Thad spends a lot of time reading. He's read this stack of books during his treatment (and more--these are only the books he read at his dad's house.)
It has been over a month since we updated Thad's webpage. This is because everything has gone so well over the past month and a half.
Thad's cycles are getting longer, however. Ideally, his treatment plan calls for a new cycle of chemotherapy every 21 days. On the "ideal" schedule he would have been finished before the beginning of June. However, it is normal for any patient to recover more slowly after every cycle. The human organism weakens under the repeated onslaught of the drugs. Thad's bone marrow in particular is unable to regenerate with sufficient speed to permit his next cycles to start "on time." Thad is unable to replace his platelets, white cells, and other core components of his immune system. When this happens he is "neutropenic," and his doctors will not start a new cycle.
So Thad's 7th cycle started a week late; his 8th cycle two weeks late. These delays create some risk, but starting a treatment before a patient's immune system has recovered also creates risks. The entire cancer treatment is a comprehensive exercise in balancing risks, none of which can be eliminated, but only lessened in relation to others.
The good news is that Thad gets a respite from the onslaught of treatment. During the past two months, he has managed to stay OUT OF THE HOSPITAL! He started baseball practice with his friends (pictures soon!). His teammates notice a certain resemblance between Thad and Kevin Youkilis. Besides world-class athletic talent, can you guess what it is?
The weeks off between treatments have allowed Thad to gain some weight, get some rest, and have some fun. This is the eighth of nine cycles. He is almost done!
Treatment is no vacation in more ways than one! Thad's school, the Regional Multicultural Magnet School in New London, has provided tutoring during his absence. Thad also uses the internet resources of the Regional Multi-Cultural Magnet School in New London to do his homework. Here he is (reluctantly) doing "math facts."
Thad spends a lot of time reading. He's read this stack of books during his treatment (and more--these are only the books he read at his dad's house.)
Thad's 9th Cycle: updated June 7th, 2008
Thad finished his 9th and last cycle this week! These last cycles have been outpatient treatments. Thad goes into the Guilford Clinic run by the Pediatric Oncologists team of Dr. Joseph McNamara. This cycle was typical, with Thad feeling nauseous during the treatments but recovering well by later this week.
We are concerned that he seems to be walking with a shuffle step and there seems to be some weakness in his gait. This side-effect is not uncommon among patients who receive Vincristin, a chemodrug that he has received repeatedly over the past six months. Whatever side-effects that have manifested are likely to be transitory and will hopefully go away in due time. Otherwise Thad is eating well and seems to have grown like a weed throughout his treatment.
He has also started to regrow his hair! He also has eyebrows and eyelashes!
What's the next step?
Once Thad's immune system recovers from his current treatment he will go in for an MRI. This will happen within the next two weeks. We expect that, like the last MRI, it will show that no tumor mass remains.
Thad will then return to being a normal boy, with periodic check ups to ensure that he remains in remission.
Thad's Career as a Movie Star Begins!
During the beginning of Thad's 7th Cycle NBC 30, Connecticut showed up at Dr. McNamara's clinic to do a spot on blood drives. The clip can be found at:
http://video.nbc30.com/player/?id=239872
We appear at the :55 second mark in the video, which aired April 11th.
