After the seizure that day, the nurse took cc's of Jasem's blood to check what kind of antibiotics they can give him. By 3:30 pm, the new antibiotic arrrived and that made Jasem go back to normal. It was near 5pm when Jasem finally wanted to go for a walk, his fever already went down to 36.5°C.
Sunday and Monday went great. Jasem was feeling better and we we're just waiting for Tuesday for his MRI scan. After the 4 additional chemotherapies, Dr. Hung arranged a scan for Jasem to check on any progress (i'm talking about the possibility of resection).
Tuesday, August 15th, we (me, jasem and his yeye) were waiting for whoever who will call us to go to the MRI room. They didn't give us a specific time that Jasem is expected at the MRI room. By 11am, we stopped giving him any intakes (food and liquids) so that Jasem's tummy will be empty anytime they call us for his scan. Actually, it requires no intake 4 hours before ct or mri scanning. It was 3pm when they called us, just right because it was exactly 4 hours since Jasem didn't eat or drink, but not too good because Jasem just woke up after 2 hours of sleep. The scan was not successful that afternoon because they can't tame him... i mean... our dear boy was so hard to sedate that they needed to inject the sedation and contrast drug twice but still failed to get clear images. Scanning failed until 5pm so we were asked to come back 9am the next day, wednesday.
Wednesday, to prepare my boy for the mri scan that was scheduled again this morning, I woke him up by 5am hoping that he'll be able to sleep when 9'oclock comes. 15 minutes before 9, he was already drowsy. Before the nurse came, he was already in deep sleep until we reach the mri room. When I was about to transfer him from his stroller to the "patient couch" of the mri scan machine... he opened his eyes up and from then on... scenes from yesterday were replayed... Jasem was wide awake and they injected the contrast fluid twice again. They tried to sedate him but it didn't work.... what a super boy I have, lol. After an hour of trial and error, they finally got clear pictures of cross-sections of Jasem's lungs down to his liver. We were not sent home that day. Dr. Hung wanted us to hear the initial report of the scan.
(August 16th, 7am... while waiting for the mri scan time (9am) to come... this cat ate my NT$30! Jasem knows how to insert the coins by himself now :)
Thursday morning, August 17th, we headed home along with a sad news. The 4 additional chemo sessions didn't work out. The tumors on Jasem's liver didn't shrink as expected. The scan revealed tumors that are the same of that scan they took before they added chemo sessions to Jasem's protocol. That means that the 4 chemotherapies after the 6 inital ones were useless leaving us with the same options: liver transplant or a risky resection. They both sound risky to me, but I think transplant will be the best option. We are scheduled to meet Dr. Lai (liver surgeon at Chang Gung Pediatrics) on August 22nd to discuss on what's our next step.
I prayed for couple of months that the additional chemo will make the tumors shrink more so that Jasem can only have resection and avoid the transplant. I felt my prayers have floundered this time. But I'm not losing hope and faith in God. I guess our Heavenly Father just want to prove our faithfulness a little longer. This is just another bump in the road.
With our frequent long stays in the hospital, I have been missing my other child (Daisy) so much. I know the time will come when everything will be alright... it's just that... It's really hard waiting for things to get back to "normal".
I like to share this link to you http://www.thesurvivormovie.com. It's been sent to us by a friend and I was truly inspired by it.
Our deepest thanks to all who keep us in their thoughts and prayers. You're all in my family's prayer as well. We're so thankful to have you. May God bless you abundantly.
P.S: Forgive my spellings and grammar... I don't have time to proofread anymore.
~quely
Sunday, August 20th 2006, 09:36 PM
