Chemo #11

Last Friday Allen had his ELEVENTH chemotherapy treatment.  It feels like Allen has been going through treatment forever, yet at the same time it is hard to believe that the last one is just around the corner!

Allen's white counts were down to critical levels at our meeting with The Cancer Ninja.  Definitely lower than we expected, but in a way we were a little relieved to see that the treatment is still greatly affecting his body even after dropping one of his medications.  The Ninja was also able to talk us through a rough timeline for the next couple of months.  Allen will finish chemo treatments next Friday (March 22nd), and then in two weeks he will have another round of scans.  We are hoping these scans look as amazing as his last ones and are of course CANcer FREE; it would be amazing if his tumor showed even more shrinkage too.  After those scans, Allen will be scheduled for radiation simulation so The Radiator can formulate a plan of action, and Allen will have more blood tests to see if his white cell counts are high enough to have the surgeon remove his port.  Radiation will start four weeks from his last chemo treatment (because some of his medications can interact with radiation). So, it is looking like Allen will start radiation the same week Baby Bates is set to arrive - we do nothing the easy way in this family, apparently.

The good news is Allen felt pretty good over the weekend.  He was tired, and he had his usual headaches to contend with but no nausea.  Usually, by Wednesday afternoon (tomorrow) he is feeling pretty good again.  And, of course he managed to get in two long runs this weekend; he is DETERMINED to run after EVERY SINGLE chemo treatment! This time however, he needed a helper to hold up eleven fingers:

Thank you again for all of your support! We are hoping for an uneventful, healthy rest of the week and weekend leading up to Allen's LAST TREATMENT next week!