Clinic Today & Tom

Hello All,
As we head into a long weekend and giving thanks, we would like to say thank you to all of you and everyone who has been there for our family. About 2 months ago Thomas had his 15 month check up. The doctor detected a heart murmur in him. His blood work also came back a little anemic. I think this is what happens when a child decides to not eat green vegetables. We have tried everything and he just does not like it. How can you not like green beans with butter & salt. Dr. M. decided to schedule Tom for a visit with the cardiologist. The appointment was today.
Tom was due for another round of blood work and Nick for chemo. We (Greg & I) took both the boys to clinic. Debbie does a great job of drawing blood for the kids and Tom did not even cry until the needle was pulled out. He is such a trooper. Tom & I then headed over to the Pediatric Heart building.
I can tell you that Greg & I did not really prepare ourselves for this day and we did not talk about it a lot. As I was leaving Nick & Greg the tears started to come to my eyes, but I really believed everything would be okay. We have been through this and we can handle the visit. Tom had an EKG done and then I met with the doctor. Tom was great through everything and babbled away while eating goldfish. The doctor said everything checked out fine and he is okay. It was a relief, but for some reason, I knew he was going to be okay. You can definitely say, we were much more relaxed about the visit than before everything has happened with Nick. I can not explain it and even seeing Tom with the stickers and cords hooked up to him through the whole process, I was calm. You know, it has to be done and it did not hurt him, that is what matters (no pain, we have seen a lot of that through Nick). We will take him back when he is 3, just to make sure everything is good.
Tom & I went back to clinic to pick Greg & Nick up. Nick's counts were great. A little surprising:
WBC: 10.5
RBC: 11.2
Plts: 309
APC: 8,700
Neutrophil: 72% (the neutrophils are the percentage of the mature white blood cells to the immature white blood cells, the higher the percentage means he is producing more mature white blood cells..... not cancer cells)
We are looking forward to a few days off and Nick being off steroids for the Holiday weekend. We have to get creative because are greatful for 3 VERY active boys.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING and give extra hugs to the people around you and the ones who you are fortunate to see this week. Enjoy the day and take care. Karen