I ended my last post not knowing whether Alexander would get boost radiation to the areas of concern on his spine.  Now we know: he will get 5 boost doses to those areas.  We are disappointed that he needs them, but the radiation oncologist says there is very little additional risk associated with this approach.  The doc said to us over the phone, “If I were you, this is what I’d want.”

Today was the next-to-last day of full craniospinal irradiation.  We are beyond excited to be near the end of this part of the treatment.  We hope his mood and his appetite will improve once his whole brain and spine are no longer subjected to radiation.  Others have said they’ve seen that happen with their kids; let’s hope it holds true with Alexander.

We also hope he will regain his lost weight once radiation is done.  He was down another half pound yesterday.  We gave him more calories in the morning, and he ate pretty well after treatment, but it will take consistent high calorie days to pack on the pounds.  We have some supplements to give him and an appetite stimulant.  We hope this weekend he’ll be able to eat three full meals a day and Graeter’s ice cream for dessert after every one!

We talked at length about chemotherapy today with our oncologist.  In particular, we discussed what chemotherapy protocols are likely to be recommended and where he could be treated with each.  No decisions have been made yet, but the understanding we gained from that conversation makes us feel better about making the decision when the time comes.