This morning was quite an ordeal! First of all everyone seemed overwhelmed at clinic, which was really frustrating as no one had the time to answer my questions straight! There were so many children who needed to be seen or have a procedure done and they all  came, like we did, at 8am! It’s amazing to realize how many of them have cancer, from babies to teenagers… leukemia, neuroblastoma, brain cancer, all sorts of stuff we don’t want to hear too much about! Léo looks great compared to some of these kids…

Since Léo didn’t have anything to eat since 9pm last night (like every Monday night) I was still hoping that he would be among the first ones to be sent upstairs for his LP procedure. But this time, his blood counts were low: his ANC dropped from the encouraging 2200 last Thursday to… 600, meaning that the red flag is now on and we have to keep him home and watch him closely for fever! This was predictable (and the doctors are really happy that he is responding so well to his treatments!) but, still, yet again we have to adjust and hope for the best! We were warned that the road ahead of us would be bumpy, and it is!!!

Anyway, before the procedure, he had to receive a platelet transfusion, which delayed us quite a bit: by the time he was ready to go upstairs it was 11:30 am and he still didn’t have anything in his belly… not even fluids, as the doctors were so overwhelmed they forgot to give some to him!!! I was beside myself… but Léo, as always, did pretty well, even if he was regularly asking (sometimes screaming!) for an apple, polenta or tofu!! 😉

It seems like this second part of consolidation won’t be as easy as the first 2 weeks, but we took advantage of this break. It also feels good to see that his body is creating new cells so beautifully… too bad the chemo has to destroy pretty much all of them!! Still it’s encouraging! And his hair looks like it’s growing back… 🙂