The Barnett's Battle : High Five

Good news! The PET scan came back showing no signs of cancer. We are so happy. Even though they got all the cancer in the surgery they highly recommend chemotherapy. They said without chemo the recurrence rate is very high. I guess 60-90% of people who choose not to do chemo will get it again. Because he is so young, he is at a greater chance of it coming back in his lifetime. So we are definitely doing chemo. He starts his treatments September the 9th. It will last for 6 months. He will be on chemo for 3 days every 2 weeks. So he will have 12 rounds of chemo. They will be inserting a port into his chest before he starts chemo that stays there for the 6 months and allow them to administer the drugs, without starting IV's each time. On day one, he will go to the hospital where they will attach a pump with the drugs to the port in his chest. He then can come home for 2 days and on day three he goes back in to get it taken off. This is great news. It will make life a lot less hectic and busy.

When the resident told Layne he had no other cancer, you could see him have immediate relief. He even cried a little. Unfortunately the resident was lets just say, very reserved and Layne took him by surprise when he jumped up to high five him. It was hysterical. A lot more funny than me telling it. The Dr. kinda karate chopped Layne's high five and then proceeded to continue telling us the side effects of all the drugs, without even cracking a smile. It has definitely brought some humour to our evening.

The drugs that they will be administering for chemo do have side affects. The most common side effects are mouth sores, hand and foot syndrome, thinning hair (not loss) and I guess he can't drink cold water or have anything freezing as it will really bother his esophagus. They said their goal is to have Layne not throw up once. So we are really positive going into this. Even though it will still be difficult going through this, we are really hoping these are the only side effects he will have. They even said a steroid he will be one will increase his appetite and he will be able to gain weight during the next six months.

Today was a good day. I think we will all sleep a bit better tonight. Layne is even having a little celebration with some of his favourite cousins tonight. The boys are in Edmonton with my parents for the week ( I worked all week). But we will definitely celebrate with them when they get home on Sunday.