Maintenance chemo cycle 1, day 7

Jason received his chemotherapy today as scheduled.
Jason always gets very irritable whenever we go to the clinic for chemotherapy.  It's understandable.. nobody likes to be poked to give up blood... nobody likes to be squeezed repeatedly to get blood pressure..but Jason is a bit too extreme...
The moment that we got out of parking garage to go on to the elevator to get into the hospital.. he threw a fit and cried like crazy... and then of course, threw up lots of mucus and water... messing up his t-shirt and stroller even before we get to the clinic...
While I checked in at the clinic, took care of the paper works and pay co-pay, Jason cried and cried loudly... It seems like he's the only child in the whole hem/onc clinic who cries all the time..
The whole time we were there, almost 4 hours.. he was very fussy, crying, didn't want anyone to touch or examine him.
I had to hold him most of the time...tiring...=(

Today, Jason received only 1/2 dose of one of the chemo drugs, vincristine because he might be having yet another side effect from this horrible drug.  Recently, Jason is more and more UNWILLING to stand up or pull himself up...of course, he still cannot walk at all....It appears that he cannot bear weight on both feet.  Also his ankles are somewhat bent outward and when we try to bend them inward, he cries.. he absolutely hates it, possibly having pain... and the muscles around ankle/feet are tight and tense...

One of the side effects of vincristine is peripheral neuropathy...that is nerve pain...also it can cause foot drop and/or wrist drop. So after discussing Jason's symptoms with the nurse practitioner and oncologist, the team decided to reduce the dose of vincristine by 1/2.  They also recommended that we continue to flex his ankle multiple times daily...(I know, he will hate it and cry)... they said it could be from him not moving around and laying in bed, so the muscles don't get used and get tight or something...
Anyways, we will see if he will get better with reduced vincristine dose....

This plant is called vinca rosea, commonly called periwinkle... this is the plant the chemodrug vincristine comes from.  I searched google for images and found this beautiful picture..
Aren't they so pretty??