On January 27, 2011 Eric Merkley was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. An aggressive cancer that we hope and the doctors to this point seem confident that is contained to one spot on his leg. Prognosis is good. Treatments and recovery will be long and painful.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Drama king

Eric has to take a pill 2 times a day on Monday and Tuesday... I know strange.  But these pills are cow pills... they are huge.  It is an antibiotic that keeps a very serious pneumonia away that could come to immune compromised kids/people.  Well I have to break this pill into 4's.  He has gone to lengths to try to hide this pill, claiming he has already taken it... like the couch cushions and even the silverware drawer.  I am sure I will find more places as time goes by.  Here are some pictures of Eric choking down these pills... Mr Drama King



Thursday in the late morning, Eric's Doctor came and talked to us about going home Thursday night, instead of Friday morning.  But it meant that Eric would have to get a IV for the blood transfusion (they can not do Chemo and blood transfusions in his port at the same time).  Of course we were both pretty excited about going home early, so they put the IV in place around 2pm and started the transfusion around 3 pm.  He had 5 tubes going into him at this point... not to mention the blood pressure cuff that was constantly on his arm and the unit they wraps around his finger to measure the oxygen in his blood.  While they give the transfusion of blood, they have to watch his vitals very close.  At one point the chemo pump had an alarm go off and there were no nurses around, so where I now have my nursing training... :)... decided to see if I can fix the problem.  With all the tubing, Eric had kinked the chemo tubing causing the alarm.  It was then that I realized how many tubes he was connected too, because they were tangled up and underneath him.  Have I ever mentioned that this is quite the ride?  Needless to say we got home at 10:30 Thursday night and what a joy to sleep in our own beds!

Eric is doing pretty good.  He went golfing yesterday with his brother Daryl and then to a movie last night with his friends.  When Eric got home last night he said he was pretty sore, because he walked a lot all day long on his leg.  Where he is still getting Chemo, he is not able to be very mobile during the week. 

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1 comment:

  1. MaddieCookJuly 28, 2011 at 10:10 PM

    My name is Maddie Cook. I was diagnosed 2 weeks after you were. I have the same thing that you do and reading through your blog its almost crazy how similar our chemo treatments are. Although... :) I can swallow the Septra just fine... WHOLE. Haha. Just messing with you. My mom says she would love to talk with your mom sometime. She stays in my room and hangs out with me most of the time. We'll have to watch to see if you guys are down there the same time we are. Good luck with the rest of your treatments! I'm not as good as your mom at blogging but I do have one.

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