Very LAST chemo!!

You did it!!

Big smiles for no more chemo

Carter and Matt went to CHOC today for Carter’s last chemo treatment! Yeah! It’s one of many emotional days, as we are completing this crazy journey. The doctor wanted them to stay around for a while after to get Carter’s blood work back and make sure he didn’t need a blood transfusion going into the weekend. Everything looked fine, and his white blood cell count had gone up. They didn’t have his ANC level, but we are hopeful that is trending upward too.

We wish Carter felt a little better though. As excited as we are that we are done with chemo, we are still feeling the ramifications of it all. I think it just “hurts” Carter’s body as the chemo is killing off cells. He is complaining of his tummy hurting, as he has done in previous rounds. And he still seems somewhat nauseated. I just keep reminding myself of how great he seemed post-transplant when he had been off chemo for 6-7 weeks. It will be nice to get there and have him feeling like himself again. Right now he just wants to be held and will eat a couple bites of food here and there.

Although we are done with chemo, our schedule doesn’t ease up for a while. Next week Carter has appointments to get a kidney scan (to make sure the drugs haven’t damaged his kidneys), blood work, a clinical oncology visit (which we will have to continue to do every week for a while), and a CT scan. The CT scan is next Friday and that is the first scan to verify that Carter is cancer-free. We are anxious to get that scan done. In the meantime, we are resting and trying to get Carter feeling better again.