Memorial Day

A couple weeks ago, Edward's neutrophil count was down to 30, which is quite low and we were on 'high alert' if you will for any signs of fever or an opportunistic infection.  Katie and I alternated asking each other "Does he feel hot to you? Maybe we should take his temperature..."  Luckily, despite his nervous parents, Edward did just fine and his neutrophils, though still low, were up to the mid 200s.  That still counts as 'severe neutropenia' but the rise to over 200 indicated that his bone marrow was starting to rebound and with each passing day, his total count should rise instead of fall.

The recovery of his bone marrow also allowed us to visit Katie's parents for Memorial Day Weekend at the beach in Ocean City, New Jersey.  I fortunately had a very well timed week of vacation, so the three of us made the trip north for a much needed respite.  It turns out that Edward loves an audience and had a great time with his grandparents, aunts and uncles.  His PICC line and his sensitivity to the sun prevented us from prolonged days at the beach, but after a careful 'saran-wrapping' of his PICC line and near overdose of SPF 1 million, Edward was allowed an hour at the beach almost every day.  As you can imagine, he loved crawling around in the sand and knocking over the sand castles that we made.  He also loved eating the sand, which was definitively less cute.  He even got to ride on his first carousel.  He was all-smiles as Katie and his Aunt Nicole held him on a giant multicolored horse on the carousel, but as soon as it started, he got a little frightened and started to cry!  This was quickly remedied with an vanilla ice cream cone with rainbow sprinkles (or rainbow 'jimmies' as they are called in the north).

Edward had another CBC yesterday and his neutrophils have risen to 710.  His next eye surgery is planned for this Tuesday in Philadelphia, followed by chemotherapy, which is to be delivered here in Charlottesville at UVA the next day.  We are hopeful that his counts will rise above 750 before Wednesday so as not to delay this next cycle.    If we can get through this one, only 2 left!