Chuggin

The time at home has been absolutely phenomenal! I forget every time just how much better it is at home. No one's walking in on you when you're breastfeeding, no vitals every four hours, no weighing every diaper. And I am LOVING the sleep! When we're at the hospital, I get up with him 4+ times a night because vitals wake him up, while at home, it's usually just once a night. I am going to miss the sleep! I also just miss hanging out with Stew every night. We get to be together at home--every night.

We will probably be back in on Monday. When we went home last Monday, his ANC was 100, on Thursday it was 200, and this last Monday it was 300, so we thought he would have the same exact pattern as the last time. Not so! Today it doubled to 600, so they decided to keep the aspirate and lumbar puncture they had scheduled for tomorrow (this also includes a chemo injection in his spine). This will likely mean we'll be readmitted next Monday if he keeps it up.

Also, we're scheduled for an MRI on his eye and an ultrasound on his testicles on Monday. I'm not thrilled about the MRI, not only because he has to be NPO (no food or water) for so long, but because the barbituates they gave him to sedate him last time made him panicky. I was hoping they'd schedule it at the same time he was under anaesthesia in the RTU for the LP and aspirate (on the same floor, just a few hallways over), but they say they the nurses can't move between units. I'm not loving all this anaesthesia, but oh well. I don't make the rules.

We're so grateful he's not been so slow coming up! We've also been so glad he hasn't gotten any sort of infection that has landed us back at the hospital, or in the PICU. He's been fussy after the chemo this last round--just a general unhappy sounding kid, unless he's distracted. We're pretty sure he just doesn't feel great when his counts are low, but neither does anyone else in the ICS. But, he's been consolable and distractible almost all of the time. So much to be thankful for!

Andrew when he was much younger. It's amazing to think he will someday grow hair like this.