Tumor reoccurance

The radiosurgeon called Sean today and told him that the first tumor has reoccured. They have decided to do all over brain radiation and he has an appointment with Cottage hospital Monday to discuss things further. They will possibly start the radiation Tuesday, we are not sure. He will also be on an antibiotic,chemotherapy pill and anti nausea pill.
Sean is upset of course. I am going to try and take him to the movies this weekend, maybe dinner or something. Please keep him in your prayers.

Unexpected Hospital Stay

Sean had been doing his radiation since last week without much problem. He began complaining this past weekend about cold chills and nights sweats and had afever about three times that broke really fast. After his radiation Monday morning he also then had his first chemotherapy treatment directly afterwards. Once we arrived at the hopsital Sean told the staff about his fever,chills and sweats so they decided to do blood work. When the results came back they said his white blood cell count was up and his Dr. ordered that he be admitted due to it. The staff on the chemotherapy floor called the fevers "normal" for a cancer patient calling them "tumor fevers". The rest however was something his doctor was a little concerned with. They admitted him around noon Monday and he literally sat in his room on the oncology floor for hours. Noone had ordered antibiotics nor fluids and he was only told they were waiting on a culture of the blood they had taken while he was up on the chemotherapy floor. After a long period of time we were having nurses tell us that they did not have orders concerning a culture and that noone had drawn one that morning, which was wrong. Seans mother and I literally had to make waves to motivate the nurses to check harder about the cultures only to learn that Seans doctor had hand written the order making it not available to staff via computer...which makes no sense at all. Sean was having no chills or sweats throughout the day and it was not until seven in the evening did they decide to even give him fluids. He spiked a fever of 101.1 once in the night and that was about the extent of it. His temp fell to 99.3 within a few minutes and he still had no complaints of chills. Another doctor came in around seven this morning to assess Sean only to tell us they thought he had pneumonia because they had not found anything either in his blood or urine so far. Seans normal doctor said they did not find anything on the chest xray they took around three yesterday and she may schedule a CAT scan to be sure. She says she believes it maybe something viral. He has been placed on antibiotics and fluids and otherwise is doing great. He has had an appetite and is wanting to go home. They told us that if they did not find anything in his culture that they would send him home. At the moment he is resting to my left with no temp and in a good mood. The 24th is my birthday and we were joking how bad it will suck to be stuck here on it. I told him I do not mind as long as he is okay. They are going to keep him overnight again undoubtly and hopefully we will know something more in the morning and maybe we can go home. They have not gave him his radiation treatment today and possibly won't until they are sure he has no infection. His Dr. (Sousa) said she will want him to complete his chemotherapy however before they allow him to go home regardless.

Seans treatment changes

Seans doctor called yet again and changed the schedule for his treatment again. They have decided that he will recieve one treatment of Chemotherapy tuesday then go three weeks without any treatment,radiation included. He then will have another Chemotherapy treatment after the three week timeframe and then they will decide if radiation is needed as well. I will update with the medication name when I have the chance.

The Call

We recieved a call today from Seans Radiation doctor about the results again of his Petscan. To begin with the scheduled treatments were arranged like so. Six doses of chemotherapy for six days while recieving radiation. The radiation would continue for a few weeks and then at the end of the radiation treatment another chemotherapy treatment of six doses for six days. Well they have decided that due to the positive results of Seans Petscan to change the treatments around a bit. Now they have six doses of chemo scheduled then three weeks of nothing then another six doses of chemo. Hopefully Sean will not need the radiation also. All I can do is pray.

Radiation treatment.

Well we got to the hospital pretty early, around eight a.m. When we got there they told us that they were going to hook Sean up with an IV and go ahead and do a CAT scan before the treatment. They also molded and made a mask that he would be wearing for the treatment.
I figured it would take a few but it really only took about thirty minutes and he came back out into the lobby. They told us we could go get breakfest and that he needed to be back by 11:15 a.m. We went down to the cafeteria and had some breakfest(lunch to me) and walked around until about eleven. When we went back to the radiation floor we waited close to an hour before they came and got Sean. They told us he was going to get treatment and afterwards we could come in and see him. It didn't take as long as I had expected and when the nurse came out and got us I was suprised. When we went in I was expecting him to look drowsy or something but he looked normal and ready to leave. They removed his IV and the nurse instructed us on what to watch for for the next day and a half. They told us that it would be a few weeks before they checked him again and everything went well with the treatment. Sean now has an appointment with the lung doctor the first of May. the good thing is we will get a few days to rest before having to go back to the doctor which is good.