Counts and chemo at home

Yesterday was Vern's last day of teacher post-planning at work and this morning he was up and at our lengthy summer to-do list. He had Owen in tow most of the time and the little girls some of the time. Katie ran the house and Hannah and I bugged out with James. His g-tube looked so good this morning (still healing, definitely better even than yesterday morning, PTL, and certainly not as bad as it was earlier in the week, again PTL!) that we decided to take him to Macon for counts. This is a FIRST! The first chemo the week following steroids that we are HOME.

Okay, maybe that's a little over the top... but only a very little ;*)...

James' counts are WBC- 6.34; Hgb- 9.7; platelets 299K; ANC- 4,000+. So chemo goes as scheduled.

On the way to Macon this morning, Hannah and I were talking about the impressive turn around in James' g-tube site and we both think that several things factor in... 1st all the prayer and with that the mercy and wisdom for the rest of the factors ;*); James has been eating more and drinking some and we have been able to keep him hydrated using his g-tube at a higher feeding rate because the vincristine isn't slowing down his intestines like it has in the past. This means that we are able to give James long breaks without using the g-tube (less pressure on the site) and helps with healing. Finally, we do think that the prednisone MAY have helped, but if the other things hadn't happened the way they did, we would have likely been in the same situation as in the past with eroding (based on what we saw earlier in the week).

We have enjoyed a slew of old movies from our old-movie collecting neighbors so that James could spend a lot of time resting on the couch.

We continue to be so grateful for your prayers and concern for us and for James. The Lord bless y'all real good!

Love, Stephanie