An Emotional Roller Coaster

Please, Stop the Vomit! 

Wow. What a crazy week and a half since my last post. After Archer's third chemo treatment, he was doing pretty well, though because he was still throwing up, he had to come home on TPN (which is basically a liquid form of nourishment with proteins, calories, carbohydrates and added vitamins) along with a bag of lipids (the medical form of Crisco). He packs the bags and pumps around in a backpack that is as large as he is. Though he can't carry the backpack on his own, he does enjoy dragging it behind him. If you can see past the situation for a second, it is quite adorable!

What Break?

We were home for almost four days and looking forward to another week being away from the hospital, when Archer contracted a fever and we had to take him to the ER. Aubrey had been up all night giving him medicine every 3 hours and taking his temperature so I took him to UVRMC ER at 7:30 in the morning on Sunday while Aubrey and Kaesia slept. As soon as we were put in a room, Archer said he wanted to watch football. I was okay with that! They ran a bunch of tests and found out that he had Enterovirus and had to be admitted at PCMC for a couple days. We had promised Kaesia that we were going to play with her all week since it was Archer's week off from chemo. She was heartbroken when Aubrey left her and she had to be peeled off her leg, screaming and crying. It was terrible! Archer was also elated to leave UVRMC so you can imagine the devastation when we got to Primary Children's. His first two words upon arrival were "fish" and "pizza" so we let him drown his sorrows in an ocean of fish and cheesy, round bliss.

Aubrey and Archer spent the next couple of days in the hospital while Kaesia and I tried to manage without them. She was babysat a lot while I went to work and school so I promised her that Monday night, we would go on a date. We ended up going to feed the ducks and she was ecstatic. It was so good to see her having so much fun! 

Home, Sweet Home

Archer was discharged early Tuesday evening after having his week 4 tests (chest x-ray, ultrasound, audiogram, blood tests, etc.). He was so excited to come home! He has been running around (which makes it hard to keep up with him with all the tubes and pumps), talking up a storm and being quite the little jokester. He hasn't thrown up consistently for several days now and is generally feeling quite well. 

The Hard Part

Though things are going well right now, this last week and a half has been astonishingly difficult the majority of the time. Archer has been throwing up, attached to tubes 24/7 with his port accessed and having to take medicine every three hours to try and stop him from throwing up. Aubrey has been catching throw up, spending day and night at the hospital, feeling like a terrible mother because she goes days without seeing Kaesia and being overwhelmed by the constant attention that Archer requires. Kaesia has been having fun with the family that is babysitting her but has a hard time sleeping away from home and all she wants is for all of us to be together at home. 

Work and school is always busy but this past week, I had to have surgery to remove a pre-cancerous tumor that was found on my leg last month during my annual cancer checkup. I was expecting an excision site of about an inch or maybe two inches in length but it ended up being just over four inches long, an inch wide and about an inch and a half deep. This made it so I could barely walk for three or four days, making it even more difficult for Aubrey. 

There have been more times than I can count this week where we felt like we weren't going to be able to make it through the day. As Aubrey's mom pointed out, we were a pretty pathetic bunch with Archer attached to hoses, me not being able to walk, Kaesia looking like a homeless child because she hadn't bathed for a couple days and Aubrey wearing Scotch tape glasses from Archer's latest attempt at wearing them. 

There Is A Bright Side

Through all of this, we've had those redeeming moments that refresh our minds and help us pull through. Seeing Archer throw his hands up in the air and shout "Yay" in his most nasally voice whenever he gets to come home. Watching Kaesia chase a swarm of over 20 ducks, hurling stale bread at them and wondering why they don't just flock toward her. It is moments like that which make this bearable.

A bit of light shining through the cloud cover is that Archer's tests all came back great. The tumor in his liver has reduced almost 20% in size, his hearing is still at 100% and his counts are all great. And even though he has enterovirus, he has only had a minor fever, slight cough and stuffy nose. And according to the doctors, his hair should have fallen out by now. He may be one of VERY few that doesn't lose it after all.