The In-between

Kam has bounced back, slowly but surely each day, since resuming his chemotherapy. His weight has miraculously maintained to improved since his last hospitalization, despite him having quite a few rough (not feeling well nor up to) eating days. We have absolutely zero explanation for this, but know God's looking out for Kam! His hair that has grown back in, has miraculously hung on longer than the last round of chemotherapy too. 

He is making good progress with his knee surgery recovery, and in physical therapy as well. He likes his physical therapist therapist and PT aide, and they both like to tease one another and talk about cool cars. 

Kameron had a recent bone scan which came back inconclusive. The doctor recommended x-rays to rule out evidence of metastatic (spread cancer) lesions and thankfully those came back as ok. 

This week we learned Kameron's blood counts are very low and, in particular, his platelets (these help with clotting/stopping bleeding), are very low. Normal is 150,000 or more. His were 11,000. We had to stop his Aspirin to prevent blood clots and are watching him for any signs of uncontrollable bleeding. He has already underwent a platelet transfusion once, which improved his numbers only slightly to 14,000. He will see the clinic again on Monday and he may need a transfusion then. Until then we are watching him incredibly close for any problems.

I got to have lunch date unexpectedly with Jesse and Kam this past week, after Kameron had physical therapy. His physical therapists office is located across the hall from where I work as a PA. Kam had Jesse text me an invite and you better believe I jumped on the chance to have Panera with some of my best men!

This morning Kam woke up with a foreign body sensation in one of his eyes. I found a cluster of eyelashes that had turned inward and were poking him and removed them. It felt some better, but is still bothering him a significant amount. He is seeing his eye doctor later today for a thorough check. 

Kameron has spent his past 2 off weeks playing video games, watching funny or cute cat videos, and building more Lego cars. He has been doing a great job on them and intends to have a whole fleet when he is done!

Please pray for Kameron's counts to improve. He is tentatively scheduled this coming Thursday for his next round of chemo, but that cannot happen if his platelets are below 50,000. Delays in treatment push back his finish date, and he is very hopeful he can be done by his birthday and Christmas. Please pray for his eye pain to get better soon; and that the sores on his tongue he developed from the chemo, continue to heal and resolve. 

Thank you, friends. ❤ 

First Round of Post Surgery Chemotherapy

This past Tuesday, Kameron was re-admitted to the hospital to begin his 18 weeks of post-surgery chemotherapy for his osteosarcoma. He has since ben discharged back home. He is making excellent progress with physical therapy with his right knee range of motion, and his pain has remained minimal! He takes his Celebrex only for his pain. He has picked up an interest in really cool cars (ex: McClellan, Bugatti, Ferrari, Porsche). He bought himself his dream car Bugatti Lego. And as a celebration of his recent amazing pathology report results-- we got him a Porsche Lego which he finished putting together before his most recent hospitalization.

This round of chemotherapy has been more difficult and harder on his body. He has been sicker. We believe one of the medications that had helped minimize this for him, was helping him far more than we had realized. Unfortunately, this is the same medication that led to his fall and low blood pressure while previously in the hospital. Side effects have been a hard and mucky part of this journey to navigate.  

Because Kameron has been sicker, it's harder to inspire and encourage him to eat and drink. Basically, our mantra has been "what doesn't sound horrible?" During chemo treatments, we've all had to shift our frame of mind from what sounds good, to what sounds like you might be able to keep it down? Sometimes the answer is mom's special snacks (the one's I usually would share with NO ONE). Sometimes it's ice cream on a giant brownie from Stella's. Basically, so long as he is eating, it doesn't matter. He is eating.

We did receive some good news from the hospital's social worker that Kameron has tentatively been approved for disability. What this exactly means for him, we don't know yet. We do know that we have additional paperwork to complete and that we will have more financial assistance with Kameron's medical bills. Which is a HUGE blessing!

Kameron gets to have a couple week break from treatment and then resumes an intense 3 weeks of back to back weekly chemotherapy treatments and hospitalizations before his next break.   

Please continue to pray for our family as we've been hit hard with even more stressors lately. School is starting soon for our younger three in the coming week or so (and they're all super excited). Navigating last minute back to school shopping items that come up, various doctor's appointments for all the kiddos, and a grueling chemotherapy regimen for Kam while mom also works full time-- is no joke. Let alone the ability to make time for self care in this season. (We are doing our best).

Thank you to our tribe. Those who continue to hold us up in prayer/love/thought, through words of affirmation, encouragement and in acts of service. We thank God daily for you. We often get told "we have no idea how you're doing this." It's Jesus. And it's God showing up through our people like you. Holding our arms up when we just cannot do it anymore. It's showing up in your various acts of love and support. You're proof that it takes a village. And we are so very grateful for our tribe. 💖💖💖

The Pathology Report

This week Kameron got a break from visiting the oncology clinic, as his chemotherapy treatments are on hold until he's cleared by his orthopedic surgeon. As much as we adore his oncologists, it was nice to have less doctor visits for a change. He saw the surgeon on Tuesday.  Kam had the dressings all removed from his leg (sweet, sweet freedom!!) and steri-strips put in their place. He was also given a bit of freedom to take the brace off when he is sedentary or laying down, and he is allowed to put a bit more weight on his leg now. X-rays were taken and show his knee replacement is looking absolutely perfect! The incision is healing well and he is doing better each week. His surgeon cleared him to begin his post-operative course of chemotherapy as soon as early next week. His doctor also ordered physical therapy to work on knee bending, which he started this morning. He learned today how to get up and downstairs safely so he can finally sleep in his own bed! He has stretches to do at home to keep him busy.

His chemotherapy (and hospitalizations) will start again on Tuesday (8/10/21). It will be 18 weeks in total on the post-operative end of his treatment plan. The first 10 weeks look identical to the previous pre-operative 10 weeks of chemotherapy, and the last 8 weeks are closer together and we lose one of his 3 chemotherapy medications at that point. If all goes well and as planned, he will be done just prior to his birthday and Christmas. 

Today, Kameron's surgeon called us with news of the pathology report. He had negative margins (meaning: they see no tumor cells outside of the big tumor they knew laid inside his femur) and that nearly all of those tumor cells were D-E-A-D! This means Kam's chemotherapy is WORKING and his cancer is responding very well to the chemotherapy medications they are giving him. This was literally the BEST news we could have received and means excellent things for his prognosis!

Please continue to pray for our fighter. And our family as we support his fight. We are about to enter round #3.  We fight on.