Friday, April 16, 2010

Wow, I can't believe all that has happened in one week. It is still quite a blur but I did get a decent night of sleep and just need a few more to catch up and start processing everything clearly. Joe is happy to be home and we are happy to have him home. Kevin did have to lay down the rules with Will (4) and Caleb (2) so they won't be rough with Joe. Daddy kept it simple and told them they are not allowed to touch Joe, hopefully this will minimize any roughness...it's going to be hard with all these boys!

Joe had another great day in terms of his surgical healing. He is getting around in a crouched sort of way but wants to do most of it all by himself. He is easily climbing in and out of bed by himself, too, which is huge progress. On Fridays we usually have P.E. class with our neighbors who also home school. We brought Joe out in the jog stroller to say hi and watch class in the front yard. When Grandma was leading the "drop the hankie" game, he said, "can't I just play one time?" It is going to be hard to keep Joe on the sidelines as he starts to heal and his abdomen starts to feel better. It is probably a good thing he enjoys his DS as we will use it to bribe him to be still - he will get much more screen time than we would ever allow him. It is also going to be an adjustment for Joe's brothers as we keep telling them that Joe gets to play video games but you have to do your work first...I realize that doesn't sound so fair and it might be hard for them to comprehend. We will continue to readjust back to a normal life after a week of chaos. The kids were well cared for while we were gone but I think they were spoiled a little too (thanks to some great friends:)) and will have to slowly revert back to a normal life in the Turner family.

Since the surgery is over, we now will concentrate on the next phase of Joe's treatment - Radiation and Chemotherapy. We met with the oncologist today and got a layout of the plan for Chemotherapy for the next 28 weeks. She went over a lot of details and with our lack of sleep it was a lot of information to take in. I think we were able to understand most of it but how that translates to what it actually means to Joe and to our family isn't as clear. We discussed all the medicines Joe would be on and all the side effects of each. We are praying for mild side effects which would include things like nausea, vomiting, constipation, and hair loss. They have to inform us of all the other more severe things that could occur and we just need to pray that those don't happen. We got 5 prescriptions to fill that will help with the side effects - it is a lot to track and keep up with. We will monitor all of his blood levels and have to keep him away from people and places with germs, especially at certain times in his treatment. His immune system will be down so we will have to be really concious of keeping things clean. We were able to talk a lot with Joe today and explain some of these things that he can expect. He seems remarkably o.k. with it. He thinks it will be kind of cool to lose his hair...I hope he still feels like that when it actually happens. I don't plan on cutting my hair but I think Kevin will consider shaving his head if it makes Joe feel better...maybe the other boys, too. Nothing new on the pathology report. It is still considered Wilms' Tumor Stage 3 with spillage due to a rupture. The report and tumor have been sent off to the National Reseach Center that studies all the Wilms' Tumors in the U.S. and hopefully they will agree with this staging and not revise it to anything worse.

We will see how tomorrow goes, but if Joe is feeling well, he wants to put his Storm baseball jersey on and watch his team play from our car parked in the outfield at the ballpark. I hope he will be able to do this as I am not sure what to expect in the next few weeks, and if he will be able to get out or not. It will be nice to have him out while he is feeling good.

On Monday we will meet with the doctor who will perform the radiation treatment. This is suspected to last 7 - 10 days and will now have to include the entire abdomen. I think the side effects will be similar to the chemo but with more intense constipation due to the exposure of the entire abdomen. We will pray that these weeks of treatment go quickly in Joe's eyes and that it is tolerable.

I am attaching a few pictures: one of Joe playing a baseball game his friend gave him, one of him observing P.E. from the jog stroller, and one of him sleeping with a lot of his new fury friends he recieved (and that isn't even all of them...we are still unpacking!) Thanks for your continued prayers!