medicine and motorcycles

Jakers had clinic today.  Since we started maintenance our visits up there have lasted an hour and a half max, unless he gets a back poke.  Today was just a regular old visit, but we were there for over three hours!  It took the lab a long time to send his meds up so it made for a long morning!  Jakes counts have fallen even more.  His ANC is now at 400.  They have stopped all chemo again, except for steroids which he is on for the next five days.  I am still trying to understand what those darn doctors are doing to us poor parents... stop all meds EXCEPT the steroids!  Come on!  It is supposed to be a well deserved break.  The other pills are not bad but that 'roid rage always seems to hit with a vengeance!  Crew is not even allowed to cry because the noise bothers Jake so much.  It is a fun five days!  (So, Dr. Wright... I know you sometimes read this and if you are... we are sending him home with YOU next week!  hehe!)  Anyways, a lot of medical terminology that just goes over my head was thrown around... I will explain it as best I can and if I am totally wrong, feel free to correct me anyone!  One of the medications Jake is on is called 6mp.  Apparently 1 out of 100 kids' bodies' have a hard time breaking down the enzymes in the drug and need to be on a lower dose.  We are testing him for that and also the antibiotic, septra, can cause low counts.  We have taken him off of that and if it is not the 6mp, we will change that antibiotic to one that he gets intravenously.  So that is that!  I am sure I am explaining it all wrong and don't make any sense...  (sorry about that.)

Now on to the important fun stuff.  Jeff took the boys to the motocross races on Saturday with the Johnson boys!  And I got a well deserved break, dinner with Angie and the two babies and to bed EARLY for once.  It was great!  And the boys had a blast!  In Jake's words, "this is the greatest night of my life!"  Apparently they had fun.  The camera battery died so Jeff didn't get to many pictures...

  

Our boys!!

Our cute boys in their 'partial' Easter outfits. (As much as they wanted too, they didn't wear jeans to church!) We had a wonderful Easter... Jeff's family came into town and we were able to celebrate it with them. I will post some more pictures of that a little later!

Trouble

I have been extremely lazy when it comes to updating this blog and then when I do, I have 500 things to post about!:)  First things first... today is Jake's one- year anniversary of being diagnosed with leukemia!  I cannot believe we finally made it this far!  Next thing you know, he will be done with treatments.  It has been a long and interesting year full of good and bad.  It has been one of the most difficult years we have ever had, but it is so nice to be able to say that no one would ever be able to tell to see him now!  He looks as healthy as any other kid around! 

We feel so lucky and so blessed to have him doing  so well.  

One year ago...

Home-health came and drew labs on Tuesday.  There has not been much of a change over the last two weeks.  ANC is still 500, hematocrit is still low also.  (Can't remember the exact number)  He is supposed to go back on track tomorrow, but we are going to have to keep him home for the next two weeks until that immune system can kick itself into gear.  

On another note, we have taken in a little boy who's name is Trouble.  Big Trouble.  You cannot take your eyes off of this child for one second.  For example, one day last week, I bathed him and got him ready for the day and then stuck Cole in the bath.  Cole yells down to come get Crew because he is splashing in the tub.  I didn't think much about it because he likes to stand at the edge of the bathtub and splash while the other boys are in there.  But, this time, when I walk in, he had actually climbed into the tub, fully clothed.  Nice.  Now, the day before, I had laid him down for his nap... sometimes he throws his binky and his blankets out and won't fall asleep without them.  He was talking away and I was getting ready to go give  them back to him, when I heard a big thud.  He has a saddle at the end of his bed, so I thought that he had pushed it over, but when I walked upstairs, I hear a little boy pounding on his door.  Yup.  He had climbed or fallen or whatever out of his crib.  13 months old.  Naughty child!  The best part was that he sat there and giggled so hard at me that he got the hiccups.  Let me remind you that my other two children slept in a crib until they were over three because they would not even attempt to climb out.  That same day, we found him here in the bathroom drawer eating the toothpaste by climbing up on the stool.  He has since tried to climb up on the counter and thinks he can go climb up the ladder on the playset and go down the slide by himself.  No wonder why he already has had a broken leg.  He is BUSY!  Jake and Cole were busy, but not like this!  This child thinks he runs the house and is literally into everything!    We also found out that he has to get tubes put in.  He has his ninth ear infection since October this week.  I have to admit I am kind of excited about this, as these ear infections are a pain in the neck!

(Can't you see the mischieviousness written all over his face??)

"I'm Brave, I'm Tough, Nothing can beat this stuff!"

This is life... according to Jake.  Out of the blue, he started saying this quote all day yesterday.  When we asked him where he heard it, he got all embarrassed and said he made it up on his own.  Pretty cute and accurate if you ask me!  He had clinic this week on Tuesday.  Just a check-up and an iv push of Vincristine.  Nothing too dramatic.  The surprising part is that his counts are down again.  (Or maybe not to surprising with his history!)  His ANC is at 500.  Luckily he is off track or else we would have pulled him out of school again.  Our home health care nurse will come and draw labs again in  two weeks to see where they are off to then.  No other exciting news to report!  No broken legs this week or hospital stays yet!  Yeah!  We are on steroids which makes life more interesting... I will let ya know what fun things come out of his mouth this week!  So far it hasn't been too bad!!