[stanford_status] Home from hospital and doing well

[John R Larsen]

Hello Everyone,

Stanford and Joyce returned home Tuesday evening, Aug 22nd.  Something about the drive home got to 
Stanford and he threw up in the car into one of those pink hospital containers.  The first rest stop they 
came to was closed so he ended up holding the container on his lap for about an hour before he could 
dispose of it.  What fun... not!  He threw up again later at home.  Other than those two times he hasn't 
thrown up at all for any of the treatments.  The five day stay was hard on both Joyce and Stanford.  We 
managed okay at home, but we were very glad to have them back home.

Wednesday, Aug 23rd, he had another injection of Neulasta, the drug that jump starts the production of 
white blood cells.  The Neulasta made him very tired almost immediately and he slept most of the day.  
By Thursday he started to perk up and has been feeling pretty good since then.  He has been doing 
crunches and situps trying to strength his abdominal muscles that are still weak from his June 12th 
surgery.  This evening he went to a youth dance at the church (Sat, Aug 26).

He will go back up to Dartmouth Medical Center (DHMC) late next week for a CT scan.  That's when they 
will be able to determine if the chemotherapy treatments have been effective.  Dr. Chaffee said this will 
give them "thinking time" if results aren't what they expect them to be.

There were several other teenagers receiving chemotherapy at DHMC at the same time as Stanford.  He 
got them all together around a table in a common area and taught them how to play some card games.  
Joyce said it was quite the sight to see the kids, all bald and connected to their IV stands, playing cards 
and laughing together.  Nurses would occasionally come in and make adjustments to one or the other of 
them.  The staff asked the teenagers for ideas on what to put in the "teen lounge" area that is going in 
soon.  The teenagers joked that they should get the game "Twister", but then decided it wouldn't really 
work very well with the IV stands and tubes getting in the way.

Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers,

John

_______________________________________________________
John R Larsen <john at larsen-family.us>
http://larsen-family.us