First off, sorry for the hiatus. Due to a few circumstances, not the least of which was a cold, leaving me quarantined from the hospital room, I haven't been keeping everyone up to date. I myself was not entirely up to date. Thankfully, during my absence, Shay's mom was able to keep her (sane) company and help out with Jayne. I believe there is some sort of powerball-esque machine whirling away to decide who the next family member is to sleep on the prison cot made to look like a hospital couch. Tickets will be sold in the lobby.
In the past week, he finished his last chemo treatment, ending a ten day streak of injections, antibiotics, constant vital checks, and nipple shields. I feel like the last is reference to types of mammary armaments, along with breast plates, booby traps, and areola reconnaissance. With all of that over and done with, the real task of healing began. We had to wait for his ANC, which is a count of his neutrophils, to drop to zero before we could really expect any movement in a positive direction i.e. a somewhat functioning immune system. When it did, he was fully exposed and the effects of his therapy started to bombard him rather mercilessly. His hair has begun to fall out, his eyes are chapped, he has been getting a fairly intense diaper rash, his stomach is sensitive at times and, as a result, his sleep is sporadic and fitful.
A few days ago, his fever spiked to around 101, causing the doctors to fear that he might have an infection. This precipitated a battery of antibiotics, a culture of his broviac tube, one failed albeit hilarious-if-it-weren't-so-heart-wrenching attempt to place a catheter, one successful placement of a catheter with a voided bladder, and several concerns of outside sources infection. As it turned out, rather happily, these steps were proven unnecessary. No infection, just Jayne's body healing itself of its wounds. Today will be the last day he needs antibiotics because, for the last 36 hours or so, he hasn't presented a fever.
Not all that happened during this intrepid reporter's absence was dire, though. He's sitting up by himself with a fairly trustworthy track record of stability. He's done more crunches in the past few days than I'm sure the rest of us have (excluding Aunt Cherla). This is opening up a much broader world of playing for him as he can now have a better vantage when he wants to throw his toys on the ground, his version of fetch. Jayne is also taking his first tentative motions on his way to crawling. So far he has only achieved retrograde locomotion. He goes backwards but with style, hence the spruced up jargon. This can be a bit aggravating for him since most of his toys are, in fact, in front of him and he has only ever succeeded in widening the gap between him and them. Still, it's an indication that this young man will soon be mobile, however limited by his IV stand, in a short time.
And now for something completely different.
Jayne's ANC is 26! That's fantastic news, as long as it continues to increase. There is no guarantee that his levels won't sporadically fluctuate and there is till the long haul before his mother and I. His body needs to get that number to 250 but any increase is good news. We'll have a better idea of just how well he is bouncing back in the subsequent days as we see how gradual or random his numbers increase or decrease. Now it's the waiting game. Which really isn't much different from the game we've been playing all along, now it's just waiting, with style.
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