Day 7-Change of Plans, Again

It is surprising to me how much of a blur these days have become.  It is hard to remember what happened on what day and as I sit down to write about today it is difficult to remember.

The last few days have been very difficult for me and Trent.  Trent has been "out of his mind" and I have a hard time remembering that.  Therefore our communication has been strained.  I think a lot of the problem has been solved by reinstating the medications he needed.  Last night as I knelt to say my prayers, before I had even finished a whole sentence, the impression came to me that Trent and I needed to pray together.  In the last few days we have only had prayer together twice.  Although we have each said hundreds of prayers, only two were together.  I felt strongly that this was the last piece of the puzzle in terms of us getting back on track.  When I arrived at the hospital, things kept getting in the way and when I remembered, Trent was asleep.  So I will definitely pray with him before I leave tonight and reconnect with him.

We learned today that Trent will be discharged tomorrow.  His kidney and liver function are almost back to normal.  His blood pressure has been pretty stable and his oxygen saturation has been great.  Right now he is off all tubes and wires except the heart monitor.  The other chest tube was removed earlier this afternoon and the doctor who did it was great, surprising because he couldn't have been a day older than 20!  Yeah, Trent was Doogie Howsered today!

He can go home as early as Wednesday if we want.  Dr. DaSilva wants to see him before we go.  I think the best plan is to let him recover for a few days in the hotel and then try to travel on Friday or Saturday.  We will have a home health nurse come to the hotel each day to make sure all is well.

We got the pathology results today.  The tumor has now been classified as an extraskeletal osteosarcoma instead of undifferentiated pleomorphic spindle cell sarcoma.  That means that is in bone cancer that is not in the bone.  The tumor has some characteristics of an osteosarcoma but has been behaving more like a sarcoma that originated in the muscle, which it did.  Dr. George came and explained that the treatment for either one would likely have been the same.  She feels that revisiting some chemotherapy agents we have already used is a good option, namely ifosfamide.  The exact treatment has not been confirmed yet but some ideas have been tossed around.  One problem with ifosfamide is that they have to give it with about four liters of fluid because it is processed by the kidneys and is nephrotoxic (toxic to your kidneys).  In light of what has happened to Trent in the past few days, all the extra fluid in his pericardium and pleural effusions, more fluid is not ideal for him.  We would have to see significant improvement in his kidney and liver function, and a stabilization of the fluid around his heart.  He is trending in that direction right now and the drain is in place to prevent fluid on the heart but only time will tell.  We are planning on two rounds of chemo and then a scan.  Trent needs to wait two weeks to let his body heal from the trauma and procedures he has undergone in the past week.  Chemotherapy will stop all the healing so he needs to be pretty well healed before they start.

Trent's mom left today.  It was great to have her here.  I know Trent was glad she came.  I, on the other hand, am happy to get some good rest tonight.  That is all that needs to be said, right Joellynn? :)