Moving foward, I guess?

We're kind of in a weird spot... Ryan has this new ostomy, and this hole in his intestine.  But, he's feeling great and looks better than he has in weeks.  So, I think the doctors are going with the "If he looks good, he must be doing good...  Don't change anything"

We re-started his chemo regiment today, but he won't get any of the really bad chemo drugs for about 2 weeks.  His counts are stable or slowly moving up, so that's good.  There is a possibility that the hole in his intestines will heal itself when his counts get better.  So, we're kind of just sitting here, waiting patiently, and playing with legos.

We didn't need any more blood products today, and his fever is totally gone. All cultures are coming back negative, and ID (Infectious Disease) is removing unnecessary antibiotics.  They even started letting him drink some clear liquids. 

We'll see how his numbers look tomorrow, but hopefully, things will remain calm and quiet.

Thank you all for the continued prayers and good thoughts!

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ANC - 104 (up from 80)
Hematocrit - 23.3
Hemoglobin - 7.3
RBC - 2.47
WBC - 0.3
Lymphocytes - 186
Creatine - 0.3
Glucose - 100
Platelets - 45
ALT - 49
Total Bilirubin - 1.1

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.