Healthy Kids Make a Happy Home

Drew is still at home and doing well. The blood transfusion seemed to have done wonders for him. He is back to his old self again. He is drinking and eating a normal diet. He is full of energy and giggles.

Today we met with Dr. Neglia, Drew's primarily oncologist. He was aware of all the difficulties this round of chemo had on Drew. It is always comforting to talk to him. He is one of the best oncologists in the nation for retinoblastoma. He feels we should do a few things to make life a little easier on Drew:

• We will not increase the Vincristine past the 50% of the original dose. Since he is reacting severely to this drug, Dr. Neglia feels it would do more harm than good to increase it. We will treat the reaction with a heavy pain killer after each treatment.


• Drew has had several ear infections over the last couple of months. Dr. Neglia feels it would be best to put a tube in Drew's left ear. This is a low risk procedure, and can be done will he is under for his eye exam. This would help limit hospital stays related to ear infections when counts are low.


• To help limit the frequent visits to the clinic and hospital in the weeks after chemo, we will be giving Drew shots to help stimulate his white blood counts. Tony and I will go to the learning center and be trained in giving Drew shots each treatment. He will receive 6-8 shots each round of chemo. This drug will make the period of time when his neutraphils are low shorter. If his counts are up and he gets sick he can stay at home.

Dr. Neglia feels the process is good so far. His greatest concern is the vitreous seeding occurring in the left eye. If they do not see improvement by the fifth or sixth round of chemo, we will need to decide if we want to do radiation or remove the eye. The chances of saving the left eye, given the information we know right now, is between 50-70%.

It is good to be home and we are enjoying every minute of it. Drew's next round of chemo is scheduled for January 25th. We hope with the changes Dr. Neglia has made to the treatment, next round will go better. We sure would like to celebrate his birthday on February 3rd at home:)