December 18, 2014

The final countdown is on, friends: SD has passed the 3 year mark since our last post and had his LAST spinal tap earlier this month! He is down to two steroid pulses remaining, which means less than two months left in treatment. Honestly, he does not remember life before treatment and witnessing the excitement of his parents seems to have taken him by surprise. He doesn't understand what we're excited about!

SD's December clinic appointment went smoothly, although his white blood count (WBC) and absolute neutrophil count (ANC) were quite low. After he was finished in clinic we hung around the hospital library to wait for the annual Pilots for Kids Christmas party.

The Stephens teamed up against Mandy in a game of Scrabble
while we waited for the party to begin.

SD was completely withdrawn at first, but eventually he opened up enough to enjoy participating in some of the activities and crafts they had there, and came home with a new card game (Old Maid). He even managed to avoid a meeting with Santa Claus, whom he watched with a leery eye whenever he wasn't engrossed in his various activities. ;)

Because of his low counts, we had him checked today and his WBC and ANC are even lower than they were two weeks ago. Because he is neutropenic, we're back in isolation mode and he'll be off chemo until at least next Tuesday when he'll get checked again. He has had a bit of a cough (nothing serious, just lingering) since around Thanksgiving, but we need to watch him closely for any further signs of illness now. Prayer request: no fevers! We'd love to have a healthy Christmas spent at home rather than in a hospital room. :)