Chemo is surely working very well!!! So, we are back on our “neutropenic mode”… but it’s all good and we are almost done! Today we were pleased to hear that Léo didn’t need any transfusions. 🙂

Things went very well this morning at clinic, he is such a champ! Léo is a little tired from his intense chemo treatment though; we know that he will get over it just as fast as last time, and we are ready for a week of steroids and its challenges! 😉

We will go back to clinic next Friday to test Léo’s blood and if he is ready we will start the last phase September 18th. Can’t wait! In the meantime we will keep him busy at home.

We had a really rough one this week, but it’s all better now: what a relief! Leo was very agitated, always hungry and irritable all week long, mostly because of the steroids. It was pretty draining. This week will be easier as he will be off (just had chemo yesterday, which he seems to be tolerating very well); we can already enjoy the difference this morning! He is so talkative ever since he woke up and just in a great mood! 🙂

His ANC was 4700 yesterday! The doctors recommended that we take advantage of this to go to the beach over the weekend, which we did yesterday afternoon. Both kids were so thrilled! Charlotte went to look for a spot where there was nobody around. We still have to be careful, as we don’t want him to get sick at this stage of treatment!

Today we will be going to the mountains and tomorrow (and maybe again every day until the middle of next week, when his counts should start to be on the down slope again…) we will enjoy the beach again.

This feels so great and we also gave him a yogurt with brown sugar yesterday and of course tons of raspberries! He was so happy and he asked “c’est fini, le traitement maintenant?” (i.e. “Are we done with treatment now?”). He is starting to realize what is going on and it is a good thing. We just simply answer his questions. He remains so good and patient, like a little angel! 🙂

This week will surely be easier to go through, then we will start one more week of steroids on Friday… we are clearly starting to see the light out of the tunnel! We celebrated with a nice croissant from Amandine today… which was surely appreciated! 😉

Léo was ready to start his last phase of intensive chemo before we (finally!) start the maintenance phase, probably at the end of October. His ANC was 1,200 and his platelets were at 267,000 this morning! He received a lot of chemo via his port and got his lumbar puncture (+chemo in the spine). We were there from 8 am til 2 pm! He was NPO since 8 pm last night and had to wait until noon for his procedure, but he was so patient and everything went very smoothly. We gave him a big dinner with French fries and all yesterday night and it certainly helped!! 😉

We will be going back Tuesday and Friday of next week for more chemo treatment, a little less than this morning though, one dose at a time.

One of the molecules that was administrated this morning is supposed to be cardiotoxic, but apparently, after talking to the head of the department today, there is nothing to worry about as the dose being used is very small and most kids go through it very nicely. His “cardiac reserve” was detected at 60% over the summer during his last hospitalization; this morning I was told that he started at 61% when he was diagnosed in February… so, so far so good! 🙂 It felt good to clarify this but obviously we will have to monitor this over time!

We also got the results of the lumbar puncture tonight and it came out good, like always so far, i.e. free of leukemia cells: yeah!! 🙂

Léo is in great shape; his cheeks are colorful and he is very active and playful. He gained weight over the summer and is now at 13.5 kg (29.9 pounds). He also grew a lot! He will get hit over the next few weeks obviously but apparently this phase is easier to go through compared to the last few ones. 🙂

Léo had his blood test on Friday and his ANC was 1200! And it should still be climbing up for a while, at least until the end of August. He is allowed to eat berries, which he is thrilled about! He ate a whole box of raspberries yesterday… 🙂 He has been so patient, we are so glad that he can enjoy the summer fruits!

Next Friday we will test his blood again and if the ANC is above 1500 we will definitely spend some time at the beach. It feels great to see him like himself, happy and energetic… and so hungry! He definitely got his weight back. 🙂