Round 2...

...has begun. We spent most of Wednesday morning and afternoon in clinic waiting to be admitted to start Xavian's second round of chemo. Once we got to our room (446 in Children's Hospital of Birmingham) he was hooked up to the normal fluids he continues to get in preparation for the chemo drugs. We also found out, a month from now, when we come back for his third round they will do another MRI to see how the tumor is responding to the chemo drugs. I am personally praying for a complete healing, no trace of cancer!

Thursday morning he was given Methotrexate (the one that causes mouth sores). This, like last time, was given over a four hour period. He was then given a rescue drug to clear it out. It will take a couple days to get out of his system. The doctors are hoping Sunday his levels will be down and can start the final drugs. This will also be when they expect to do a blood transfusion. He could use one now but they don't want to mess up clearing the Methotrexate out of his kidneys. He was also given Vincristine - another drug used to stop the cancer cells from reproducing. They also decided to go ahead and put a feeding tube in before he gets mouth sores. He didn't like that so much, but has gotten use to it now. They fed him through it at night and he did great. It also gave me a chance to go home and sleep. My mom stayed at the hospital with Xavian. Matt, Dante and I were all under one roof for the night.

Today (Friday) Xavian had his hearing test. He passed, while sleeping the entire time. He has been the happy baby he was before all this started and that makes me smile. Although he is eating well he has been throwing up after each feeding. We'll have to wait and see what the doctors say tomorrow morning. More than likely if he continues to get sick they will feed him through his tube. Also, while I was changing the dressing around his central line I noticed the stitches had come out. The stitches are there to keep the catheter from pulling out. I called the nurse in to show her. She then paged the doctor to let him know. We had to stop all the fluids until they could do an xray and make sure his line hadn't been pulled out. We are still waiting to hear back on the xray so that know if we can continue his fluids or will need to do something to put the line back. I will be sure post an update as soon as I hear something.

Both Xavian and Matt are sound asleep. I think I should join them both. I will try to be better about updating now that we are back in the hospital.