We're Home

Counts contined to go up today and the doctors decided to send us home.



This was our first long stay in 5 months, and our first long stay since Andi has been with us. Obviously, we have been worried for Joshua and torn over how to divide our time between them both. After seeing Joshua and Andi react to eachother after these days apart, I am somehow thankful. I don't know if I can put the right words on what I am thankful for - thankful for both of them being our lives, but not thankful for cancer...thankful they are so happy to see eachother, but not thankful they had to be apart this way...thankful that God was still wise when the timing of cancer and pregnancy coincided...thankful we have had 4 great months at home for Joshua and Andi to learn to love one another...thankful.

God is very good to give us these moments. Today I am blessed by His tenderness.

On the way up

Joshua's counts are just that - on the way up! Even though it is a small step, we went from 0.2 WBC (white blood count) to 0.4. Doctors said this is not that significant, but I am still encouraged. Maybe we will have even better news tomorrow.

In the meantime, Joshua is having a great time. He is having so much fun with the music therapist, playing with his LeapPad, and learning to play Candy Land (a big day for a 3 year old).

Thanks for continuing to pray.

OK, So Not Just on Wednesday

Well, it didn't take until Wednesday to have another tough day. Friday, Joshua began complaining that his ear hurt and within an hour, we were headed to the clinic with another fever and an ear infection. Dr. Domm quickly wrote a perscription for Aumaxicilin and sent us on our way. I chuckled to myself because it was nice to be perscribe the same medicine as every other child with an infection. Just as we packed up our things to go, Dr. Domm said, "Hey, let's wait and see what Joshua's counts are before you head out."

Much to our dismay, Joshua's white count had dropped from 3.8 to 0.2 and his ANC had dropped from 2.89 to 0.03 in about a week. His counts have not been this low since April. Just a brief leukemia refersher here, but the white blood cells are the ones that fight infection. Chemotherapy attacks the bad blood cells as well as the good, so chemo can reduce his ability to fight off other sicknesses. Combine that with an ear infection which also uses up white blood cells, and you get a low count. The ANC is sort of a composite number that is a good indicator of his overall ability to fight infection. It's also a good indicator of how he feels. When he feels really good, that number is above 3. It's down to .2. So they checked us into the hospital, not just for the infection, but walking around in the real world with numbers like that means basically walking through a germ minefield with no protection. So here we sit in the hospital.

It's not so bad. Joshua gets to have a grilled cheese sandiwth twice a day, watch alot of TV and have everyone pay attention to him. We catch up on blogging. So it has its perks. There's also alot of time to think.

It feels odd that we have been doing this for almost a year now. If you don't remember Joshua was diagnosed on October 18th of last year. So we're spending alot of time thinking about how life is different from then until now. A future blog perhaps? Until then, we are praying for blood counts to come up.

Ugghh, Wednesday!

The Kelley family and Wednesday are done. Let me tell you about our last few Wednesdays.

8/29 - A 24 hour hospital stay with fever and low blood counts. Joshua was really mad because our family trip to the lake was cancelled.

9/5 - Another hospital stay. This time only 14 hours with fever and potential pnemeunia. But to make up for the short time, it was all spent in the emergency room. This stay cancelled a trip home for Andi and me.

9/12 - A seemingly normal appointment in the clinic for chemo and a spinal tap was complicated by Joshua's struggle with low blood sugar. This had never happened before and caused Joshua to sleep alot, sweat alot, and just feel yucky. In turn, the spinal tap was moved to the next week.

9/19 - This week included both the spinal tap and an EEG. To do an EEG, Joshua needed to sleep no more than 6 hours. Also, he could not eat 8 hours before the spinal tap. A tough day for a 3 year old.

9/26 - Next week we go back to check Joshua's blood counts. They have recently dropped due to the recent increase in chemo medications.

So there you go. Wednesdays stink, so be prepared: what will happen this week? Earthquake? Flood? Locusts? Could be. If you need to find us this Wednesday, we'll be locking ourselves in the house waiting for the apocolypse.

Better things to come

Andi recently started eating her first bites of real food. Well, not real food, the rice cereal mixed with formula that doctors recommend for first foods. As much as Andi likes this terrible display of food, I know she will love whatever she gets to eat next. Right now, when I am feeding her, I tell her about all of the great things that she will soon be able to eat. Joshua, of course, has started joining in on the conversation. He tells her about grilled cheese, cereal, yogurt, and crunchy apples. Whatever the foods are that we talk about, I think she just likes the chance to talk with mommy and her brother.

The First Day of School

Joshua went back to school on Tuesday. He was super-excited to be going back, picked out his clothes, had his school day breakfast, and along with his monkey-lunch box, trotted into his Mother's Day Out program. He had a great day, although there was apparently an incident involving his new friend Parker and an Elmo toy and some difficulty in sleeping on his big boy mat for nap time.

As for mommy and daddy, we never thought we would be "those parents" - you know, the ones that cry when the kids leave them, who remark about how empty and quiet the house feels, the ones who show up early to pick him up because they know their kid can't possibly exist without them, even for a few hours. Guess what? WE ARE THEM! I guess that's just part of growing up, for him and for us.