Limbo

Day 15 of round two.

Things are going well. Hunter is responding to the second round appropriately. His blood count is still coming down and his immune system is almost at zero. He is completely vulnerable to infection but so far he has not been infected. Double "knock on wood" as we hunker down for a 3-4 week wait for his blood count to come back. Once the white cells get back to normal they will do another bone marrow test for Leukemia.

In the beginning of round two he was on the vomit comet but as the therapy program progressed he was able to "hold his lunch".

The best news is how physical he has become. He is getting so rambunctious that he is hard to manage. Even towing the IV station he can get completely across the bed before you can manage to grab him. This was clearly understood a couple days ago as he did a face first slider off the bed. We expected the worst yet he barely cried. What a tough son of a gun.

The next day his left arm (the pick arm) was red and swollen. We feared a broken bone but he displayed no pain. The doctors decided that the pick (the IV tube that was inserted in his vein all the way to his heart) was in his body too deep and that his heart was causing back pressure and thus a build up of fluid in his lower arm. They pulled the pick out 1.5 cm and the swelling went down in about an hour. I wish everything in life responded that quickly to action.

On the terror front - Hunter had another choking session that scared everyone. Lenore gave him his usual dose of oral medicines but for some reason he began to choke. He turned red and then blue before I could get out of the room to scream "Hunter is choking". Within seconds the entire nursing staff came rushing into the room. I gathered Hunter in my arms and violently pounded on his back. As the doctors poured into the room Hunter vomited and began to cry. What a relief - I almost wanted to pass out. The entire staff let out a collective sigh as they patted us on the back and tentatively left us in our startled condition.

Even with all the action - our current hospital status is "routine". We are just another family living in hospital limbo - hopeful for the best.