Record numbers

The nurse practicioner called me with Steven's blood counts today and I was blown away with how high the white blood cell counts were. This is the effect of the nuepogen shots he is getting, but his ANC was 11,100. What? The normal range is between 1500 and 8000 and the "safe" number to go to school is 500. And then his white blood cell count was 12.5 (the normal range for that is 2.4-12.5, but the highest he's been since chemo started was 5.2). I'm happy that he responds to the nuepogen or G-CSF shots. But mostly I'm hoping that his tumor responds to the chemo and my limited knowledge of all this stresses me out! Is he not sick enough? The answer I normally get from doctors and nurses is, "It depends."

Time will tell exactly how the shots affect him. In the meantime, he is okay to go to school tomorrow and be about people on Saturday, but since Sunday and Monday would be when he would start the low period, he won't be at church Sunday or school Monday until we see what his labs say. The nurse told me to do shots until we see his next labs.

Steven really has done well with this round of chemo. He has thrown up only once, though certainly he is nauseated and his appetite has been very small. His red blood cells are kind of low, so he feels a little tired. But who knows? Maybe it is part of sitting around in his recliner so much. When the home health nurse came to draw labs today, he was on the couch instead of the chair and she was like, "Wow! I've never seen you out of your chair!"

It is rare for him to be out of his chair, but he does mix it up a little bit. Yesterday we went to the farm and he even rode his bike around. He found the geese and ducks hilarious.

Doing well

Steven has done really well with this last round of chemotherapy. He came home Sunday evening and was begging to go to a family dinner, so I took him. He loved being around him cousins and other family, although even Grandma's great cooking couldn't entice him to eat. He does have some nausea, but so far he hasn't thrown up at all--at home or at the hospital.

We are having to give him shots of GMCSF every day. This is a drug that will help his white blood cell counts to recover faster. As I had never given a shot before, this has been a little dramatic. I won't go into details, it was kind of embarassing. But here is a hint--I had to stick him twice and I ended up getting sticking myself in the process. I did better today--maybe there is hope for me yet.