Pentamidine Therapy

Callum's team has decided to switch him from a med we do at home (Septra) to a med at the hospital (Pentamidine). We have to come to the hospital each time, to administer it, since it's a medicine he takes by breathing into a mask, but thankfully it's only once a month which should be manageable.

Since we've had two admissions so far, in a relatively short time frame, due to neutropenia, the team thinks Callum may be more susceptible to viruses than many kids. He takes Septra, which is an antibiotic, as a proactive measure to keep a very specific strain of pneumonia at bay. But, Septra is also known to lower blood counts, so they're thinking it could be compounding the issue, when he's already low from fighting an infection. Since we have to stop chemo every time his counts are low, this is a bad fight to be in. And since chemo is the highest priority, we're hoping this switch will allow him to keep counts above the threshold (Pentamidine doesn't lower counts like Septra does). We'll see!

Anyway, today was his first visit. The first picture was when we first started. The medicine doesn't taste great apparently, and he pushed the mask away a few times since he didn't like it. But we talked him through it and I think he got used to it, so he was okay by the end. (See second pic, I had him play on his iPad the whole time too, which helped for sure). :)