I know it is Wednesday and those of you that follow this are saying, but they go to clinic on Thursday. Well, today I went in to see where Eli's counts were because I wanted him to be able to go to the Children's Museum with his class. Then I really thought about it and decided that I was crazy. The Children's Museum here is basically a huge area where the kids touch EVERYTHING...was I nuts???!!! So, we went to clinic, saw the doctor, and then E and I went to the aquarium together. It was the right call...I am glad I made it.

Eli's counts were great: ANC 2450
Platelets 243
Hemoglobin 11.7

All of these numbers are really good. Unfortunately, Eli has the beginnings of a cold or something. Because a cold can either make his counts go up or down depending on the virus (I Told you this was NOT an exact science, didn't I?) the doc doesn't want to increase his chemo just yet. If by some miracle the cold disappears in the next few days she wants me to bring him in to see where the counts are and possibly raise the chemo, but otherwise we will just wait until two weeks from tomorrow.

Our next appt. will be a LLLOOONNGGG day with chemo, pentamadine, and an LP. I asked John if he could come with us...this will be the first LP without the anti-seizure med on board. I am more than a little nervous about it.....I will be reciting, "Do not be anxious..." the entire morning. Diane also said they are debating whether or not to give the kids in maintenance flu shots this year. The reason they don't give it to these kids is because the shots are a "booster" for your immune system...if there is NO immune system to "boost", the shot is useless. I guess the thinking is now that maybe the kids on maintentance have a little bit of an immune system, so maybe it would give them a boost. But he wouldn't get it until he is at least 2 weeks away from his steroids. Apparently, flu shots and steroids don't mix.

We saw lots of our friends today in clinic. We aren't used to seeing the Wednesday folks. Please continue to pray for those that are in treatment and those that have finished. The chemo and antibiotics they give these little guys really do a number on their systems.

The clinic is relocating to much bigger digs!! This is such a blessing for our children. See, the Hollings Cancer Center at MUSC is this wonderful new, state of the art buiding that MUSC has for cancer patients. Only, it is used for only the ADULT cancer patients. (Again, I have to say WHAT?! These are our CHILDREN here.) The children with cancer are at Rutledge Towers with way too little space for all of the children that need to be treated. So our wonderful doctors and nurses at the clinic went to bat for us when a larger space came open in the Rutledge Tower... and they got the space. Now there can be more than 3 kids playing in the playroom at a time. They are hoping to move at the beginning of Dec. We can't wait!!!

Well, that is all I have to report this week. I will post some halloween pics when I get them. The boys are super excited!!

Thanks for checking in.

Maria

I am thankful for the cooler weather here. It is nice to have a change in seasons.