Diagnosis: Leukemia; June 1, 1987

The alarm woke Alex and myself up at nine o’clock. I got Alex dressed then Alex asked Charlie to get him breakfast. I went and had a shower then got ready to go to the hospital. We have to be there at eleven o’clock.

I think Alex is getting sick of going. We’ve been going since Thursday that’s five days of going to the hospital. He told me he hates the hospital and doesn’t want to go there.

We got to the hospital before eleven o’clock. There were pickets outside as there is a general strike. The Premier is trying to put through Bill 19 and 20. The labour doesn’t want it go go through.

We went into the parking lot so we had no trouble . The parking lot was free, they are on strike.

There weren’t that many nurses in the clinic but we didn’t have to wait too long. Lenore took blood the way they put an I.V. in and then put the medication (ARA-C) in through the needle and tube. Alex cried but not for long and then went to get his prize.

We left at 11:30 p.m., Charlie wanted Dim Sum so we went to Flamingo for a take out. We got home after twelve o’clock and had the Dim Sum. Alex watched TV. for awhile and Charlie went to work around 2:30 p.m.

At three o’clock Alex said his throat hurt which usually means he’s going to throw up. He said he wasn’t going to, I got him to drink some ginger ale. At four thirty he threw up. He said he was tired and went to sleep.

I had dinner and cleaned up the house. I woke him up at seven o’clock. Alex had some pea soup but he wasn’t that hungry.

We watched TV. and played some of Alex’s games. Alex had his medicine at nine o’clock and I told him it was time for bed. He screamed and yelled and tried to bite me and pull my hair. I had to hold him quite tight. I got him into his pajama’s and by this time he had calmed right down.

I read him Winnie-The-Pooh and then he went to sleep, I thought. Alex came out of his room at ten o’clock and said his pillow was wet and he wanted to sleep in our bed. Alex finally feel asleep at eleven o’clock.

I wrote in the journal from nine o’clock until eleven thirty. I’ll try and move Alex into his own bed and then I’ll go to bed.

Tests

WBC 3.8
HGB 9.9
Platelets 182,000
ANC 3,344

Medicine

Prednisone 9:45 a.m. 1mg ------ --------
Bactrim 9:45 a.m. ------- 8:55 p.m.
Mercaptopurine ------ ------ 8:55 p.m.
Dimenhydrinate 11:00 a.m. 3:30 p.m. ------

Temperature 37.03C 10:00 a.m. 36.47C 9:00 a.m.