After having the weekend off, Jackson arrived at the hospital this morning to start another week of radiation treatments, but he was sent away because of equipment malfunctions.  Now we’ll try to keep food off of his mind because he cannot eat or drink until after we go back this afternoon to try to complete his session.  So far Lightning McQueen and friends are keeping his mind off food.  

The IMRT radiation treatment is making him very tired.  He's getting more and more worn out as the treatments continue.  Some days he does o.k., but others he doesn’t even get up from wherever he is sitting.  He’s not in a bad mood though, just very worn out.

His eating has been dwindling a bit.  He’s surviving on Lay's potato chips, bananas, and milk.  Everything else is “icky.”  We think he’s either nauseous, or his taste buds are still messed up from the chemo, or both.  He is the only person I’ve ever seen eat a bag of Lay’s while laying down, apparently without difficulty.  Sometimes he gets greasy chip crumbs stuck down between his shoulders and his neck, but he doesn’t seem to mind.      

It looks like Jack will also be in seclusion for a bit longer than we thought.  We got word from his bone-marrow transplant doc that Jackson’s immune system is still very compromised from the transplant and that he will remain on the isolation precautions until at least the end of March, the soonest she thinks he may have recovered.  She will re-evaluate him then.  This means all of his current restrictions will remain in place until that time (including the anti-bacterial diet, avoiding public places, limiting visitors, strict avoidance of anyone who is or has been ill, etc.)  He will continue with his antibiotic and immunoglobin infusions as well in an effort to support his immune system.  As a practical matter, it just means that we won’t be able to get him around some of his friends and family as soon as we would have liked.  In the meantime, the doctors are also referring us to other sub-specialists as well to address concerns regarding side-effects and potential side-effects of his surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.  Managing all of his treatment is very much like what I imagine it is like to be a general contractor.  But it's also something we are fortunate to be able to be doing. 

We wanted to put up a new picture to show off his new eyebrows, which are starting to come in, but we too are having technical difficulties this morning.  This photo is from two weeks ago, before his started getting really tired.  He was reading his big Curious George book and holding his brother’s pacifier.  We’ll try to get a new picture up soon.