Back on Prednisone

I have written and rewritten this post so many times today. I can't seem to get my mind to focus on what my heart wants to say. It has been a tough week, Ethan continues to spill protein which has led to him gaining 3.5 pounds of fluid in a very short time. He is feeling very ill as we wait for the prednisone to start working. His Nephrologist advised that we start him once again on 60mg of daily prednisone until he is negative for protein for 3 days. Then we can drop him to 40mg every other day.

They called me today with his latest lab test results. Once again things don't seem to be simple. They told me that Ethan's blood and urine tests show that he is spilling large amount of protein, which I already knew. But the confusing part is that his albumin level is normal. When one is swelling and losing that much protein the albumin level in the blood drops dramatically. So they are not sure what to make of that, considering that he gained another pound overnight, something is obviously going on. They want us to come in to see them in 2 weeks to evaluate him and to discuss possibly adding another chemotherapy drug. As they said he seems to be falling back into his pattern of being steroid dependent.

In the midst of this rather stressful week, Ethan was surprised by his classmates with a handmade get well card. I can't tell you how much that simple act made his day, he hasn't felt well enough to be at School for more than a few hours at a time this week. So when I came to pick him up at Lunch, he had such a smile on his face. I am continually blown away by the love and prayer support from Ethan's teachers and classmates.

Prayer Requests- Please pray that Ethan will respond to the prednsione quickly and that the side effects will be manageable.