Merry Christmas!
Happy Holidays! Since we last updated, a lot has happened. In short, AJ has made it through the harshest phase of treatment (Delayed Intensification) relatively unscathed, an achievement worth celebrating!
However, as expected, his blood counts did drop dramatically starting late November during the most intense part of the chemotherapy. His ANC dropped to zero again, and his hematocrit (HCT, measurement of red blood cells) dropped to 19, so the week after Thanksgiving he needed a blood transfusion. No sweat, we went through many transfusions when he was first diagnosed, so we knew the drill and AJ did just fine.
After daily trips to Children’s, by mid- December his red blood cell and platelet counts had stabilized, and his ANC was hovering in the 300 range. We were scheduled to start “Maintenance” on December 21, assuming his counts were good and ANC > 750. However, the morning of the 21st AJ woke up with a fever of 100.5. We took him to his clinic appointment that morning. There was some concern around the fever and when we got his blood counts back, his ANC had dropped back down to 0 again. The doctors believe this is a result of something viral that he probably caught from Camille (who had a runny nose and cough for several days). We were sent home and were told to monitor the fever. If it didn’t go down within 8 hours, he would have been admitted to the hospital. Thankfully, the fever gradually came down over the afternoon and we barely avoided having to spend Christmas week in the hospital. Thank goodness, whatever it was he caught, it seemed to be mild. However, because of the fever and low ANC count, Maintenance was delayed for at least 1 week. We go back to Children’s tomorrow to see if the counts have rebounded (keeping fingers crossed). We’ll give an update tomorrow if we get the green light to start Maintenance.
AJ has been feeling good and looks good, and aside from being bald, you probably would not be able to tell what he is going through. (His hair should start growing back soon). We had a great Christmas with Brian’s parents in town. AJ and Camille have been entertained for days, actually weeks, with their advent calendars, the Elf on a Shelf, the Christmas tree and the many gifts they received. I think they wish it could be Christmas all year!
On another note, our friend Dave Schappell, finished the Honolulu marathon on December 13, in honor of Adrian. AJ was excited to see his name on Dave’s jersey. Dave raised close to $16K for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and was the top fundraiser for the entire country for that marathon! We are so proud of Dave and appreciate all of our friends and family who donated to this cause.
2 Comments