Day 9 - May 15th

Today was Ryan's third day of IV chemo - "Day 6" of the month-long treatment protocol.  He's having a lot of nausea, and vomited this morning.  He got methotrexate today. 

His WBC was 2500 today - less than 1% of what it was when he came in as the resident pointed out.  His Hgb was 8 and the platelets are holding at 20,000.  So far his potassium and calcium have remained normal.
Sometimes the levels go up as the chemicals are released by dying cells.

Sophia's mom flies in tomorrow, and I think that will be a great help to her.  She's a real gem - a strong woman.  But watching someone you love so much go through all this, and knowing that it's only the beginning, is hard.  Sometimes I find myself putting up my professional emotional wall so that I don't fall apart.

Her brother, Brian, has been absolutely wonderful - staying with Ryan at night so Sophia can get some sleep at home, keeping Ryan company, runs to the cafeteria for what Ryan would enjoy (when he could eat), filling Sophia's gas tank, and the list goes on. 

Ryan asked me to bring in the clippers tomorrow so he can buzz his head.  I wonder if he'll buzz the face, too!  After finals, he's deviated a bit from the BYU grooming code.......

This is a real challenge for me.  Food is my drug of choice - for myself and pushing it on others.  And nothin' says lvin' like something from the oven.  But Ryan is too queezy to enjoy eating.  So I'll have to learn some new tricks.

The girls had a science fair and ice cream social at their school tonight.  It was good to do something that seemed normal. 

At first, the risk was his WBC being too high - now they will intentionally drop it too low as they kill off the good cells along with the bad.  So the next few weeks will be a battle to prevent side effect and infection, knowing that some of both are inevitable.  Our brief interlude of smooth sailing is probably ending.  Please continue to keep Ryan in your prayers.

Love and gratitude to all of you.

And to our Heavenly Father and Savior - our faith in them and the comfort of the Holy Ghost are sustaining us all.
------Barb