Out of the Hospital... Yay!

Ryan - one year ago - at Stonehenge!

The thing about chemotherapy is that it’s actually a form of poison.  While it works hard to fight Ryan’s Hodgkins Lymphoma, it also attacks the healthy parts of his body.  That includes his white blood cells.  His count usually goes way down for about 5 days during the third week of each chemo cycle.  When this happens, he can’t fight infections.

Ryan went to school for an hour last Monday morning, when I got a call from the nurse that he was in a lot of pain.  I immediately picked him up.  At home, he started showing signs of fever, became lethargic and pale, then hot to the touch, and the pain in his stomach, muscles, bones, and joints was at an all time high.  This happened in a matter of three hours.

Luckily, Ryan’s medical team is always available, and they are incredibly responsive.  They told us to get to the hospital.  By 3:30 Monday afternoon, Ryan was hooked up to a continuous drip of antibiotics and pain killers.  They tested for every type of infection, including the flu, and everything came back negative.  By midnight, Ryan was feeling so much better!  His temperature returned to normal, morphine kept the pain at bay, and his spirits had improved, as well.

As a precaution, Ryan stayed at Institut Curie for 3 nights.  He finally came home on Thursday afternoon, and felt much more like his old self.  He was healthy enough to receive his chemo treatment on Wednesday, which was very good, and he doesn’t have another IV drip scheduled for a week, on Monday, April 25.

Ryan received a few visitors while he was in the hospital, but mostly he relaxed and recovered in his room, where we watched a lot of movies, and he completed some homework too.  We managed to laugh a lot, mostly at the expense of the other patients and hospital staff, but hopefully they didn’t realize we “profiled” them for 4 days.  French people in a chemo ward = that’s a serious petri dish of human psychology observations!

For the past few days, Ryan and I have been chilling at home.  He was so glad to be back in his own apartment, sleeping in his own bed, doing and enjoying all the things that are familiar to him.  We went for a few short walks to enjoy the sunshine, and we read books on a park bench.  The fresh air and the long days have been glorious.  Today, the sun was out ALL DAY, and we met "Buddy" for a walk in the Bois de Boulogne.  That was truly a highlight!

Come on, who doesn't love baguettes??

We expect this week coming up to be a good one.  Based on the pattern over the past few months, we hope Ryan may even make it to school for a couple of days.  His next cycle of chemo consists of less IV drips and some gentler medications, and while we realize chemo is cumulative, we hope that some of these painful side effects will be relieved a bit.

The important thing is, Ryan is doing a lot better!  Thanks to all of you who kept him in your thoughts and prayers last week.

The leaves have popped on the square trees in the Jardin du Luxembourg! (near Institut Curie)

Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris