June 18, 2003
Anthony went back into the hospital yesterday to start cycle number three.  This cycle repeats the drugs from the first; the ones that gave him the horrible throat sores.  He's been OK so far, but tonight he started saying his tounge hurts, just like last time.  We've been trying to keep his mouth very clean in an attempt to prevent the sores, but I don't know if anything will help. It's funny, the body is so finely tuned, so perfectly balanced, that the introduction of these drugs to kill just the quickly dividing cells throws everything into chaos.  Throat sores erupt, nausea sets in, dizziness is induced, etc.  Drug therapies have come a long way, but they still have a long way to go.  There is nothing to do to combat the throat sores except give the patients Morphine to stop the pain.  The Morphine kills the pain but causes constipation, so the throat sores go away, but you're not hungry anymore because you are all blocked up.  For pediatric patients, taking laxitives can cause other problems.  For patients like Anthony that don't take oral medicines well, taking the laxitives can cause him to vomit.  Everything spirals out of control and like last time, can cause him to be in the hospital for two out of the three weeks for recovery. Let's just hope he can come home before the weekend...