July 5th

We actually had a great weekend. Oakley started his chemo treatment last Thursday. It was a 2 1/2 day treatment so he finished Sunday afternoon. He seemed to really tolerated this particular session very well. He threw up only twice to which I don't blame the chemo for. Oakley doesn't either. The first time he yelled at David for feeding him too big of a bite of mashed potatoes. He was asking for more mashed potatoes before we even had him cleaned up from his puking incident. The second time, he didn't want to take his medication and made himself gag over it. Yep, puke all down the front of me, inside my shirt and all! We caught some of it in a bucket to which Oakley had to tell me sadly that his cheese crumbs were in there. He wanted more! He finished his pepperoni pizza dinner and shredded cheese just fine. Seriously, what a character! He's not going to let this cancer or chemo get him too far down. Just the kind of attitude we need to see! :)

One of Oakley's issues this week is the immobility of his ankles and toes. Since his surgery he has been unable to move either. The doctors said they might not have gotten the tumor removed in time an now as a result it could take longer for him to regain those functions back. We're hoping they come back! He's lost a lot of muscle in his lower body. If you make him mad enough he will move his upper legs and we even got him to roll over on his knees once. It hurts for him to sit up straight and we're thinking it's because he doesn't have a tushy! He's mostly bones covered by a thin layer of skin. My poor Oakley!

The other issue this week is his inability to urinate. They've had to straight cath him 5 times in the last 15 hours. It breaks my heart to see him in so much pain and not because of his back surgery! I finally opted not to be one of the people who held him down while they drained his pee. Other than this minor setback Oakley seems to be doing great physically. I do worry that all this trauma in the hospital will have some lasting effects. Any advice?

Oakley will receive his second round of chemo, a quick 5 minute infusion, this Wednesday or Thursday. They said there usually aren't any big side effects to this infusion so we're keeping our fingers crossed!

All in all, we're definitely trying to be optimistic. We want to thank EVERYONE for your love and prayers. We know that it has kept us calm and comforted more than once! We're looking at maybe getting to go home for a week before he starts his third round of chemo.