Michael's counts were good...

We went to chemo yesterday and Michael's counts were great. His platelets went from 54 the previous week to 147 this week. And his ANC rose from 800 to 1500 so we were a go for chemo. Unfortunately, it didn't go very smoothly.

Michael was almost asleep and was resting quietly while watching a movie so Jeff and I ran down to the cafeteria for a late lunch. We were only gone for a few minutes but when we came back up to the unit, there was a doctor and nurse hovering over Michael. They were taking his blood pressure and asking him how he was feeling "now". It seems Michael had an allergic reaction to the Carbo (this happened once before).

He started complaining that his throat was "itchy" and then he started coughing. Since they already give him antihistamines as part of his treatment every week, they gave him some steroids to stop his reaction. Starting next week, we have to give him another antihistamine at home starting on Thursday to see if that will help. Let's hope so. We can do without the extra excitement.

Although, we did have a pleasant surprise, too. A company named Chromalox dropped off 98 fully stuffed and dressed Build-A-Bears for the hospital to give to the kids. Michael got a bear dressed in pirate pajamas. Each bear came in a box with a tag on it indicating if it was for a boy or girl and what age group it was appropriate for. What a great gesture.

Michael started throwing up around 4 am and is just starting to feel a little better now. Of course, since he hasn't had chemo in over a month, we're not real surprised that Michael is not feeling well. Let's hope his little stomach settles down and he feels well enough to get up and play. If not, we will just have a quiet day. Please keep Michael in your thoughts and prayers, JoAnne.

P.S. Apparently I miscalculated how much longer we have until the end of chemo. Dr. Kennedy said yesterday that we are about half way through and have six months left. Oh well. We'll just take it one week at a time.