NEW UPDATE

Hello everyone,

I am so sorry I haven't blogged in a few weeks. Not only did we have Blog technical difficulty(google changed some things) but Aidan was admitted to the hospital, oh I don't know around the same day I blogged he was doing great!Ha ha thats what I get for being so optimistic...I shall go back two weeks to catch you up.

Exactly one week after Aidan's March chemo he woke up feverish. I had gone into his room early am to draw his blood for the lab(I have to do it when testing falls on a Sat) and he was pink. Pink tones for Aidan means trouble since he really doesn't have enough red blood cells to be flushed-sure enough 102.5 on the thermometer-dangerous for him. By the time we got to Kaiser emergency he was 103.5 and his blood pressure was dropping. The Dr. was waiting for us and had to stabilize him before moving him upstairs. Very scary. After a full round of blood cultures they found a bacteria called Klebsiella pnemoniae. It is a gram negative bacteria associated with the lower GI tract. They started him on 4 different antibiotics and about 4 days later he was better. They took him off all the antibiotics and within 24 hours he had a fever again. They started him on a different round of antibiotics, four more to be exact. His cultures all came out to be negative this time around so that was good. The bad news is that he developed a case of what I call "Chemo related" colitis. One of the side effects of Chemo is that it attacks all rapidly dividing cells because cancer falls into this category of cells. Well, your GI tract, from the inside of your mouth all the way thru till it all comes out is made up of these cells-as well as your hair which is why it falls out. His bowels were raw on the inside and it started causing him unbearable pain as soon as he had to have a BM. So they started him on morphine. The morphine helped the pain subside but since Aidan's blood cells weren't regenerating yet(due to the chemo) he didn't have any white blood cells to heal this inflammation and it seemed like this was never gonna end. It is an absolutely VISCIOUS cycle and watching him go through this was completely unnerving. The solution to this problem was to start giving him "the shot". GCSF is a white blood cell booster which is called in as "clean up crew". It is a booster he hasn't needed up until this point but thank god it exists because it worked within a few days. I won't go into the trauma of giving Aidan this shot-let's just say he had the nurse in tears, but it does work.
Needless to say he was in the hospital for 2 weeks and they discharged him by the skin of his teeth and lots of begging from mom to let him go home. We are here at home this week-spent the whole day yesterday in the clinic so he could get a platelet transfusion-and are scheduled to go back next Monday for his LAST TREATMENT. I am anticipating this to be his hardest time yet. His body is completely worn down and he is existing on minimum blood counts so he really really really needs everyone's prayers. Lets storm the heavens to get him through this with minimal illness. He will be getting a very heavy dose of Ara-C and some sort of protein-enzyme killer to prevent cancer cells from making new proteins but also affects your liver-AHHH I can't even go into it-way over my aching little head. But I do know that all of your prayers WORK. He has been so protected and been spared so much of what he could have gone through-what most kids normally do go through and I know it is because of you and the love that has been put out there for him in his time of need. Thank you thank you thank you.

We are going to have a restful week at home. I am going to fatten him up as much as he will let me so he has some reserves for the weeks to come and now that I have command of the blog once more I will do my best to stay on top of reporting.

PS-Aidan's new brother, Baby Christian is reportedly doing well. He is a big little baby and is keeping his mommy, Betty, very busy. Daddy Lucho is doing good and looking for job in California.

PSS Daddy Tito is also doing good and needs to get his props for being the best step-dad and future husband ANYONE could ask for. If it wasn't for him I would be lost. He takes such good care of us its unreal and more than anyone could ask for. Thank you Tito for everything-I know I don't say it enough.

I hope everyone is doing well and this will all be over before we know it. Aidan is so amazing and has handled all of this with the grace and dignity of a King. I am so proud of him.
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