Platelets

Yesterday was pretty stressful, again owing to miscommunication between doctors. The first doctor who visited in the morning nonchalantly told us that Kevin’s platelets (which make your blood clot) were below 50,000, so they were going to halt radiation, and that the MRI from the night before didn’t show that the tumor had responded much. This was not news we wanted to start the day with. One of our main goals for the moment is to continue radiation; we feel it is very important to continue the treatment that is hopefully going to cure him. Therefore, we want to make absolutely certain that there’s a darn good reason for stopping radiation, and that the “reason” isn’t a miscommunication.

After much stress and talking to several other doctors to figure out what actually was going on, it turned out that everything is just fine. The first doctor had his facts wrong. Yes, Kevin’s platelets are dropping, but they're still above 50,000. Even if the platelets were below 50,000, the radiation oncologists would switch to localized radiation on the brain stem. Plus, the MRI does show that the tumor has shrunk a bit. We are thrilled that radiation continued as scheduled this morning—and that it seems to be working!

Kevin enjoyed a personal cheese pizza for lunch. A few days ago, Mom discovered that Kevin could order off the pediatric menu. He would much rather have mini cheeseburgers, tater tots, taquitos or pizza from the pediatric menu instead of puréed asparagus and mashed potatoes every night. He said the pediatric menu “is more my speed.”

Kevin also tried the chocolate milkshake from Häagen-Dazs last night, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s the new second-place shake. He drank most of it in literally under 60 seconds! The rest of us splurged and also had milkshakes; we decided we needed something sweet after such a hectic day. The lesson learned from yesterday (and a lesson I should have remembered from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy): don't panic.