past few weeks. He is the best cat dad.

Kameron & Petey

We got a good scare this past week when our youngest son quite suddenly spiked a fever and started coughing. Our youngest two sons are not yet eligible for the COVID vaccine, and it unexpectedly put me into an IMMEDIATE quarantine with our youngest. And it had Jesse holding down the fort with our other 3 sons. But regardless of what virus "it was" we have to immediately quarantine away from Kam due to his low white blood cell count. I took our youngest to a local urgent care and had him tested for COVID. Thankfully, his fever broke within 24 hours and his test was negative. We've had to continue quarantine for him to keep Kam away from ANY possible viral infection, as his immune system cannot handle it. 

Our dog Harley's social distanced visit while we awaited COVID test results 

Please continue to pray for Kam. And for his youngest brother, who is still recovering from a viral bug. For our family, as we've had to dive in, dig deep, and divide and conquer right before a really grueling set of back to back hospitalizations. Which, already keeps our family separated for multiple days at a time. For our friend, Kirby who has gone above and beyond to help our family out in a million different ways in this hard season (all of which will likely embarrass her if I tried to list them out here, so I'll refrain). She has been a gift to our family. She helps to keep all of us moving forward when we feel we want to give up. It's an incredible blessing to have friends that hold up your arms when you feel you can't endure much more. 

If you know Kam well, then you know he has a knack for knowing "good" things. Whether it be picking out the best cat at the rescue shelter, the best foods at a restaurant, music, you name it. He just knows good stuff! Tonight his fortune cookie with dinner couldn't have been ANY more accurate! So I'll leave you with this....