Going up!

Ben had a blood check today and a visit with the doctor - the good news is that his ANC is 506. Technically no longer neutropenic (because it is above 500) but still pretty low. He can now start back up on the normal schedule of Mercaptapurine everyday and Methotrexate every Thursday. He is due for Vincristine on February 28th and that is still set to go forward. Ben wasn't really paying attention to most of the discussion (we have really been cutting back on video games but allow both boys to play their PSPs when we are at the hospital so they don't really even notice that anyone else is in the room) but he did like the news that he gets to stop the antibiotics.

We discussed when he could go back to school. We joked that it would be really great it if I could just keep him home until flu season is over but since he is so eager to get back they said I could send him on Thursday. We were so excited! I thought they might make us wait until next week or so. Of course, we should still be really careful and have the normal precautions in place and we will be avoiding public places for a couple of more days. I am really hoping the kids at school will be healthy. As we have learned, when someone else gets a cold they might need to stay home from school for a day or two but when Ben gets one he ends up in the hospital for a week and missing school for 2 or more weeks.

By the way, I need to make a comment that Ben is so awesome and brave. He had yet another blood draw today and they couldn't do a finger stick so had to draw from his arm. He said, "it really isn't a big deal" and then informed the person doing the draw that after being poked 5 times one morning last week by 3 different nurses when they were trying to find a vein to re-insert his IV that getting a blood draw is really pretty easy. The woman just looked at me and said she couldn't believe how amazing he is. He gives the nurses less trouble than the adult patients!