Last Friday, as we were warned, Léo broke a fever. It wasn’t very high and it got controlled pretty quickly, which made us think that there was nothing too serious. But still, we had to get him admitted to the hospital right away and he received his antibiotics for 72h. He was really tired and not completely himself on Sunday but recovered nicely on Monday and yesterday the docs woke us up with great news: we could leave the hospital that morning and plus, Léo’s blood counts were great! He recovered very nicely and didn’t need any transfusions. A little fairy with a magic wand visited him over night: his ANC went from 90 to 400! 🙂

He is even allowed to go outside! Yesterday we stayed home most of the day (we both were tired after a rough night at the hospital… nurses woke us up pretty much every other hour!!) but at night we took him and Charlotte out for a bike ride and he had a blast! This morning I am going to take him out to see “his” fountain in our area. Then we will go to an empty park with Charlotte later on this afternoon. They both like to go there as there is grass and plenty of room to run and play!

On Monday, we will go back to clinic for a blood test. If his body is ready we will start the next course of treatment on Tuesday. We anticipate that he should be. If his ANC is high enough we will take him to the beach to enjoy the sand and the sunset before we start his rounds of hospitalizations: 4 times every other week and he will be put under for a spinal tap (and chemo in his spine) twice (once a month). He is doing this 4 times as he was originally considered as “high risk” leukemia; other kids do it only twice. Studies show that this way we lower the risk of relapse even more… so we could even do it 6 times!!! 😉

Anyway, we are off for a great week: Léo is back to himself, his appetite is back (he lost 750g in a week and should get it back just as fast!) and it feels great to see him like this! 🙂

Léo had his last dose of chemo (for this phase) this morning and he didn’t need any transfusion, which we were really happy about. However since his ANC is still really low (down to 100 again) we have to keep him inside at least one more week.

Next Tuesday we will check if he is ready for his first Maintenance period. Probably not, as it might take about 2 weeks again for his ANC to go back up. However this time the break will be welcome as we now know more about the whole process and we are confident.

We are more shooting for the first week of June instead of next week. He will be hospitalized at UCLA Mattel Hospital 4 days every 2 weeks. And hopefully between now and then he will be able to enjoy outdoor activities for a few days. 🙂

Léo is in great shape. His appetite is good, he is active again after a couple rough days last week. While I am writing, he is playing and dancing with Charlotte in the living room: a lot of energy and smiles around here! It’s great to see him like this after a rough couple months of intense chemotherapy. 🙂

One more week to go and this phase will be over…! Geez, what a roller coaster it has been! Last week Léo received a blood transfusion and we had to repeat it (blood plus platelets this time) yesterday as he was bruising again spontaneously and he was kind of weak.

This last phase of treatment was pretty nasty, but this is what the doctors were aiming for. So, we are all good! After next week we will wait until the counts go back up to start the next phase, called “Interim Maintenance”. Today we were told that each hospitalization could last from 3 to 5 days, depending on how long it will take for the molecule to get out of his body. We will have to see.

As of now, we have to be really careful since apparently a lot of kids end up being hospitalized at this time of treatment if they catch a virus. Let’s hope that again Léo will be the exception! 🙂

A few more days at home then… at the next blood test (i.e. next Tuesday) we will see if we can take him outside before we start the hospitalizations. Our little one still doesn’t seem to mind: he has fun inside too! 🙂

We went to clinic this morning and Léo was seen by his team: they all were so happy to see him in such good shape! 🙂 Today he seemed a little tired though and more cranky than usual. His blood results were: ANC back to 100 (it was 800 on Friday and we took advantage of it all weekend long, betting that his numbers would keep climbing up!) and low in red blood cells. So tomorrow we will go back to clinic for a blood transfusion, which should help with his energy level. For this week, we will be keeping the treatment schedule, i.e chemo every day; I learned to administrate it intravenously at home. It’s easy if we just forget that we are actually giving chemo to our child! But anyway, this saves us trips to clinic, which is always welcome. We are all in good spirits, as we feel like we have gone through this already and we know that Léo bounces back. The end of consolidation is coming up and in roughly 3 weeks we will start the first maintenance stage: yeah! 😉 In the meantime, we will keep our little one safe at home.

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