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...