In Boston 10-4-06

We arrived in Boston on Wednesday after a quick flight. We took a short cab ride to the Holiday Inn right accross from Mass. General Hospital. After we got settled we took a short walk around downtown and had lunch at the original Cheers that the TV show was based on.

Thursday we got up early and had a good breakfast in the Mass General cafeteria. Then met with the doctors that are going to do the radiation therapy, Dr. DeLaney and his assistant Dr. Haglund. We were hoping that Heath would not need any chemo while we were up here so he could have a break but the doctors told us that he will need to get the Etoposide/Ifosfamide chemo along with the radiation therapy. He was very depressed about that at first but has accepted it at this point. We also asked them to check his blood counts and to scheduled a PET scan. He had a pelvic CT scan and they scheduled him for an MRI, a platelet infusion and a PET scan for Friday and two units of blood on Saturday. His blood counts came back and they were very bad so we spent the rest of the day in the hotel room.

Friday Karis and Heath went over early to get his MRI. I went over and met Karis before he finished his MRI. Then we went over to meet Heath's new Oncology doctor, Dr. Ebb. He spent a lot of time with us and he explained everything to use extremely well and made us feel very good about being here. They gave Heath one unit of platelets. After that they took another blood sample to check his counts. Then we went over to get the his PET scan. His blood counts came back and they were much better except for his hemoglobin. The two units of blood he will get on tomorrow should take care of that. Dr. Ebb said that his blood counts are good enough for us to go back into tourist mode tonight.

Karis has a realtor scheduled to pick us up at the hotel tonight to show us a place that we may rent for the eight stay. Heath wanted to go to the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown so we will probably have the realtor drop us off there and take a cab back to the hotel after dinner.

I have several more posts that I need to catch up on and I'll try and do that this weekend.

Thanks for reading and please keep praying for Heath and for the doctors that are caring for him. To quote Heath's sister Karissa, "God answers prayers, please pray for Heath".