Tuesday is a 4-star day

Logan is feeling good this evening, holding down food, and drinking like a sailor. We even had three rounds of wrestling before dinner. As usual, I was overmatched when Logan and Amanda decided to work together. Tonight will be a good night for the family to relax and rest.

Day Two of Treatment

NO CANCER FOUND IN THE SPINAL FLUID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were due for some good news and this definitely qualifies! So no more spinal taps until next month. : ) Logan is VERY happy that he didn't get any pokes today.

It was a shorter day in the office for us since he only received three drugs today. Tomorrow will be another long day...

Right now he's feeling fine. He ate lunch and is now playing. Hopefully, since he didn't get the Daunorubiein (red stuff) today, he won't have as much vomiting this evening.

A Good Night

FYI - We all slept through the night fine. Day 2 begins.

All is well

Logan did have some normal side effects from chemo Monday evening, but nothing too extreme. He has been sleepy, achy, and nauseous, but is taking treatment well so far. I could describe his state as similar to food poisoning, but without the miserable feeling between bouts of vomiting. He feels good one moment, vomits the next, then right back to "normal". He is being a strong little soldier; mom and dad are proud of him.

First Day Of Chemo

We are back from the doctor from Logan's first chemo therapy treatment. We were there from 9:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m... a LONG time for a little boy! He didn't have any allergic reactions to the medicines in the office (good news). Right before we left, the doctor did the spinal tap and let me say, Logan was NOT impressed! We'll get the results from that test tomorrow morning when we go back for more treatment. If no cancer cells are in the spinal fluid sample they drew then no more are needed until next month, otherwise it's one spinal tap a day for 9 more days : (

We've spent the afternoon getting the sick guy all set up in this bedroom. Entertainment at his fingertips, vomit bucket at the ready, and a special drink cup full to the brim. He's not feeling well, as expected. Vomiting, fatigue, and joint pain are his complaints at the moment. Eric or I will be administering his next set of meds at 10:00 tonight so we may be sleeping in shifts depending on how bad he's feeling.

Tomorrow's doctors appointment is at 9:30 a.m. but shouldn't take as long as today... only 3 different meds and HOPEFULLY no spinal tap.

Weekend of Fun

We're going to continue with the fun family stuff this weekend and visit with Grandpa Steve and Debbie this afternoon. Since I don't have much to share and we'll have guests in town, I won't post again until Monday after Logan's doctor's appointment. Check back then to see how it went.

Zoo and Bedroom Switch-A-Roo

Trying to do some fun family things, this morning we went to the zoo early before it got to hot. Eric was able to join us and we got to feed giraffes and ride the zoo boat. Two things the kids have been wanting to do, but haven't had the chance yet. We also spent almost an hour in the new tiger exhibit. We had the building all to ourselves most of the time and it was air conditioned (which Eric and I LOVED). The tigers were enjoying some water play and we got up close viewing when they came up to the glass to try to intimidate our kids. Of course Amanda and Logan loved it and were running up and down the glass chasing the big cats. What a wonderful day!

This afternoon Eric and I decided to switch the kids' bedroom (from the basement) to the guest bedroom (down the hall from us). We are anticipating Logan needing us in the middle of the night and wanting to be able to hear him we thought this was the best solution. Amanda and Logan are very excited about the switch and have been playing in their new room all afternoon.

Supplies

Today we saw the Doctor to get our medical supplies, learn how to change his dressing, flush his iv tubes and receive an informational handbook. We also received his schedule for his first round of chemo. We'll start on Monday, June 29. This first round will be very aggressive. He will be given 4 different drugs as follows:

- Cytarabine - twice a day for 10 days
- Daunorubiein - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
- Etoposide - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
- Granisetron - given 15 to 30 minutes before chemo begins to prevent or treat nausea and vomiting.

He will also have a spinal tap on Monday to determine if the cancer has spread to his brain and spinal cord. Because the drugs injected intravenously do not cross this membrane, he will need to have the Cytarabine directly injected into the spinal cord at least one time each treatment cycle. When Dr. Rosen does the spinal tap on Monday he will draw three vials of spinal fluid for testing. If the cancer has spread to this area he will need daily spinal taps to administer the cancer fighting drug here as well. Keep your fingers crossed that cancer won't be found here as well.

Logan will have flu like symptoms directly after chemo including fatigue, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, diarrhea, & mouth sores. Anywhere from the following week to 3 weeks later he will have VERY low blood counts and will be very vulnerable to infection. This is the time to expect him to be hospitalized for illness. This is also the time that all his hair will fall out.

Hickman Catheter Surgery

Today, Logan was admitted to the hospital for surgery. He had a Hickman Catheter inserted in his chest. It's a small flexible tube that will allow the doctors to draw fluids and administer medication without being stuck 100 times. It will remain there for the duration of his chemo therapy.

All went well for sedation and recovery, however Logan is not happy to have the tube hanging out of his chest. Hopefully the uncomfortable feeling will soon pass and it will become like another body part to him.

He will only have a few restrictions with this catheter. He can do most anything, including swimming, but no lake, ocean, river, pond or stream water. Only treated/chlorinated pools.

This past weekend, knowing what was coming, Eric and I took Logan to a lake for one last swim, and then to a creek for one last play. We'll miss those trips during his treatment, but we're looking forward to swimming again next year.

We're home and doing well today. Tomorrow we see our Doctor about how to care for his new catheter. We'll also have more info about when he will start his chemo.

Let Me Know

I know that I don't have everyone's e-mail address that should receive an invite to this blog. If you know of someone that you would like me to add to the contact list please let me know.

Thanks

Background Infomation

Back in November, we were seeing our pediatrician because Logan had enlarged lymph nodes in his neck. At that time we did some blood work and a chest x-ray everything came back normal and we were referred to an Ear Nose and Throat specialist. He did a cat scan and we discovered that Logan had a bad sinus infection. He also did some more blood work and it was recommended that we see an allergist. After her round of testing... she couldn't find anything Logan was allergic to. That all ended in January. We went back for a followup appointment with the allergist earlier this month and she did some blood work that came back with a low white blood cell count. After 3 more blood tests to rule out other disease, we were referred to a pediatric hematologist / oncologist. He did another blood test that came back suspicious for leukemia and ordered a bone marrow biopsy. We got the results on Friday that Logan has a rare form of the disease called Acute Myelogenous Leukemia that affects the bone marrow and white blood cells. Tomorrow he get’s a Hickman Catheter put in his chest for administering meds and drawing blood. Then Thursday or Friday he will start chemotherapy. For the next 2 weeks he’ll be very sick from the drugs. After he recovers, it will begin again. The success rate for remission of this type of leukemia is 65%. His chances are greatly increased if Amanda is a tissue match to donate bone marrow to him. We'll know more about that in about 2 months. If she is not a genetic match, we will continue with the chemo. We are anticipating this whole process to take around 9 months, but it's hard to tell. If he has problems staying in remission, we will need to look for an anonymous bone marrow donor.

Many of my friends have created blogs for their family and I've thought it was a wonderful idea and was planning to set one up for our family. When I was thinking about how I can keep all the friends and family informed about Logan and his battle with cancer this seemed like the best way.

Eric and I will try to post updates daily of how he's feeling and where we're at in this treatment. While this blog is primarily for his illness, we'll also try to show you the brighter side of our lives. Please feel free to post comments to us or Logan.