Clinic Today and Back on Steroids

Hello All,
We are happy to come off of a great weekend and get ready for the next week. On Sunday night Cousin Rachel stayed with us. She goes to college in CA and it was great to see her for the whole night. (Although, I think we took her away from socializing for a little bit. :) ) Nick and I headed to clinic today. Papa Boston brought the kids a paper air plane kit yesterday and of course I had to bring it with me to clinic. We made 3 planes and tried to make the 4th but it was time to go. The nurses at The Tomorrow Fund are wonderful. Nick is now very used to getting his port accessed and we are proud how far he has come. Many of the nurses have said that kids his age do not adjust as well as Nick has during the access. I am amazed because all these kids go through a lot and I can't blame them for not liking it. Then, on top of it, they are hit up with chemo, blood, platelets and meds. Nick started his cycle today, Vincristine, Methotraxate, steroids for 5 day and 6mp for 14 days. They have increased the Methotraxate dose this week. We had reduced it a couple of months ago when he was sick and had some viruses. He is not up to the 100% dose yet, they decided to take it slow and make sure his body can handle the adjustment. His counts are great:

WBC: 6.3
RBC: 10.3
Plts: 352
APC: 5,100

If you do not remember the normal range, all the numbers above are within normal. This is one of the reasons it was time to increase the Methotraxate. You look to make sure the chemo is doing the job and the counts are not to high. The chemo kills the good and bad cells and you hope it can attack any remaining leukemia cells that might pop up.
We had a great surprise today. A family we met almost a year ago, when Nick was in the hospital for a fever and really down at the time, stopped in clinic to say hello to us. A little boy named Cody was diagnosed with a brain tumor in May 08. He is now cancer free. Cody grabbed Nick's hand and walked him around clinic for awhile. Nick was very excited to be 'the big kid' and hang out with his friend. Cody is almost 2 and had a few set backs during his treatment. The resilient in these kids are amazing and it was great to give the mother a hug and wish them well.
That is all for tonight and I am sure we will have updates during the week. Nick already mentioned that he can not sleep alone. As parents, we all know how the kids would like to sleep with us. Between Tom and Nick, it is like bed hopping and trying to get some sleep. It's okay, because we have our family together and that is most important to Greg & I. Take care and don't forget to give your kids extra hugs. Karen