Chester has been in the induction phase of his treatment so far which is the first intense part of chemo. This aims to remove as many of the Leukaemia blast cells out of his body and bone marrow and reduce the cancer.
He has just completed the first 4-5 weeks of induction 1 of his Philadelphia Positive Leukaemia treatment and started induction 2 yesterday.
His first treatment for this next phase was cyclophosphamide, which is a cytotoxic drug to damage the DNA of his cells. We had to go into hospital for 5 hours as he had to have the drug through his central line and then flush fluids through his body to hopefully prevent any nasty side effects and bladder irritation, which is common.
As it was a long time in the hospital we tried to take his mind off being plugged into an IV drip, by playing board games and Playdoh in the Ward’s playroom. They also have an Xbox so Chester got a lot of Minecraft gameplay in!
In the first induction, he was taking strong doses of Steroids, tummy protection, and imatinib daily. He also had other chemo drugs weekly. So now he has been weaned off the steroids the consultants have said that he will lose his moon face and a lot of the puffiness and fluids that are caused by the steroids.
The second induction now involves Chester taking tiny tablets every day called Mercaptopurine for 28 days. He still has to take imatinib daily, which he needs to take through the entire treatment to help stop the Philadelphia chromosomes from resisting the other chemo he is having in the hospital weekly. And on weekends he has to take antibiotics called co-trixamole to protect him from pneumonia/PCP. He will also be taking cytarabine 4 times a week through his central line for the next 4 weeks.
So far my little boy is still very brave and taking all his medication in tablet form like a champ! The side effects from these drugs can be horrific but he is doing so well and being so strong.
That’s it for this update don’t forget to follow Chesters Journey by either following on Social.