ANC 0

For 4 days now Ev's ANC has been at 0. The good thing is that he has not had any fevers to accompany the absent immune system. The bad, of course, is that there's something keeping his immune system down. Perhaps it's the viral infection he is still combating, maybe his system just needs longer to build...there's nothing definitive, but the nurses and docs are keeping tabs and requesting various tests that might tell us more.

So, we wait, day after day.

We are the early risers on our floor (by a long shot). We even wake up before labs come back informing us of his counts...looking at his red and white blood cells and platelets, and the other cells that build into those categories.

By noon of each day we know how much longer our stay could be. Basically, for each day that we hear 0, we have at least two days more. If we hear anything higher than 0 we might be able to leave in one more day. Each day could change the next step.

Everett is also one of the few children on our floor that has hair. He has had hair for the majority of his treatment and that is rare. Last night, it hit me...I don't know when his hair had been washed last. We have been here since Monday afternoon...so it's way passed the threshold.

Here are some pics of how it works on our floor...

Bell ringing!! photos

Last chemo via port.

THE bell!

Twist

I thought my days of posting from the make-shift couch-bed in the hospital were over...but, here we are again. And, Ev thought his days of getting accessed were over. Not so fast.

Everett was admitted this past Monday night because he had a high fever and was neutropenic. His ANC went down to 150.

He has been a week off of chemo meds, conquered two months of kindergarten and was scheduled to get his port out this Friday. It felt like we were in the clear. It seemed the Leukemia chapter was done and the next was beginning.

But, I guess this is the twist at the end of any good story. You think you know where you're headed and then BAM! a twist before the end and then, applause.

In the midst of getting antibiotics and more blood tests, Ev has experienced what it means to be inpatient. He has no memories of staying on level 5. However, I was immediately flooded with both good and bad memories as soon as those huge doors swung open to invite us in.

So, I am sharing with him various stories that come to mind. The bad memories I will keep to myself for now but the good ones offer some pleasant moments in this twist in our story.

Yesterday, we started drawing and writing on the windows and doors in our room and he says, "guys, I don't think we're supposed to do that." HA! We've done that a million times before. We also played balloon bop, where he bops me in the head with his balloons...not my favorite game, but for him, it's a hilarious "new" game.

One of the upsides to this time is that we aren't having to balance chemo meds with everything else he needs...we aren't attacking cells, we are only building them up and that takes away a lot of concern.

The blood cultures show a viral infection and not anything more severe and we are definitely thankful for that. Now we are waiting for the temperatures to go away and for his ANC to show signs of increase. And, last night was his first night with no fever!