Chemo 4 and Doing Well

Fourth infusion yesterday and Leo's fine. Only mild nausea this time, probably due to the Ativan they gave him. In addition to preventing nausea, the magic pink pill loosened him up enough to assure Nurse Alice that he wouldn't "operate any thrashers today." He then promptly fell asleep for three hours. He also slept the entire train ride home and took another three hour nap when we got home. BORING. But I spent some productive time with Link, so it was win-win.

Some recent happy highlights in our life: 

1. Sarah & Travis got married - congratulations!!

2. Maggi made a delicious ham happen

3. Veronica knitted Leo a beautiful hat 

A Fine Hat

Next Thursday will be Leo's first PET/CT since starting treatment. The doctor will use it to see if the ABVD is working and switch him to another chemo regimen if it's not. Another update when we know for sure, but it may not be until the following week (3/1). Of course I'll post when we hear back. Until then!

Chemo 3 and Pork Chop

This past Thursday was Leo's third round of chemo (aka cycle 2, part 1). The process is now pretty routine: check in, blood test, see doctor, get attached to IV, lots of waiting in between. After 4 or 5 hours we leave. In the meantime we waste a lot of time on the internet. Sometimes Leo takes a nap. Usually I fall asleep trying to do the crossword. Crosswords are hard work. 

The nausea has been worse this time. It seems like Leo's body doesn't want him to keep taking toxic drugs (silly body, why ever not?), so it decided to become nauseated before he even began the round - in fact while he was being administered his anti-nausea meds. I guess that's supposed to be ironic. The result is that he's been feeling quite queasy for a few days. Fortunately, this hasn't prevented him from eating heaps of food. For his birthday last week we even went out to a (real) restaurant. Below is a photo of the pork chop I ate; Leo ate his fried chicken too fast to photograph.

My Pork Chop

Aside from the nausea, Leo's white blood cell count is low, so he's at high risk for infection. We're washing our hands a lot and avoiding friends with sniffles. If you're one of them, stay away or face my wrath. Just kidding. But not really.

What else? Leo still has hair. It's very short though, a quarter of an inch, because we've been buzzing it every week. I'd post a photo, but he would hate that, so you'll have to see it in person or imagine it fondly. If it helps, I've noticed an outstanding resemblance between the shape of Leo's skull and that of Star Trek's Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Obviously no coincidence for, like, a hundred reasons.