FINISH THE WEEK IN ICU

Johnny seemed to tolerate the new chemos last night -- he had a spinal tap with chemo (ARA-C), IV ARA-C, etoposide (4 hour infusion) and danurubicin (6 hour infusion).  He was sick a couple of times but nothing like I was expecting -- the anti-nausea meds seem to help. 

Although his vitals/labs look relatively good considering the circumstances, he's in really bad shape and requires constant monitoring.  We found out he has fluid in his lung as well -- luckily today's xray shows it hasn't increased since last night -- so that is good news. I couldn't tell you exactly why he's in ICU, it's not sepsis, his heart rate seems fine, blood pressure is good, but that is for the moment -- I guess the only way I can explain it is, it's a very delicate balance between the meds and his chemistry's, labs are drawn every 4 hours (usually it's once a day) to make sure he is stable and stays that way. My guess is we will be in ICU at least until the weekend, if not longer. 

The results from the spinal show a few WBC's -- but well within the acceptable range, the fluid will undergo further testing to make sure they are normal cells and not cancer.  If they are AML cells, he will have weekly spinals until it proves the AML is gone.