Day 31 - Waiting...waiting...

All is going as expected today...

Surgery came in very early to say they don't think there is anything surgical that he needs, so they are going to fade into the background. 

Oncology came in a little more reasonable (around 9:30am) to discuss the plan.  It seems everyone feels this latest bump in the road is just overgrowth of bacteria in the gut (all cultures are negative), so it's now a GI problem, not a cancer problem.

So, the plan today was just hanging out, with only clear liquids (no food) and let his intestines rest.  Amazingly, he was just fine with this. 

We just kinda sat around most of the day, put together a new Lego Batman Riddler car, and watched our cooking shows.  He got some blood overnight, since his numbers were pretty low.  He also continued to have a fever (about 100-102) every 4-6 hours (after the Tylenol wore off).  He's in good spirits and feels fine.

Tomorrow, we will hopefully get the results of the bone marrow test and we'll go to Interventional Radiology (IR) to get his final chemo spinal drug from the induction phase.  We also have a little more training, and hopefully will discuss plans (in light of this new bump). 

I'm glad I'm here, to be with him, to give Patrick a break, and to help the doctors with his very complicated history!

Thanks for all the continued prayers and good thoughts!

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Blasts - (not checking this every day anymore)
ANC - 132 (going the right direction)
Hematocrit - 21.0
Hemoglobin - 7.1
RBC - 2.35
WBC - 0.8
Lymphocytes - 349
Creatine -
Glucose -
Platelets - 68

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.