I really meant to go back and write a little bit after posting that poem, but never got around to it...sorry. I guess what I wanted to say is what an amazing soldier Eli has been, and continues to be, through all of this....

Well, we are back in the "big house". great. Eli ran a temp of 100.5 on Wednesday night, so in we went. His counts at that time were a whopping 30, and now they are a huge 10. His fever has continued kinda on and off, but never spiking high. The fever could very well just be caused by his low counts, but he is still on IV antibiotics just in case. You have to be really careful when the kids are this far down in counts, any infection can easily lead to sepsis.....which is something we really want to avoid.

The thing that really stinks is Eli seems to be having some pretty serious side effects from the Vincristine chemo that he has been getting. He has been having some pretty severe pain. Most of it seems to be in his groin area.....but I think his legs are hurting him pretty good too. What this chemo sometimes does is effect the nerve endings causing pain. Eli will get his fourth dose in four weeks on Monday, which is alot. We are hoping that after he is finished with this delayed intensification and he is getting it less that it won't be an issue. He is on morphine around the clock now to help lessen the pain, but it is still there. It is so difficult to see your baby hurting. I would have given every thing I had to change places with him.....I really hate this!!!

Again, we are at the mercy of one of those "wonder drugs" of chemo. This stuff really works, so you don't have a choice but to continue giving it to him and hope you can make him comfortable.

I am going to try to fix the computer John and I bought for our hospital trips tonight. For some reason, it won't connect to the wireless at the hospital. I hate not being in touch.....

John and I were planning on going to Hootie tonight...but as Murphy's Law goes around here....here we are....but we are still one step closer to being on a lesser chemo schedule, which is great. ( I am really trying to stay positive here, but as you can tell I am tired and a little bit in the "why me mode)

Thanks for checking in. Please pray that the pain Eli is feeling goes away, or at least lessens.

Maria

I am thankful that Eli has the treatment that he does for this disease and we do have a chance to fight with him....I know this was not possible with leukemia 25 years ago....we are blessed by this.