Tucker Got an A+

I long for the day that the normal chemo “routine” kicks in (if there is such a thing)….. no more surprises, no more “gasp’s” from the Doctors, no more “WOW, REALLY? WOW!” from the Doctors… no more “I’VE NEVER HEARD OF A CASE LIKE THIS BEFORE”… from the Doctors…. Why can’t we just have a routine appointment without the shocking surprised reaction we get from the doctors that treat tucker? So I took Tucker up for chemo yesterday and we had a brand new doctor, well- he’s not “new” by any means, but I have never meet him or even seen him before until today. For the sake of this email let’s call him Dr. Newbie. Before I get on to Dr Newbie, first on our short walk from the car, to the elevator in the hospital, up the elevator to the office Tucker almost passed out! He scared me to death! But he didn’t pass out, just go really close- he was like “mom, what’s all these black spots I’m seeing?”…. but I’ll get around to that. So back to Dr. Newbie- He came in the room and like normal wanted to go over tucker’s meds, Well I’ve dang near got them all memorized so I’m reciting the list in my brain, I get down to the Levothyroxine (thyroid pill) and he said “oh? Does Tucker have a problem with his thyroid?” I said, No- well, yes, I mean that’s where the tumor was. *BLANK LOOK FROM THE DR* I said, ummm…. Tucker grew a little tumor on his pituitary gland in his brain… *BLANK LOOKED REPLACED BY CONFUSION*….. I said, You know….. Cancer? In his spinal fluid?? At that I got a “Ya, that’s right… sure”, (but he could have been faking it) …… I said…...well that cancer clustered up on his gland and grew a tumor….

Dr Newbie- What?! Really? WOW! I’ve just never heard of that before!!! So I get it he’s taking the Levothyroxine to help heal that glad! Wow! I’ve never had a case like this before… ect ect ect…..

Me *UNAMUSED LOOK WITH THE FEELING LIKE THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG DAY, I’M ONLY 3 PILLS INTO THE FIRST LIST* *ahem* so… anyways He’s also on 2 big does of antibiotics to kill off the Mycobacteruim he had growing but I can’t remember there….

Dr. Newbie- Wait wait wait, surly you didn’t say “MYCOBACTERUIM” I’m sure its not that, I bet its something else- it just couldn’t be that! At which time Tucker piped up “YA, I grew a Mycobacteruim Doc Afify told me I did!”.

Dr. Newbie- How about I go find out what really was going on and then I’ll let you know the name of the meds he’s on… *walks out of the room*

Me *STILL UNAMUSED LOOK ON MY FACE- WITH A SLIGHT EDGE OF- YOU THINK I WOULD BE LYING ABOUT THIS CRAP?*

Enter Dr. Newbie 10 minutes later: WOW WOW WOW YOU WERE RIGHT!!!! It was a Mycobacteruim! WOW! You just never hear of that! Wow, wow! I see you saw Dr so&so..(The Director of Institute of Disease Control, but I can’t remember his name.) WOW that is just AMAZING!

Tucker said “see I told you.” I said *WITH A LOOK OF—YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME--- ON MY FACE* *please use heavy sarcastic tone while reading* Ya, I wasn’t making this up…. But if it makes you feel any better I’m getting used to your reaction, from what I gather its very rare and Tucker grew this bug, lucky us, I’m so proud. Dr. Newbie went on and on about “wow this” and “really?” that…. Let me just toss this out there to all the doctors that could possibly be reading this- I would suggest to you in cases such as this, that you save your shock, surprise, amazement, and what could easily be mistaken as admiration- for when your ALONE. It doesn’t make me feel comfortable knowing that Tucker is making his own path in the thick jungle of cancer, instead of taking the paved road. All in all Dr. Newbie was very nice…. Just very, surprised and very vocal about his surprise. They pulled Tucker’s blood out and ran counts; turns out his red blood cells were like GONE BABY GONE… so he needed a transfusion. This was why Tucker almost passed out in the elevator, Red blood cells give you energy and he had ZERO ENERGY. I love the blood transfusions but they take FOREVER to get. Tucker got 2 big bags full of A+ BLOOD! I’m so proud of my child… getting an A+ like that… *sniff* I always knew he was smart…
Anyways, he didn’t get his two A+ bags until 6pm and each bag takes 1 1/2 hours to transfuse. So they stuck us in a room in the Oncology ward to hang out while he finishes up. By the time it was all said and done….. I showed up with a pale white ghost… & left with a red cheeked much better boy… at 11pm. It was a long night! But we finally made it home and in bed. Love to all- a very tired Amber, Justin & Tucker

ARAC Chemo after all his IV's, look how swollen his face it. This is when we were admitted for chemo ARAC last week. This was the morning after his blood pressure crashed. He also has a fever see how red his face is.

This is how I found my boys when I got home on Tuesday 3/29/2011 from work to take Tucker to chemo. Both of them were not feeling good sound asleep snoring....so cute

Chemo on Tuesday 3/29/2011

Tucker getting his blood transfussion

Getting so much needed "pick me up" blood on 3/29/2011