Day 11 - Waiting for information from case studies

The doctor's explanation of their concerns related to the fungal infections really helps us to understand what their plans are, which in turn, helps us to be patient.  The doctors are talking to other doctors who have had kids on TPN with leukemia, to see their glucose numbers and fungal infection information.  This will help the doctors make a decision on if they will let us go to the apartment, or if they want us to remain in the hospital for a few more weeks.

Ryan is feeling fine, and got to play with volunteers today.  He got to do Occupational Therapy with Legos (which resulted in the OT department chastising the teams for giving him too many Legos...)



Legos we built today for OT!

Patrick stayed with him all day, which made him happy.  They are planning a movie night tonight with popcorn and Cars.  We'll see what tomorrow brings...

Thank you all for the prayers and good thoughts...  :)



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Blasts - 0
ANC - 1268 (up from 1039)
Hematocrit - 24.2 (up from 22.5)
Hemoglobin - 8.4 (up from 7.6)
RBC - 2.77 (up from 2.53)
WBC - 1.5 (down from 1.3)
Creatine - 0.4 (stable)
Glucose - 101 (up from 99)
Lymphocytes - 232 (down from 233)
Platelets - 32 (up from 31)

Description of lab numbers, in layman's terms:

Blasts - roughly the number of leukemia cells found in the sample.  We want this to be 0.
ANC -  This tells us how well his body can fight off normal infections... We want this to be greater than 500..  Normal would be greater than 1500.
Hematocrit/Hemoglobin (H&H)  - This is a number of how much blood is in his system.  His normal range is 28-32/9-11.  The numbers are linked, so they are usually referenced together.  We will transfuse him more Red Blood Cells if he gets below 21/7.0.  (this is the blood you donate at blood drives, and we expect to use lots of it)
RBC (Red Blood Cells) - The number of Red Blood Cells in his body.  Normal is 4 - 5.5.  He has always been low, so we are happy with numbers around 2.5.  This number will go down with chemo.
WBC (White Blood Cells) - This tells us how many white blood cells he has (in thousands).  Normal is between 4.5 and 10.  We expect this to remain low, between 1.5 and 2.5 for a while.
Creatine - This is a good number to make sure the kidneys are working.  Normal range is between .5 and 1.2... If this gets higher, it means his kidneys are struggling.
Glucose - This number tells us that the pancreas is working.  Some kids struggle with diabetes as a result of the meds.  We want to see this number remain above 60 and below 150.
Lymphocytes - Non-cancerous T-Cells and B-Cells.  Normal would be around 1000, so we expect this number to be low.  This is the number of cells that will kill off bad cells like viruses.
Platelets - This is the number of platelets in the blood, which helps with clotting.  Normal is greater than 150.  We will transfuse more platelets if he gets lower than 30. 
Co-Ags (PT,APTT) - These numbers tell us how fast he clots.