Rocky Road

     Last night, Van’s fingertips went numb, he started shaking and he said all food tastes like cardboard. At midnight things started going downhill. Van started having severe pain in his lower back with super bad back spasms. We tried all the medicine we had available and when it didn’t work, we called the doctor and she tried to help, but after talking to her twice throughout the night and with no good results, she had us leave to go to the hospital around 5:30 this morning. I just wanted to thank the Principal at Tooele High School, Steve Livingston, for feeling impressed to pray for Van in his classroom right as we were arriving at the hospital. He needed those prayers along with all the others that were praying this morning.
     We already had an out-patient appointment this morning, so we just arrived a little early. The Doctor promised she would have morphine ready. I called when we were 10 minutes out and made sure they were ready for us. They gave him some powerful medicine, but it only helped the spasms and not his pain. So they gave him a larger dose and it only helped for 15 minutes. After four different I.V. medicines and two pain patches, the pain went from a 10 to a 6. I personally wanted it as low as a 1 or a 2, but was told it probably won’t happen for a few days and he’ll just have to bear the pain. The Doctor thinks the pain is caused by the Neupogen shots. Van has been receiving the shots this past week to stimulate the growth of his white blood cells because they were all killed off with Chemo. His counts have come up quickly, but it is causing a lot of pain deep in his bones. He also had back surgery when he was in High School and the scar and pain are in the same spot. He had a horribly painful lumbar puncture a week and a half ago from which he is still feeling the pain. They are stopping the Neupogen shots for now, but we’ll have to go back tomorrow morning to get his blood work done and see if he is ok. We were able to come home at 5:30 tonight, but will leave at 8:30 in the morning for testing again. Van is ok with that because he just wants to be with his family even if it is for just a few hours.
     We did find out more about our donors today. We found out that out of the three donors the first one didn’t match like they wanted, the second one went in to be tested last week and the third one finally went in yesterday to get tested. Now it will take a few weeks to do more in-depth testing of their blood to find out if either one of them will be his “match”. In a way this is good. Since it will take a little longer to get a donor, the Doctors have decided to postpone his Phase 2 Chemo Session a week later. So now we won’t go back to the hospital until March 8th. Van is so excited to have a real week with his family!