A long 2 weeks

The last two weeks had some ups and downs (more downs than ups.)

Up- I had a week off work.  (I work in schools so I get "built-in" vacation when the schools have breaks.)

Down- I spent most of that week cleaning up vomit and tending to a sick Logan and our original plans to spend that week visiting family for Easter had to be abandoned.

Up- We had a great time spending Easter with great friends.

Down- Not only did Logan go through 2 rounds of a stomach bug, as well as his usual chemo induced sickness, he experienced some random episodes of unexplained pain. 

Now, lets break it down.  Prior to Logan's last infusion, he had a "stomach bug".  As you may recall, he spent a couple of days throwing up and recovered just in time for his usual infusion, which triggered his next episodes of sickness.  Logan recovered from his chemo sickness just in time to get round 2 of the "stomach bug".  A couple more days of throwing up, and he finally (fingers crossed) got it out of his system.

The problem we face any time Logan gets sick, is figuring out what is related to the chemo and what is "normal" sickness.  Looking back it's pretty easy to distinguish what was "chemo vomiting" and what was "stomach bug" but in the moment, it's always a question on my mind.  My best solution is to give all the info to the doctors and let them decide what is important. 

Because Logan spent so much time throwing up and not eating (he was eating little to no food for 2 weeks straight), he lost a significant amount of weight, about 5 lbs.  While dropping 5 lbs would make no difference in my continuously increasing weight, for Logan's little body, it's a concern.  He was able to gain back some of his lost weight by this weeks infusion, but the doctors still noted the loss and gave their orders to get his weight back up.


The other events of the week revolved around some random episodes of pain.  Logan woke up screaming one night at 2AM about his cheek hurting.  I checked his cheek, inside and out, mouth, nose, ear (for infection) and I saw nothing to explain this pain. I attempted to ease the pain with a cool wash clothes, but that attempt was met with more screaming. I attempted to take his temperature, but just placing the thermometer in his mouth caused more screaming.  This went on for about 30 minutes before he settled back down and went black to sleep.  Two days later it happened again during dinner, only this time it was his nose.  While eating, he dropped his food, started screaming and grabbed his nose.  Thankfully this episode only last a couple of minutes. 

Confused and concerned, of course I head to the internet.  I try not to read too much into internet diagnoses, after all it is best to leave it to the professionals, but I can't help but do my own research.  There has to be some merit in it since it is what lead us to finding out that Logan even had NF.  I found some information that may be relevant, but I'm not trying to jump to conclusions.  After discussing this with the doctors, we don't really have any answers.  They are stumped.  While they would have expected this reaction from his first drug combo, his current medication is not known to cause these effects.  We will just wait and see if it happens again.

Smiling through the nausea

This weeks chemo appointment  was pretty standard.  My dad came down and took Ryan's place this week.  Because Logan has been getting sick from his treatments, it is starting to effect his overall demeanor at his appointments.  He has figured out that when he comes to the doctor, they do things to him that hurt and make him not feel good.  It is definitely not "fun" for him anymore.  This week, the pharmacy took longer than usual getting his meds ready, but this was really a blessing.  This gave Logan extra time to play in the art room and relax before it was time to get sick.  Logan has been able to tolerate about 2 hours of infusion before getting sick, but this week, just walking into the pod turned him green.  While it didn't actually start throwing up until about 2 hours in, he definitely had it on his mind from the start.

Prior to leaving, they gave Logan an extra dose of anti-nausea meds, which really seemed to make a difference.  Not only did he stop throwing up, he was talking about food non-stop and actually asking to eat, which is something that we have not seen too much of the last couple of weeks.  Once home, he ate, and tolerated,  a few snacks and a highly desired dinner.  He was even very upbeat and active, which is something that I rarely have seen after his chemo lately. 

The only other blip on the chemo radar was a rash that developed at the end of his infusion. These meds can cause allergic reaction and this is why they pre-med with benadryl.  When the nurse went to de-access him, we noticed a rash on his chest.  She called the doctor in to see it, but as quickly as it took for him to get there, it was gone.  This phantom rash is something that I hope is not another developing feature of his treatment, but I will definitely be keeping on eye open for in the future.

I'm hoping our next 2 weeks are uneventful and Logan can get a much needed reprieve from everything he has faced the last couple of weeks.