Looking back, there are a couple of early signs for Lucas. In May 2012, I took Lucas to the pediatrician office, requesting a blood drawn to rule out leukemia -- because he had frequent nosebleeds and our friend Kelly's daughter was diagnosed with leukemia in April. The CBC looked great back then. By the end of summer, the nose-bleeding became even more prominent and we got him cauterized at an ENT. Starting September 2012, Lucas would wake up more at night, and I noticed heavy night sweats happening often. That's also the time when he first started daycare, so we thought the night time wake up (usually 3am-4am) was a consequence of major lifestyle change. I did still worry about night sweat. Looking back, it's a early sign.
cancer – night sweats can be an early symptom of certain cancers like lymphoma orleukaemia, although this is unusual and cancer would cause other symptoms too, such as unexplained weight loss
-- from NHS UK
The night sweat didn't completely go away after the treatment started and Lucas came to remission. Every time Lucas is drenched in sleep, I stay awake worrying. Finally a parents on ALL board mentioned night sweat might be a side effect of steroid. I looked it up -- it is indeed a possible side effect of Prednisone. Lucas started this steroid pulse Tuesday night, he started to have night sweat on Thursday. I felt somewhat relieved, though I will keep monitoring the night sweat issue. According to TCM, night sweat is a sign of deficiency in Yin (as in Yin-Yang), which can be a result of a variety of disorders.
Lucas started to have cold symptoms last Saturday. Running nose, congestion. By Thursday he started coughing a little. I had terrible sore throat Monday evening and coughing started Thursday also. His congestion and coughing is very hard to notice today so hopefully that is the end of this cold. He only went to school on Wednesday last week.
His ANC continued to look good on Tuesday and we increased PO MTX to 3.5 pills (about 75%), while 6MP stays the same. With this cold, we would expect a drop in ANC when the cold ends (bone marrow would try to produce more WBC to fight infection, while chemo is trying to suppress it, so the bone marrow would decide not to produce as much). We have a standing CBC order which means we can go to clinic to get finger poke whenever. We will go on a weekly basis every Tuesday morning (now think about it, I will call to check if the close-to-home Children's Hospital open during evening and we could just go Monday evening).
Lucas went to a friend's house for a big gathering tonight for the first time after his diagnosis. He woke up from his nap at 1:45pm and immediately asked if it's time to go. He had to wait till 5:15 when I finally told him that we were ready to go. He didn't want to come back home once he got there. He ate a ton -- he was the first one to start eating and last one to finish. He fell asleep on the trip back home. I had to wake him up for 6MP. When I did, he didn't open his eyes, but opened his mouth instead. I put the half-pill in, give him his straw cup. One small sip of water did the job. He is such a good boy when it comes to taking medicine. So good that my heart aches every single time!
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