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| Colorful cranes watch over Jayson as he sleeps. |
It has been a good week for Jayson overall. He's been stable and was able to be out in public more. On Tuesday, we brought him in for his checkup at about 8:00 in the morning and blood was drawn immediately. The results show that Jayson's white blood count has continued to improve. It went from 1.5 on Friday, Oct. 25th to 2.3 on Tuesday. His hemoglobin went from 9.4 last Friday to 8.8 on Tuesday. Because the change wasn't much, Jayson didn't need to get any red blood transfusion. However, he did need to get 2 units of platelets because his platelets had dropped to 13. Dr. McManaman told us to stop giving Jayson the three antibiotics since he didn't have a fever for over a week and his white blood count was improving. She also said that visitors don't have to wear masks anymore when they visit and that Jayson could go out in public once again.
During his appointment, Dr. McManaman also mentioned that getting another chemo treatment was possible again due to the improvement in Jayson's white blood count. She asked us to talk it over with Jayson to see if he wanted to go through another treatment and to let her know on Monday (Nov. 4th) when Jayson returned for his next appointment. She emphasized that their goal was to prolong his life and not to cure him. As I had mentioned before, she doesn't believe they could cure him. All they could try to do is prolong his life and help him be as comfortable and pain-free as possible. The benefit of undergoing chemotherapy was the possibility of prolonging his life, but the risk is that he may end up in the PICU once again. So, it's very important for us to look at both the benefits and risks of another round of chemo treatment. She said if we were interested in having Jayson go through chemotherapy treatments, she would discuss Jayson's case during the tumor board meeting with her colleagues on Nov. 8th to get their opinions on what chemotherapy they would recommend. We left the hospital by 12:30 and headed home. The rest of the day was peaceful and non-eventful.
On Wednesday, Jayson spent most of the day at home. In the evening, we went to a friend's house (Salarda family) for dinner. On Thursday, Halloween day, Jayson rested most of the day. He didn't get enough sleep the night before and was tired a lot. A nurse's assistant came by in the afternoon to help give Jayson a shower. He felt refreshed and had a nice long nap afterwards. At about 6:30 that night, we went to another friend's house (Isip family) for dinner and to celebrate Halloween. Jayson and Henry stayed at their house while the rest of us took all the kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Jayson took advantage of the quiet time by taking another nap while we were gone.
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| Hanging out with Joven |
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| Dinner with the Salarda family |
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| With Mocha in her lady bug costume |
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| Halloween night with family and friends |
Today was not as quiet as the previous days. I was supposed to go in to work for a few hours, but since Jayson was complaining of shortness of breath and had been vomiting, I opted to stay home to observe him. Two hospice nurses came by around 10:00 in the morning to check on Jayson. We discussed some of our concerns, mainly the shortness of breath. After listening to Jayson's lung, it was determined that he had fluids in his lung which limited his capacity to take big, deep breaths. We gave him some medication to help him remove the excess fluids. We also gave him another medication to help with the vomiting.
Earlier this evening, Jayson complained of not getting enough oxygen. We checked his oxygen level and noticed that his oxygen level was going down. After a few minutes Jayson was getting more agitated so we switched his oxygen source from the oxygen machine to an oxygen tank. We also gave him a small dosage of morphine and this helped. It was a bit of a scare to see him struggle with breathing, but he overcame it. As I write this, is in sitting on a recliner in the family room. He is relaxed, comfortable and spending time with his good friend, Joven.
Jayson's appetite the past few days has changed. He hasn't been eating as much as before. I think part of the reason is because he's been vomiting more frequently, regardless of what he eats. So, we're trying to have him eat and drink smaller portions at a time. We're trying to give him all the food he's requested. Today, he asked for some chicken alfredo, but only ate a few teaspoons of it. We hope that he'll begin eating more tomorrow and more importantly, we hope he'll keep it in.
We are expecting more visitors this weekend, so I'm hoping that Jayson will be able to sleep well tonight. He is excited about the possibility of going to his youth group household meeting on Saturday evening. Whether he goes or not will highly depend on how he's feeling tomorrow evening. We hope that he'll be well enough to go and worship with his friends.
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| With Denise & Michelle of Elizabeth Hospice. |
As Jayson continues in his journey, I am aware of the many people Jayson's story has touched. Now, as a hospice patient, there are more people who are added to this list. In just the two weeks he's been with Elizabeth Hospice, he's met about 10 staff members (nurses, social worker, chaplain, nurse assistant, counselor) who's been by our house to check on him and our family. As we met with them, it's obvious that they don't see Jayson just as another hospice patient. They've really tried to get to know him and our family. God has blessed us with another group of people who'll help take care of Jayson.
Thank you for your continued prayers for Jayson and our family. God bless you all!
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