Chemo Dose was Increased

Hello All,
Nick went to clinic on Monday. His counts were good and he received another round of chemo. They have decided to increase his Methotrexate dose on a weekly basis. He will be 3% from maxing out on the dose. The reason to do this was because of his counts. He counts were still a little too high for his protocol, so this will bring his counts down some. He is on steroids this week and is doing well with everything. He is very emotional on the steroids and anything can set him off. Greg and I definitely watch what we say to him and look for the reaction. He was the star of the day today at school, which is great because he ended up having a rough day. Nick said it was to loud and we agreed that we would buy him some ear muffs and he can wear them whenever he feels like it. He did this at daycare and it worked really well.

White Blood Cells: 3.9 (Normal 5-10)
Red Blood Cells: 9.3 (normal 10.6-14.6)
Platelets: 337 (normal 150-400) - goodd
APC: 2,700 (They want to see this number around 1,000)
**The APC is a calculation of the immature WBC to the mature WBC.

As I have mentioned before it is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month-September. In honor of this month, Governor Carcieri (of RI) will be holding a press conference in conjunction with The Tomorrow Fund next Tuesday at 10am at the RI State House. Nicholas has been asked to be an ambassador for Bellingham and will recieve special recognition and a medal. While we are so exicted he will part of this event, we can not forget the reason for us being there. Cancer Sucks. No child deserves to go through the treatment of cancer and what it does to their bodies. But, again, we can help these kids out there just by donating blood, platelets or become a bone marrow donor. (marrow.org). We will take Colby out of school to, as he is just a part of our journey too. The day will be remembered for all the kids who are there, the ones that could not make it and all the kids who have lost their battle to cancer. We will be sure to post pictures of our Brave Son. So, give your kids extra hugs and enjoy the moment.

A lot of people ask us how long is Nick's treatment, his protocol lasts approx. 2 year. I have figured out, if everything keeps on schedule, that we have 60 weeks left of his treatment.
Karen