Owen is now done with two rounds of chemo. He's only gotten sick a couple times per round. Everyone is shocked since he's getting "high dose" chemo. Historically, it causes severe nausea. We still don't know if it's working though. He is scheduled to have another MRI and lumbar puncture next week. Hopefully the spinal fluid comes back free of any cancer cells.
Owen was down to 23lbs during his first round of chemo. Since he tolerated it so well, they put him on an NG tube during his second round. He has a tube going into his nose and down into his stomach. They started him off at only 5ml per hour. He is now up to 25ml per hour and they might bump that up to 30ml today. At 25ml he's getting half the nutrition he needs in a day. Ultimately they want to work him up to only needing three feedings per day instead of being on it 24 hours. Yesterday he weighed 28.2lbs which is the most he's ever weighed. He's still lost a lot of muscle though. His legs and arms are still very thin. He still refuses all food. He will take a couple sips of milk a day but that's it.
Right now he's had enough and wants to come home. If he gets too worked up, he starts gagging on the NG tube. We give him a small dose of Ativan when he gets too scared. That stuff usually works great. It takes his anxiety away and he becomes himself again.
I just got home on Sunday. I'll be working for a month and then go back. So far my employer has been great.
