Same Song, Second Verse (or Maybe Third)

So....a slight change in plans. (That seems to be the theme in this journey!) Most of you know that Parrish was supposed to be going in-patient at UAB today, but things changed yesterday afternoon. Here's the back story...

On Monday, Parrish had the Hickman catheter (or external line) placed. Everything went well with that procedure. He went in yesterday morning for what we thought would be his test dose of chemo. However, they ended up postponing it (which I called on Saturday, mind you). See, over the weekend, Parrish was a little off. He didn't seem to notice it as much as I did, but after the last bout with infection, I am hyper-sensitive about these things. We went about the boys' birthday celebrations, but late Saturday afternoon, he ended up going into the BMT unit for blood work and just to get checked out. They did labs and his kidney function was a little low, but the doctor on call decided to move forward with the line placement on Monday. Typically, Parrish has little to no side effects from the line placement. But, he seemed more wiped than usual from it on Monday, was sick at his stomach and his color was just not right. Nothing too alarming, but still, something I couldn't put my finger on. He went into the BMT unit early Tuesday for labs and the start of chemo. But, once the nurse practitioner (who we really love) saw him, she, too, thought he was just "off." Because of Parrish's history over the last couple months with infections, the team decided to postpone the high dose chemo and transplant. Instead, Parrish will have five days of IV antibiotics at home, just to be sure that any potential infection that might be brewing is wiped out. Then, next week, he will go in on Tuesday for the test dose of chemo and go in-patient the following day. After a week of in-patient high dose chemo, he will have the transplant on Friday, July 26th. 

We are all disappointed, because we were just ready to get this show on the road. But, this isn't a procedure that you want to push...the level of chemotherapy involved is beyond brutal. No one wants Parrish going into that at anything less than healthy (well, healthy by bone marrow transplant standards, at least). 

So, we are re-grouping today...something we should surely be familiar with by now, right?! Of course, a few extra days with Parrish at home is a change we are all enjoying.

Much love,

Molly