Day 66 – May 23, 2022
7:45 pm: Good evening from the hospital. We’re on day 5 since admission and Harvey is doing well. He had been receiving cefepime (antibiotic) until this morning to help ward off infection, has remained fever-free, and his ANC climbed to .322 this morning, up from .220 yesterday. We are trending the right direction and hope to return home in the next few days. Hattie & Henry received COVID tests this morning and we’re awaiting results before we bring Harvey back home. Their school has shut down this week due to the amount of COVID cases reported by both staff and students. This tends to be a good indicator of the COVID trend in the community: Up in the twin cities metro. Lindsey tested negative for COVID this weekend, thankfully.
Harvey was scheduled to begin his second (and final) 2-week round of consolidation treatment tomorrow morning, but we officially got notified that this will be delayed until his immune system recovers. Once his ANC reaches .750, he’ll be able to begin chemotherapy. I’m half relieved to have a few more days of rest for Harvey before he begins another harsh treatment regimen. Yet I’m just anxious to get it over with. During a physical therapy session today, I learned that Harvey has very little ability to control certain muscles in his foot/ankle. It took everything in him to get his toes to point up, and he simply wasn’t able to move them with any resistance applied. I also watched him ride down the hall on a standing scooter, so proud that he was able to maneuver around swiftly and gracefully. Then, the physical therapist had him switch to standing on his left leg and pushing off with his right. All of a sudden, it was like watching him try to ride a scooter for the first time again. I had to fight off tears and talk through the realization of how very weak he’s become. Vincristine, a nasty chemotherapy, is likely to blame for this, and it’s a big part of his next round of treatment. This will get worse. He’ll need more intense physical therapy and likely supports, such as leg braces. He has shown us how unbelievably resilient and surprisingly fragile he is throughout this cancer fight. Often both at the same time.
The highlight of Harvey’s active day was playing (and winning at) bingo. I can’t thank the Star Studio staff enough for the effort they dedicate to their live in-house productions. The star of the show himself, “The Dude”, stopped by Harvey’s room to deliver his bingo prizes today! He received a monster truck toy, a stuffed giraffe with storybook, and a “The Dude” hat! He’s still talking about this experience 5 hours later. (If you haven’t watched the entertaining video of Harvey calling into bingo, here it is!) Harvey is having a quick bedtime snack and we’ll be in bed soon. I’m hoping this is one of our last nights here for a very, very long time.
