Okay, Eric needs to catch a break....

It was a very frustrating and disappointing week. Eric was up and at the hospital for 7:30 AM Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Each day they drew blood for testing in hopes that there would be sufficient stem cells to collect. Nothing on Tuesday, some on Wednesday, but not enough to collect and back to nothing on Thursday. So, back to the drawing board....

Eric has a scan next Wednesday to determine the status of his nodes as well as the state of the abscess. We hope that the abscess is sufficiently healed that he can get another round of chemo. Stem cell mobilization is usually helped by chemo so that may give him another chance to collect stem cells. In Eric's case there has been an ongoing risk/benefit analysis as to whether more chemo will help or hinder the stem cell collection combined with the risk of having that infection flare up while he is neutropenic following chemo.

They have also started the process to type Shelley and Zach's blood to see if either could potentially be a donor for Eric. Obviously an Allo transplant has more risk, so we are still hoping and praying for a successful collection following some more chemo.

We probably won't have a new plan in place for a couple of weeks. While it's good to have some time off from the hospital, I think we all just want to get this moving so it will be over with. Fortunately, Eric is feeling well physically and his blood counts are all good (and improving).

Eric is also trying to get set up for disability. Most of us would never realize how difficult THAT is... There are many programs in place for those of us who have been in the workforce for a while and there are lots of supportive programs for kids who are seriously ill. Young adults who have not been employed full time are left out in the cold. Eric has not worked enough to qualify for Employment Insurance, he lost his University scholarships and OSAP because he cannot attend classes and, while the Ontario Disability program looks promising, they have yet to answer their phones. He has been able to make an appointment with Ontario Works and will hopefully get into the disability approval process that way.

Looking forward to a better week!