Leo’s ANC was 1,700 yesterday so we went up to 75% of his oral chemotherapy. Everything went well; Leo brought his doll, Paul, which he “put to sleep” before he went under…! He started the steroids yesterday night and this afternoon he is recovering with a long 3+ hours nap. We will test him again in 2 weeks but it looks like his body started to adjust to the medication, which the docs were happy about.

We are trying to face the steroids week in a more relaxed way and we hope that with higher blood counts it’ll be at least a bit easier. Then we are planning to go to the mountains (Idyllwild) for a couple days (March 9th-10th) before we go to Palm Springs for a week early April: we look forward to it, it’ll feel good to go out of town! 🙂

Leo’s blood results came out good today (ANC= 1,300) so we went up 75% on the methotrexate but we kept the other med down to 50%. We will see how he is doing next week and adjust again if needed. We really thought his ANC was much higher, as his energy level was so high! Leo is doing really well and he is the only one in the family who didn’t get sick this week while we all got a pretty nasty cold…! Go, Loulou: he is a strong little one! 🙂

We are all enjoying the beach and the outdoors, but since it’s again a little colder we are planning to go to a Natural History Museum in the morning.

It looks like maintenance can be easier to go through when it’s uneventful; it’s a good feeling and we hope it stays that way at least for a little while! 🙂

Next step: next Tuesday for his monthly lumbar puncture and the rest!

Leo’s ANC was 2,500 this morning and we could tell: he is back to himself, happy, laughing hard and ran everywhere pretty much all day long! A welcome relief after the 5 days of steroids, which are always a challenge for all of us, and the last few weeks when he became so weak. That would be great if he could be stable in maintenance soon and keep that energy level; that way the steroids would also probably become less dragging… 😉

This morning I took him to Temescal Canyon; he hiked on his own for a good hour and didn’t want to be carried at all… We looked at flowers and birds; we also saw a little rabbit! It was really nice and relaxing. Leo looked at roots and was amazed at the shape of the cracked dirt underneath his feet, which he thought looked like leaves… so sweet! 🙂

On Sunday we went to the beach to celebrate Alex’ birthday; the kids really had a great time, and so did we: the weather was delightful, the water still a bit on the cold side but that didn’t stop our little ones for taking some into their buckets to build sand castles! We met Ninon and her family by chance there; it was really pleasant and the kids had fun!

We started his meds again today, half dose for 2 weeks; we will go back to clinic on the 19th and see where he is at. If his counts are stable (and if he doesn’t get sick in the meantime!) we will go up a bit, otherwise it would still be ok to be at 50% until his body gets adjusted to it.

It just feels good! We hope it stays that way for a little while; we really needed a break from this roller coaster!