Day 27 - I'm finally here!!

Yea!  I finally got to hold my baby! 

To be honest, it was quite a shock to see him... His face is very puffy from the steroids, and of course, holding the bald head is really strange.  But then he smiled and all was good with the world.  After holding each other for about 30 minutes, he decided that was enough and he went back to his cooking shows.  Ahh, yes... that would be Ryan.

His back is still bothering him, but Patrick has been putting heat packs on him, which help.  His ANC went back down a little, but the doctors said that was totally expected and they are still thrilled.

Tomorrow, we will have our final Spinal Tap from this phase, and our bone marrow biopsy to determine the number of minimal residual disease (MRD).  We also gave him some Lasix to pull some of that fluid out of his face. 

Thank you all for your prayers and good thoughts!   

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Blasts - (not checking this every day anymore)
ANC - 428 (down, but that's okay... we expect this)
Hematocrit - 24.7
Hemoglobin - 8.4
RBC - 2.77
WBC - 0.7
Lymphocytes - 146
Creatine - 0.3
Glucose - 106
Platelets - 64
Bilirubin (Direct) - 0.6
Bilirubin (Indirect) - 1.1
Bilirubin (Total) - 1.7
ALT - 162

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.
Bilirubin (Direct/Indirect/Total) - Bilirubin tells us how well the liver is working.  Normally, these numbers are less than 1, which is good.  However, when the liver starts to be under stress, they may go up.  Total Bilirubin is the Conjugated (Direct) + Unconjugated (Indirect).  The doctors said these numbers might come up, as his liver is trying to process all the meds we are giving him.
ALT/AST - these are liver numbers, letting us know how much stress the liver is under.  Normal range is between 10-50.