Peter’s Page

Kate, Peter and Ellie. I don’t think Ellie has a pocketful of posy, considering she doesn’t have pants on.

Peter is in Minneapolis getting platelets and hemoglobin. As Erika puts it, he needs to get some color back. The low blood counts make him pallid and very susceptible to bruising, especially when little Kate knocks him in the head with a hockey stick. That’ll leave a mark every time.

He’s also getting another hearing test down the road. He’s had some ringing in his ears and the Cisplat drug he’s been receiving can cause hearing loss. Hopefully the ringing is just from the high sticking penalty.

I mentioned the surgery will be on January 2nd, but that’s false. It is now scheduled for January 3rd, but could get pushed later into the week. I should also clarify that the posted schedule simply states what is supposed to happen during the given week, since exact days change by the minute.

Peter should be back home tonight in his own room, sleeping in his own bed, surrounded by his custom mural of hockey players on the bench, a scoreboard and various quotes. The painting was done when he was healthy and moving into his new big-boy room, but one of the quotes, in big lettering, reads Do you believe in miracles? Yes!

I came into this weekend with fingers crossed because Peter’s counts would be “bottoming out” and if he would be getting mouth sores and/or a fever, it would likely happen now. As a person who still has a fair amount of work to do before Christmas, I am OK with avoiding a 4-5 day trip to the hospital!! I’m happy to report that so far, no sores and no fever. We went to church last night to avoid the crowd and so he would be able to sleep as late as necessary today. (He wore his mask as usual and does not complain despite lots of little staring eyes!) Other than that he’s been in the house but in good spirits, playing (and fighting) with his sisters.
We will find out his counts tomorrow as Home Care will come out in the morning. He is scheduled for blood and platelet transfusions on Tuesday so we will go down and back. Those counts (hemoglobin and platelets) were pretty low on Thursday but they felt he would be fine to wait until Tuesday based on his past counts. So we are happy that we should be able to remain home now through Christmas. As Matt posted, we’ll be down the 27th and 28th for his “Re-Staging”, or testing, to see where things are at, and we believe the surgery is the next week. One minor correction on the schedule is the 6th Round is a “normal” round of chemo, and the “Knock-Out Round” is actually a 7th round. It’s done right before the transplant and is actually done on the Bone Marrow Transplant floor (how’s a guy supposed to keep all this straight?!) I don’t know the details of it yet other than it’s very high dose and wipes out his system entirely (it consists of different chemo drugs than what he’s getting now).
Happy Holidays!

Recovery from round 5 continues to go well and Peter is at home enjoying the company of his younger sisters. His counts are probably still dropping and will likely bottom out over the weekend, possibly requiring a trip to the hospital, but we’ll see.

For the past three months or so the treatment has mainly consisted of chemotherapy in various combinations. Now it’s time for the doctors to wield a winning combination of knockout blows. I’ve updated the schedule (finally) with more accurate dates.

Peter will undergo retesting in the days following Christmas. This includes bone and torso scans that provide a picture of the cancer (feeble, pathetic and retreating cancer!). Then Peter will start 2007 with surgery.

On January 2nd the surgeon will enter his abdomen for the first time since August 18th. That seems like a lifetime ago. There wasn’t a diagnosis yet. There was an abdominal tumor. That much was known. The disease wasn’t named and everything was uncertain.

Today we know the tumor is a result of Neuroblastoma and we know how to fight it. We know the tumor has been taking a pounding. The goal of the surgery is to finish off the mass by removing it entirely. If the procedure in August was chaotic and unnerving, this one should be filled with purpose and hope.

Looking past surgery, round 6 of chemo will be a doozy. This is the knockout punch. A couple weeks later, there will be a bone marrow transplant. The good stem cells that were harvested from Peter’s marrow will be reinserted.

That isn’t the end of the ordeal, but I’ve ventured too far into the future to write with any clarity, so stay tuned. 2007 holds heaps of promise for Peter Eigner.

The recovery is going pretty well, although the Zofran doesn’t completely suppress the need to vomit. He had some fun with Dad and Grandpa Poopster on Saturday during an ice fishing expedition. Poopster strapped the fish house to the ATV and towed it onto the lake and the fishing contest was on. Ty got skunked. Poopster caught zilch. Peter hauled in four flopping fishies.

I’m guessing that Poopster attributed Peter’s success to having “the world’s greatest fishing guide on his side”.

There’s a fun benefit taking place next weekend. On December 16th, two classes will be taught by certified Pilates/Yoga teacher, Kari Stengrim.

Sessions:
9:00 AM – Student athletes, coaches and experience yogis
10:30 AM – Beginners, no experience necessary

Check in is at 8:30 and 10:00. You’ll need a mat or beach towel and your bare feet. A $10 donation will be taken at registration with 100% of donations going to Peter’s fund.

Where:
New Just for Kix Studio
6948 Lake Forest Road (west of 371 N)
Baxter, MN

Peter checked out of the hospital late this morning with round 5 behind him. He didn’t need a transfusion or anything before leaving. The chemo is getting to his stomach, though. He threw up a couple times once they started the journey home, but then fell asleep.

So he’s back in Brainerd recovering. We can expect that he’ll have to come down to the hospital again because the need for a transfusion, mouth sore treatment, medicine for his cold or any combination of these reasons. But he can check off another big milestone today on the road to recovery. Way to go, big guy.

