Chemotions: My 18 Month Old Son Is Starting Chemotherapy

Just the facts.

Friday night, the night after I happily celebrated my birthday with 2 hilarious gals that I love, Spencer's doctor called. After presenting his case to the panel for review, the general consensus among the docs was that Spencer should start treatment. It went from waiting a few weeks-to-months and letting him get bigger and stronger to starting chemotherapy in the upcoming week. It can no longer be avoided. Our nightmare is now real.

A lot of info was thrown into my brain at once but what it boils down to is this:

Wednesday, I'll take Spencer downtown for a blood draw. I'm supposed to have a list of all my questions ready and my sister is going for back-up. It's good to have another set of eyes and ears. Ill be given a basic plan for his treatments, meds he'll be on, side effects, etc. This is when I'll get more info about everything I'm babbling about. I only know what a 10 minute phone call could hold...and honestly, my mind was busy holding my heart together. He'll have an Echo, even though he had one at birth and everything checked out. Then we'll talk to people in the surgical department (I'll get to that in a second).

Thursday, depending on what the blood work shows and what the surgical peeps think, Spencer may have a transfusion of platelets. I know it's a pretty simple procedure but the thought of it scares me. Blood products are freaky. If he has a transfusion, he will stay overnight...and I'll be right there with him.

Friday, Spencer will have a surgical procedure to insert a central line (he was not a candidate for a port due to his size) and they'll do another bone marrow biopsy at the same time. Once again, he'll have to stay overnight and I'll be there, too. Once the central line is in, chemo can start, but I'm not sure if that will be Friday or Saturday. I need to get my facts straight. And we were also told that during some of his treatments, they'll keep him longer than 3-4 days. So I'm not sure how long he'll be in the hospital this time around. I'll know more on Wednesday.

I took this week off work, and most likely next week, too. I wanted Monday and Tuesday to get as far ahead in school as I could, get the house clean, maybe get Spencer's haircut (Todd wants him to have a mohawk and go into this tuff), and just spend time with him and Sully. I don't know what to expect or how he'll feel so really so I'm just trying to prepare for anything. The unknown. I'm going to load up books and movies on the iPad to keep Spencer and myself occupied, buy him some comfy jammies in case he can wear his own, get everything as organized as possibly because we COULD be at the hospital for a week.

One of the worst weeks of my life, no doubt.

People have been overwhelmingly supportive which is amazing. I cant believe how many people bought Team Spencer merch!! I know how lucky we are and I know Spencer will come out of this, no doubt. But it hurts so bad. Every time I see him sitting there being adorable, laughing, smiling, I just can't believe how unfair this is. HE'S JUST A LITTLE BOY. I want to scream but I can't. At least for now, I have to keep my head screwed on. I have to be Mommy and make things as easy for him as I can so I'll have to scream later. More updates after Wednesday.

Thanks again for all the support. Honestly.