Bittersweet Christmas

12/23/2011: 1:33 PM

Mixed emotions yet again. We found out late yesterday afternoon that Davis' chemo was cancelled. His white blood cells and nuetrophil counts weren't high enough to proceed with chemo. His ANC (immune system) was at 566, 66 points above critical. It has to be above 750 to proceed with chemo, otherwise the chemo can zero out the counts, which is a bad thing. The doctors can give Davis platelets and red blood cells if he becomes too low, but the body has to naturally produce white blood cells. There's no help there. Before hanging up with the nurse, she advised us to avoid crowds and keep venturing out to a minimum since his immune system isn't strong enough to fight off an infection.

This news is bittersweet because Davis will be able to enjoy the holiday without the nasty side effects of the chemo, but this also means that Davis is one more week behind on making it to Maintenance Therapy. Plus, I was looking forward to starting chemo over Christmas break to allow time for Davis to adjust  to the new medications. This way, he wouldn't miss a bunch of school. Oh well. If the body isn't strong enough, it isn't strong enough.

Now, let me back up. Last couple of days have been great. We have celebrated a couple of Christmases, and the kids have been tinkering around with their new toys.

Yesterday at Sarah Bush, the lab techs were unable to get a good stick (finger prick) for Davis' draw, so they had to call over the Children's to gain permission to do a peripheral (vein) draw. I remember when Davis would become so upset over a finger prick, and now he doesn't think twice about being poked with needles. Sad, really.

Kyle and Lucy are running partners

Many people have asked what Davis is getting for Christmas. Well, he has been blessed with so much, it is quite a struggle to top what has already been given to him already. We talked to him about his options, and he is pretty set on a Doberman puppy. We have had such great luck with Lucy, our 3-year-old Doberman, so what's one more, right? Davis is ready to assert some responsibility. Plus, I think it will be good for him to have something be dependent upon him. Unfortunately, we haven't found exactly what we are looking for yet, so Davis won't have his puppy on Christmas. He's ok with it, and he knows it is coming.
Thankfully, the kids have and will be getting a few movies and Wii games for Christmas. We will have plenty of things to do to bide our time until Davis' counts recover.

Davis' newly scheduled chemo is for December 30th. If his counts aren't recovered by then, chemo will be postponed yet another week.  We still appreciate your thoughts and prayers, as our journey isn't over yet. We continually pray that Davis stays well, is free of short term and long term side effects, and is healed completely and forever.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas.

We will keep you posted.