Peter is doing very well aside from the continued sniffles and a morning throw-up yesterday. He still has lots of energy and spirit.

I saw him last night and I noticed that some long dark eyelashes and redish-blonde strands of eyebrow were probably left on his pillow in Brainerd; That last round paralyzed a few more follicles that hadn’t been affected. But he’s cute as ever and growing up through all of this. He always displays new mental and physical capabilities and new, more mature mannerisms as any four-year-old would.

The nights last a little longer during this round, since he has to urinate so often. There’s no way for parents to get extended sleep. “Why do they make me go weewee so much?”, he asked. Mom calmly explained that the doctors want to make sure his kidneys are working just right.

Peter has been doing well, but you know that if you’ve seen him around the rink or out and about elsewhere. Erika and Peter made the trek to the hospital this Monday afternoon after confirming this morning that Peter’s counts were sufficient to begin chemo. So round 5 will be getting underway sometime tonight and continue the rest of the week. Peter will be found in old 5b tied up to his pole and bringing smiles.

My schedule page is out of whack as the dates have inevitably changed. Erika and Ty are hoping to learn when the doctors think Peter can have that second surgery to remove any remaining tumor. Hopefully we’re close enough to get the revised schedule and I can update it here.

We headed into the clinic about 8:30 this morning. I wasn’t confident that Peter’s counts would be high enough today, but I guess I was hopeful. After a bit of waiting I got the call that his ANC had not increased at all since Monday. In all honesty I was upset about the news. At first I thought it was just me being selfish – we just “wasted” 3 days, I didn’t want to go home, unpack, do laundry, bring the girls back home and get settled, only to turn back around in a few days and leave them again. But after a few minutes I realized that those weren’t the biggest reasons I was upset… I was really just sad for our son, who is the one who has to go through this for 1 more week than he already is. Don’t get me wrong, Peter didn’t complain one bit. It was just another “blood draw” and a couple more trips in the car for him. I guess it’s just one of those days where the reality of the situation isn’t sitting well with me.
Peter had a Hearing Test this afternoon before we left the cities. They had done a baseline test prior to him starting chemo in August. Since hearing loss can be a side effect they were re-testing to see where he was at. The good news is the inner ear is functioning fine and he doesn’t have any loss at this point in the “Normal/Speech Hearing Range”. But they did find his High Frequency Hearing to be about 20 decibals worse than normal for his age. This is not noticeable to him or us now, but High Frequency loss is typically an immediate side effect, and it can move into Normal Frequency hearing loss.
One perhaps more significant (and positive!) test result was the Kidney Function results looked normal. We are definitely thankful for that.
We are back home and it does feel good to be here. We are hoping Peter can start Round 5 on Monday and we are quite certain that the re-testing and surgery will now be postponed until after the holidays.
You may be wondering if I’m trying to become as good a writer as my brother Matt, and I wouldn’t even try! He’s been down with the flu so I thought I’d let him get some much-needed rest.

Let me start by reiterating exactly what Matt said in his post last night. THANK YOU, THANK YOU and THANK YOU some more! We wish we could have attended both events (Peter would love to have skated around in Irish territory.) We were so happy, however, that Peter and our girls were able to get out and have lots of fun with so many friends from the community. They had a wonderful time playing, running around with friends, shooting hockey pucks and eating great food (umm, I don’t think any of them tried the crickets!)
After Sunday’s event, Grandma and Grandpa Hanson took the girls to their home in Crosslake, and Grandma Mary, Ty, Peter and I (and Peter’s cousin Macy!) headed for the cities, anticipating an early start Monday morning. We had to be at the Masonic Cancer Center (clinic right next to the hospital) at 7:30am for labs to assure Peter was ready to start Round 5 of his chemo. We actually went up to 5B thinking they were OK, only to find out his ANC (absolute neutrophil count) was too low… bummer! We were there most of the day anyway because they were testing Peter’s kidney function. The chemo drugs can cause damage to the kidneys so they are monitoring to see if they need to revise the doses at all (no results back on this yet). Ty headed back to Brainerd for hockey and Peter and I decided it was easier to stay here until we go back early Wednesday morning to try again. I believe this is just the reality of getting further into his treatment. Peter had almost 3 full weeks to recover this time and the counts were still not quite there, so the cumulative effect is starting to show a little. Either way, it’s probably for the best because he does have a cold, and I’d rather he be at his best when he starts each round. In addition to starting his 5th round on Wednesday (knock on wood!) he will have another hearing test. This, too, can be a side effect and they did a baseline test before he started his treatments, so we’ll find out if he’s experiencing any hearing loss thus far. I’m pretty sure he’s suffering from some hearing loss – the kind where he can’t hear most things his mother says. Anyway…

If you’ve been browsing the comments, you’ve certainly read about the great events that took place over the past week.

I understand that the Skate With The Irish event last Wednesday was terrific. I heard that people in and around the Rosemount community packed the house and showed their support for Peter and his family. And then on Sunday, 155 miles away from Rosemount, the Brainerd community arrived at Timbermist en masse to help out the Eigners. It was also a hugely successful event by all accounts.

On behalf of Ty and Erika, thanks to those who planned both events. And thanks to all who attended the events. And thanks to those that bought wristbands or bid on an auction item or cut their hair or watched Peter’s video.

I know that this expression of thanks falls short of the Eigner’s actual gratitude. I wish this could give everyone the individual credit and thanks that they deserve. But please accept it anyway. You all have done good.