3rd Round of Chemo

 So the first big news is THE CANCER IS SHRINKING! We got our PET scan results back when we went in for our 3 day hospital stay on St. Paddy's day. They said that all the masses in Tristan's spleen have shrunk so much that they can barely see them on the PET scan. His biggest mass, in his chest, has shrunk quite a bit but they highly recommend radiation to make sure it doesn't come back. Luckily, since Tristan is young he can prevent some issues that may come up because of the radiation. His mass is really close to his heart so the heart tissue will be affected. They said if there are issues with the heart tissue being damaged it won't come up for 30-35 years from now. So he has to watch what he eats and make sure that he is always eating healthy. He can definitely reduce the issues that might occur by watching what he eats and staying healthy. So we have decided we will do the radiation. Now the radiation won't happen until after his last round of chemo. I thought we had 3 rounds of chemo left but last week the doctor mentioned we had 2 rounds left. I need to double check with her and confirm with her how many rounds we have left. But, regardless, we are almost done! This last round passed by quickly. It was me, Vincent and Tristan in a hospital room for 3 nights. We had the best time. We sat around joking and laughing while Tristan played video games. It's nice that these chemo days are associated with good memories instead of bad ones. I have a photo and video from our last stay- almost 2 weeks ago. 

He still hasn't had any bad reactions to the chemo- thank God! We are praying it stays that way. By all accounts, except for his bald head, he is a normal 13 year old boy that gets to stay home and do his school at home. I couldn't be more happy for him. He's handled all of this like a champ. I don't know how he does it but he's so strong. And also because of the shrinking of the mass in his chest, he got to stop his blood thinner shots! So no more shots twice a day in either his left or right thigh or his left arm. He was getting bruises from the shots and I hated having to wake him up at 8:30 in the morning to get a shot. He was so excited about the shots going away! Now all we have to do is flush his PICC lines. This takes about 3-5 minutes and I could do this in my sleep now. But we just have to do this once a day so we end up doing it at night, after dinner. But this was almost as good news as hearing that the masses have shrunk, hearing that we didn't have do shots anymore! 

We can't thank y'all enough for all the pictures of everyone wearing their Tristan shirts. They have been amazing to see. Tristan is super embarrassed but they do put a smile on his face when he sees them. It's the best, y'all! Thank you so much for the support!