A glimpse of hope…

There's the smile we've been missing!

Well, it was a rough night and Carter was very restless most of the night. Mom was hoping this wouldn’t mean we had a rough day ahead as well. The nurses started his TPN (IV nutrients) around midnight, so the hope is to “beef up” Carter over the next few days. At diagnosis, Carter weighed over 30 lbs and now he weighs over 23 lbs. This is too dramatic on such a little kid.

The morning started out okay. We found out a new oncologist was doing rounds, which meant we’d have to go over our concerns relating to Carter all over again. This would be doctor #4 this week we would get to explain to that we aren’t leaving the hospital until we have a new anti-nausea drug that works for Carter. The nurse came in and said they did rounds with the doctor, and we are changing a couple other meds…but no mention of the anti-nausea. In the meantime, every time we open a food tray for Carter to eat he gags at the site of anything. It is a nausea issue.

Around 1:00pm, we started to make a turn for the better. Carter and Mom were lying in the bed watching TV and I offered him pretzels. He seemed reluctant, but didn’t say “no” so I opened them up. A few minutes later he started eating them. And about 15 minutes later, Carter put his index finger through the pretzel and turned to me bending his finger in a deep voice and said, “Hi Mama!” He was pretending the pretzel was a puppet. After shedding tears on and off all morning, I began to laugh. And my little boy laughed too. Grammy arrived with lunch (and I’m sure to make sure Mom was okay), and Carter got more animated throughout the afternoon. He ate a few bites of pears and some Cheerios too. And he even took a few sips of water, which has been a big issue as well.

Mom went out of the room to get some pillows from the linen closet on the oncology floor. As I was going back into the room, I saw this dad we met the day we got Carter’s pathology report back confirming hepatoblastoma. His son is about 5 months younger than Carter and has hepatoblastoma as well. Matt and I couldn’t believe the coincidence, and they exchanged contact information. His son’s case seemed more serious to us at the time, and they had already consulted with the liver transplant team at UCLA. Well, I stood in the hall talking to the father for a while. His son is having his sixth and final round of chemo. He didn’t end up needing a liver transplant after all; the chemo shrank the tumor enough to do resection surgery. He was so grateful to the surgeon at CHOC and said he saved his son’s life. We both cried together and I was honestly SO happy and relieved for them. I know how hard this journey is, and they are almost done. I came back into the room with a sense of relief and a whole new outlook. Carter is going to be fine. I got too caught up in the frustration of the journey, and lost sight of the ultimate goal. Yes, it’s a tough road that no one should have to go through, but we will conquer this soon! The Kipp Crew is optimistic and hopeful again!

The oncologist came in and gave me a hug. She must have heard Carter Kipp’s Mom was loosing it! We are going to try a new anti-nausea drug tonight or tomorrow. They plan on having Carter stay through the weekend, and we may end up going home with the TPN nutrients. Whatever makes this vicious cycle of nausea/vomiting/not eating/loosing weight stop.

Bennett and Dad came to visit and Carter was playing and laughing with Bennett. Matt couldn’t believe the change in Carter from yesterday. It was a glimpse of our Carter again. Mom got to go home with Bennett and Dad is staying the night with Carter. Hopefully, he’ll continue to make improvements slowly but surely.