The Consolidation Stage Begins

Yesterday marked the start of what the oncology unit refers to as the consolidation stage. The goal of this phase is to hammer potential leukemia cells and maintain remission. This period is marked with a variety of treatments that includes some light weeks and some very intense weeks. Yesterday was the start of a fairly intense week. Sawyer underwent a lumbar puncture and a dose of new chemo. The process started at 9am and concluded at 5:45pm. By the end of the day, Sawyer was not as nauseous as expected; however, his lower back seized up on him making it difficult to walk. Heat packs and Tylenol seemed to take the edge off, but as Sawyer noted the heat packs were not hot enough. According to the nurse practitioner, Sawyer may be able to mitigate this unwanted side effect by doing more stretching, maybe even a little yoga.

Leading up to yesterday and throughout the day, he seemed relatively fixated on hitting the Sticky Lips BBQ restaurant in Rochester for dinner. And despite a rather significant level of discomfort, he was determined to try a rack of ribs. We arrived at Sticky Lips a little after 6pm and Sawyer was not daunted by the 15 to 20 minute wait. He enjoyed a half rack of ribs, mac and cheese, and a cup of coffee. The consumption of coffee is highly recommended by his nurse practitioner because caffeine helps with his headaches and with moving fluids through his bladder. All-in-all the ribs were very good, but both Sawyer and Mark noted that they were not as good as our friend Bob's smoked ribs.

The ride home was not a typical one for Sawyer. It would seem that the combination of back pain, ribs and coffee (mostly the latter) had an interesting effect. Instead of sleeping for most of the ride home, he stayed awake the entire time and he didn't stop talking the entire trip. While his conversation often addressed his current state, it was never in a negative, plaintive or a 'why me?' frame of mind. Perhaps a pre-return trip cup of coffee will be in order more often.

For the next three days, we - hopefully with the assistance of a traveling nurse - will need to 'push' chemo treatments into his port. This a rather involved process that starts with a saline flush, followed by 'chemo push', then more saline to force the chemo into his blood stream, and finally a heparin flush to clean out the port and lines. In addition, Sawyer is on a fourteen day cycle of oral chemo. This may seem like a lot, but remember the goal is to hammer away at his system, hopefully eliminating any chance of relapse. Once he gets through this week, the next three weeks should be more tolerable since the chemo treatments are less intense. That said, he will have to undergo lumbar punctures for the next three weeks which seem to take a toll with head and back aches.We will be encouraging him to get out for short walks every day, hoping that will keep his muscles more flexible.

Sawyer continues to plug away at his school work  - working with his tutor almost every day as well as connecting to a few classes via his iPad.