Update on Oliver 4/2/10

Some of you have asked if we ever got Oliver's diagnosis. I posted it and let most people know but just in case you didn't hear it is CML or Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Oliver's appointment yesterday went well. His hemoglobin went up, which is good. His platelets are even better, they were never bad. His white blood cell (wbc) count went up to 314,000. Not great but not bad at this stage of the game. The docs expect this right now because his spleen is so large so his wbc count will fluctuate for a while. The average person's wbc is between 4,000 and 10,000 to give you an idea. They decided to put him on an additional oral chemo medication starting last night. He will get labs done on Monday to see how far his wbc count has come down. If they are back down to the 200's he will go off of the additional chemo medication. The doctor told me today that Oliver could even go to Grandma's for Easter dinner as long as he doesn't rough-house and no one is sick! We are excited about this. The reason he can't play sports or rough-house right now is because his spleen is so large it could easily rupture and he could bleed to death. His immune system is compromised right now so we need to keep him away from germs.

We are all in good spirits right now. Oliver is doing well and feeling good. He is enjoying not going to school and all of the attention. He doesn't like to be alone for too long even if we are just downstairs. I still feel exhausted and don't quite have a routine yet. I have to give Oliver medications several times a day and make sure he is drinking 12 oz every four hours. I know that doesn't sound like much but when you take care of a 2 and 4 year old as well and your not playing with a full deck it can be challenging. Obviously it is much better for everyone that Oliver is home. I love this boy and I am planning on many many years of being together. If you want to email Oliver you can send it to my email address and I will print it off for him.