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, September 25, 2011

Long and Short of it

Well if you want the short version of today, here it is:  We made it home to another "Chubba Wabba" package from Aunt Theresa!
The long version.. if you are interested  is, our day started pretty rough. Eric woke up at 6:30 really sick to his stomach.  I jumped out of bed to grab the bucket and as I stepped out of the room to grab some wash clothes, Vanessa our nurse said that his metho level count was in and it was .4!  I said "NO WAY", how can it go from .22 yesterday to .4?  We needed .10 or less to go home.  This news just upset Eric even more.  So he went back to sleep, while I had a heart to heart with Heavenly Father.  This news was going to throw everything off again.

When Dr Lemmens came in he said that he was going to have them run the test again on the same sample of blood.  I asked if they could draw a new sample, since 5 - 6 hours had passed.  As a favor to me, he agreed.  When the results came back in 2 hours later, it was .08!!!  I swear the lab messed up big time.  But all is well now.
So as I was packing I asked Eric if he was going to get dressed so we can go.  He looked at me like "DA" and said "Well I need to get unhooked first."  He was still hooked up to the IV pole.  So as the nurse unhooked him, Dr Spraker came by to say YEAH you are going home.  I asked if she heard what happened and she said "No".  Eric spoke up and said "Someone took my leg" as he lifted up his nub.  She got quite a laugh at that. 
I have been worried about Eric's heart and asked a doc 2 weeks ago if his heart will recover from the doxi and he told me no.  That the damage was done.  My heart wanted to stop.  So I asked the same question to Dr Spraker and she said the echo cardiograms are a subjective test for one thing and that yes his heart will continue to get stronger.  It may not get to the top condition it was before, but it will get stronger.  So on that note we were 2 happy campers leaving the hospital! 
Can I tell you how great the nurses are there?  Our nursing tech knew I was pretty bummed out because of the metho level being so high, so as I stepped into a parent restroom to blow dry my hair, the service cart for parents with bagels, muffins and juice came.  Rachel was so worried that I would miss out that she grabbed me a juice and muffin.  Also Kathy, from Boston, had bought Eric a copy of her favorite movie... "I married an Ax Murderer" and she was going to give it to him as a "last treatment" gift.  But knowing that he was going to be so upset about his metho levels gave it to him early.  They are the best!
Right now our plans are to be back at the hospital on Tuesday.  We are not expecting any blood count issues, because his counts have gone up to healthy strong levels!!!  YEAH!!
My prayer was heard!

1 comment:

  1. We had a lab error with Stevens last methotrexate. I'm glad Eric made it home. We are scheduled for round 17 this week, so look out for us. Yeah! Almost done!

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