Tuesday 25th January, 2011

Wow - this time last year we were sat in the Emergency Department at the hospital having just found out that Luke had leukaemia. Who would have known what laid ahead of us. What an eventful, stressful, incredible year it's been. I think Luke deserves a medal for all he's been through and yet he still has the same resolve that he's had from day one with comments such as - "I'm okay" and "someone had to have it!"

Luke has had a tough week. Last Monday through general blood tests it was discovered that his glucose levels were way too high. They had been so for about a week prior but they were just monitoring the situation. It turns out the due to taking the Dexamethasone (steroid), Luke had developed steroid induced diabetes. A normal person would have blood glucose levels of 4 - 8. Luke's were in the high 20's. A typical day this week has been starting off around 20 and increasing to up to 31.5 in the evening. He has to prick his finger 4 times a day to test the blood glucose levels. He then has been having an insulin injection 2 times a day to try to bring down the high levels.(Yet another injection to the body). He started with an insulin dose of 20 in the morning and 10 in the evening and has been increasing this every few days. He is now up to 44 and 28 respectively. He finished this round of steroids on Sunday and we are now just starting to see his levels come down to under 20. So hopefully within the week his levels will return to normal and he won't have any long term diabetes - fingers crossed. He's been very good not eating anything with much sugar in.
Dexamethasone is one of the stronger steroids so hopefully when he gets onto his maintenance chemo for 2 years when he has to take a different kind of steroid he won't be affected.

Otherwise Luke has had a little minibreak from chemo. He starts up again this Sunday as long as his neutrophils aren't too low. At this stage they seem okay but could plummet any day based on this type of cycle he had last year. I'm hoping he doesn't plummet as he has Orientation week for University next week and Week one starts up on the 7th Feb. So if he becomes neutropenic he won't be able to go out in public places and Murray or I will have to go and sit up the back during the O Week session to get all the news (which they have told us parents do - so hopefully we won't look like the very mature age students up the back!).
It will be great for Luke to start Uni as it will give him something to focus on other than the X-box or TV. He has been getting out and about with friends. He went to the golf driving range last week and played a bit of pitch n putt. Yesterday he tried to play tennis, which didn't go so well as he said his legs were like concrete and he couldn't move. He just had to stand and hope the ball came to him!
Luke is aware that his fitness and leanness have disappeared. His muscles have turned to flab. So once he gets all of this intensive chemo behind him, he knows he will have to try and get fit again.

Amy has gone out tonight with her aunties and cousins to the Australia Day concert, so she was looking forward to seeing some good bands and musicians. Tomorrow, being a public holiday will probably just mean a quiet day at home for us. Murray is playing golf and Amy is working. I'd better sign off as the boys are calling me to come and watch a movie. I'll update when I have any news.