Livin' in San Francisco

Well, we are here in the BMT (bone marrow transplant) wing of the University Of California at San Francisco Children's Hospital. Mike, Luke and I arrived on Tuesday afternoon to many nurses all ready for our arrival. We had to go down to radiology for a chest x-ray then Luke got all washed down in the shower. All of his sanitized, packaged clothing and toys were unpacked and we were all set ! The rest of the day they gave Lukas several medications to prepare his body for the high dose chemo. The chemotherapy started Wed. morning. The first of his chemo is Melphalan...one of the big side effects of this one is mouth soars, so they ask the patient to use special mouthwash four times a day and keep the mouth cold during the infusion to constrict the blood vessels. Popsicles are not easy to eat first thing in the morning (in San Francisco) Burr..! The other two chemos are VP-16 (aka etoposide) and Carboplatin. These two he has had before in small doses, but for high-dose chemo they run continuous for four days. VP-16 can burn the skin when it is secreted, so that means three baths a day with sterile water and soap. We are staying busy with baths and mouthwash, Luke hates both...so Mommy has to get tough...or beg...sometimes. We have a room with a view of the ocean and a Wii full of games though, that helps. They said we may be moved into a less appealing room at some point so we better enjoy it while we can. Luke and I turned off all the lights in our room last night and held each other while we watched the ships on the water and the twinkling lights of the city...sweet.