Cycle 3....Complete!

Edward had a CBC on Thursday morning and his neutrophil count was a robust 1064, over 300 above the 750 required to receive his next cycle.  He was subsequently admitted to the pediatric heme-onc floor and received his half of cycle three.  Having the PICC line makes the delivery of the chemo a little easier as we do not have to worry with peripheral IVs.  However, he is tethered to an IV pole regardless of his venous access and keeping a 15 month old whose only goal is explore every nook and cranny of whatever room in which he may be, remains a challenge during these admissions.


To distract Edward, we snagged a toy 'car' that he could sit in and we could push around the halls of the hospital.  We unplugged his IV pole and off we went!  Edward absolutely loved it and had a big smile on his face the entire time, charming each passerby with a devilish grin or enthusiastic whole arm wave.  Needless to say, we repeated these walks around the halls as often as we could to pass the time.

Edward tolerated the first day of infusions well and he spent the night in the hospital with Katie.  The following morning, he received his second infusion of etoposide which he also tolerated well.  After an hour of observation, he was discharged back home!  The first thing Grammy Schuster did when we got home was buy him one of those cars!  Edward 'helped' me put it together, had a great time playing with the box in which it came and eventually realized that we now had a car of our own and started pushing it around our living room.  Since Friday, our walks in the stroller have been replaced with walks in the blue car.  The car is tricked out with a working horn, a front hood compartment for his toys and a cup-holder that does not quite fit a sippy cup, but is great for storing cheerios.

As previously mentioned in the last post, Katie's little sister Nicole had a fundraising party last week in Boston and it was a raging success on all fronts.  She actually raised over $7,000 for Edward's treatment in just one night!  Thank you Nicole and thank you Boston College!!  From the looks of the pictures, it seems that everyone seem to have a great time in honor of Edward.