Day 22 - Maybe the french fries were a bad idea...

I sometimes have a tendency to be a little over ambitious.  I did realize that Ryan had not had any solid food in the last 3 weeks.  But, I didn't see the harm in letting him eat what he wanted.  Well, that didn't go so well.  He was up most of the night with gas and indigestion (which also means I was up with him).

So, today, we pulled back a little and limited him to what they call a G1 diet (which is essentially a BRAT diet, with some protein..) We had hard boiled eggs (just the whites), and baked potatoes (with no butter or skins) and a few pieces of ham.  In return, his tummy feels better and not as much gas and gurgling. 

I've added an updated picture of his ostomy, which looks great.  It also seems to be healing, which is both a good thing and a cause for concern.  I just want to make sure that no stool gets into his abdomen cavity.  But, he hasn't been complaining as much about it, and the skin looks really good.

In addition, his numbers are coming back up nicely.  His ANC is over 600 and his platelets are over 120.  Both are great.  We don't have a plan right now for taking down the ostomy or updating the chemo schedule, but we should figure some things out tomorrow with the new team.

We had our dose of chemo today, but this one shouldn't cause any problems with his ANC or his other numbers.  We get almost a week off before the next scheduled chemo (Monday of next week), but that might change if the team is concerned about his GI issues.

Thank you all for the continued prayers and good thoughts!!

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ANC - 606
Hematocrit - 23.0
Hemoglobin - 7.8
RBC - 2.67
WBC - 1.3
Lymphocytes - 477
Creatine - 0.3
Glucose - --
Platelets - 147
ALT - 59
Total Bilirubin - 0.5

Description of lab numbers, in layman's terms:

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.