tired already

As the nurse said today,

"one visit closer to the end..."

I guess that's true. But with 3 years still ahead of us -- the end still seems so far away.

Sorry to everyone that comes for an update to find none.

I'm so tired lately. Suppose the 10 1/2-hour work days, then 3rd grade spelling, 5th grade english and 8th grade math are taking their toll on me. And I thought the homework in college was bad...

Nothing compared to Joshy's journey though.

I had a nice long update tapped out. But guess it's just not appropriate right now.

Too ominous.

Ha - ominously -- one of Halie's spelling words this week.

More visits. A couple more. Bottom line, the new chemo is taking it's own toll on Josh.

and I think I'm tired...

At the beginning of this phase, Josh's ANC started out near 3900. That measures his ability to fight infection. Josh's ANC hasnt been this high since diagnosis. So we started in a good position.

Even before his second dose of Doxorubicin he was down to 1500.

Anything under 1000, he is considered neutropenic and puts him at higher risk for infection.

This week his ANC is 700.

He is now neutropenic. Which means no visitors.

And he had yet his 3rd shot of Dox, so his count will continue to drop.

Next week they predict it will be under 500. Josh cant move on to the next half of this phase until his healthy cells fight back and rise above 1000 again.

A visiting nurse will be coming to the house to monitor his counts until they are high enough for us to return to Pittsburgh. Although, we may have to visit in between for a blood or platelet transfusion if his other counts continue to drop too.

I'm tired and Josh is waiting for me.

Thanks for checking in on us -- dont forget to sign the guestbook, it's encouraging to know someone is actually reading.