How is Caden?

I realized that many have asked through text how Caden is, but I have not given a recent update on him for a while.

Answer:

He is doing well.  The nausea has passed, for the most part, so he is able to eat a little more.  We have cut back from nausea medicines every two hours to every eight.  This makes for a nice, long night...if the upstairs neighbors would be a little more quiet.  I have had to go to the front desk three times now between 10:30PM and Midnight-30.  Bouncing balls, slamming closet doors, and the pitter-patter of running toddler feet do not make for a quiet sleep environment for the downstairs neighbors, who knew?!

He has been having more and more headaches, which we have learned are a side effect of this kind of chemo.  With Oxycodone being given every four hours, I can't imagine what they would be like without any pain medication.  He is very light sensitive, so I'm wondering if it is migraines that are tempered by the pain medication, so they feel like a 'normal' headache.  Either way, I don't like that he is in pain.

He is having other side effects from the chemo, as well.  One of them is a rare side effect, affecting less than five kids out of every one hundred.  Of course Caden gets the rare side effects fighting his rare cancer!  It is causing him to have blurry vision.  And, since he is blind in one eye (amblyopia), it is really bothering him that he can't see well out of the one that has always been 20/15.  Hopefully this passes soon.  We'll talk to Sue about it tomorrow.

He is also having a 'common' side effect- jaw pain.  It has been hard for him to eat much.  He bit into a luscious, delicious Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (Thanks, again, Teachers' Quorum) and moaned in pain and set it aside.  He was not able to finish it, it hurt so bad.  So, not only does he have 1. a massive tumor pushing on his stomach, for which he can't eat a lot or it 2. pushes on the tumor and causes pain, he also has a hard time eating 3. because of his jaw and 4. because everything tastes metallic.  He's lost a lot of weight, I'm kind of getting nervous.  Stupid Chemo that is killing his cancer!!!  Double-edged sword, that chemo stuff.  I kind of have a love/hate relationship with the poison.

With the absence of all of the nausea meds, he is more alert and happy.  Aside for the 19 hour nap he took the other day, he usually only take two 3-hour naps a day, now.  We have watched a lot of Wicked Tuna and Impractical Jokers- cheering and laughing are so good for my soul.  We have also been able to go on a few walks.  Seattle has had sunshine for the past two days.  Tender mercy.  On one of the walks, I suggested that Caden walk behind the wheelchair (Thank you, Howard and Janelle) and then get in it if he needed, and I would push him the rest of the way home.  He never needed me to push him, he was strong enough to not only walk, but push something too.  He is getting stronger every day.

With each passing day, he gets more energy, feels a little better, and eats a little more.  I'm hoping that the next two weeks of chemo, which will be a syringe pushed through his port (like 2 minutes, for real) will be as easy as Sue says they are.  She says that in the 20+ years she has been doing this, only two kids have actually thrown up.  Knowing Caden, he'll make it three kids, but I'm hoping to be surprised.  In medical terms, this drug is like giving water- she said.  Water that makes him lose his hair, sure, but easier than any he's had.  It would be nice to have him as comfortable as he is at this very minute.  He needs this time to gain back some of the weight he has lost.  He needs a chance to fight to keep that feeding tube out.  WE DO NOT WANT THAT FEEDING TUBE AGAIN!!!!Everything always looks so much better when he is feeling as well as he's felt today. 

My Caden doesn't need a Mohawk to look tough, he IS tough!