Hey fam! Dropping in for a little update. Been up to no good, as usual, but have literally been “horsing around”. Don’t believe me?? Scroll down⬇️
Pet therapy got a liiiittle more interesting last week. Meet Angel. For all those wanting to duplicate her ootd, it was on point…shoes - Build a Bear, vest - Gucci, harness - SHEIN…
Okay, back to business. Where did we leave off? I had a PET scan a couple weeks ago and those scans came back looking pretty good. If you aren’t familiar with these type of scans, they inject radioactive sugar before the scan and it “lights up” where there is activity. If you recall, my first one lit up where my tumor was because those were active cancer cells. It also lights up around your heart, your brain, etc. This go round, it did not light up where my tumor was located because well, the chemo is doing it’s job! The surgeon also “pulled” most of the tumor out when I had my second biopsy. So all in all, great news!
Even though we got good news from the scans, my doctor still presented my case and updated scans to the tumor board on October 2nd. Taking ALL THE THINGS into consideration, they made the decision that they still wanted me to undergo some radiation. They will probably zap the “tumor bed” real good and the pleural space where my tumor was located.
They don’t do pediatric radiation in Baton Rouge so we will be traveling to St. Jude in Memphis for that. Everyone says how cool it is up there but I’m just like, when do I get to come home?!?! We will meet with the oncologist and radiology oncologist when we get there and they will be the ones to give us the rest of the details…how long I’ll be there, etc. Dr. Sims seems to think it will likely be a few weeks, but TBD. We are just kinda flying blind at this point but like I tell Mom all the time, just gotta trust, trust.
Other than that, my nurses really tried to keep me happy my last long week of IE but have you ever been cooped up in a hospital for 7 days?? It’s torture! Guess I appeared pretty pouty to them because I got a whole cheesecake, a football signed by the LSU football team, and some crumbl cookies with fake candles out of it…they pulled out all the stops!
Speaking of candles, I did turn 13 the other day! They were nice enough to schedule my clinic appointment to do labs the day after my birthday but then they gifted me…get this…blood. Literally. Had my first blood transfusion and all went well, but really??? They might need a lesson in gift giving after all! It’s pretty normal for cancer patients to need blood. The chemo is killing the bad cells but the good cells are innocent bystanders sometimes. Labs showed my hemoglobin was low so they sent me over to the inpatient side where I sat and waited (very impatiently, might I add) for them to give me 3 units of blood. What a freaking Friday night. Missed the homecoming game and all. Those poor nurses tried all they could but it was just a lengthy process. Luckily, my ANC (immune system) was high which allowed me to still hang with my friends and celebrate my birthday. Maybe not exactly how I wanted to, but I’ll make up for it once this dang port is out and I have all this behind me!
Guess the next time you see me, I’ll be in Memphis! I’m going to do my best to keep those nurses on their toes too, don’t worry
Be good,
Beau
