Day +8 Counts Still Down

Liam's counts are still down, tomorrow is the day that we hope they'll be coming up.

As I mentioned, the daily baths and dressing changes are no longer required because we are far enough out of the chemo that required it. Last night, Liam said to Troy "Mommy didn't give me a bath today!" haha, keeps me honest!

Liam really knows how to take over the hospital room, I had no where to sit! :-) It takes some encouraging to get him to get out of bed, so I am just glad when I can get him out of bed to get him moving around.

Liam got a transfusion of platelets again today. His platelets were lower when we started chemo, so I'm not too surprised that he's needed them a couple of times. He also got IVIG (intravenous immune globulin), which required Liam to be "connected" to the IV for a couple of hours, with frequent blood pressure checks. This was a challenge because his sister and Grandma came to the hospital again and Liam really wanted to run around. We had a pizza party tonight, as it's Grandma's last night in Calgary, even though Liam won't eat pizza, he was pretty excited.

Fingers crossed for blood counts (ANC >=500) in the morning... although, not sure when we will be able to be discharged quite yet due to the fever and antibiotics, we'll see what they say tomorrow. It will be a big day though, it's bingo day and there is lots of fun planned for Halloween.

See updated counts here.

Vomiting and Transfusions

Just like last cycle, Liam is experiencing vomiting, they feel like he shouldn't be vomiting from chemotherapy this far out (it's been over a week), but he's following the same pattern as last time. Liam has been vomiting once every day, then yesterday 3 times, poor kid, he's got every anti-nausea medication they can give him.

Because all Liam's blood cell counts are pretty much at the bottom (we hope he is on the up turn now or soon), he is more tired today, he slept all morning and a few hours this afternoon. This week, the only times Liam has slept has been in the carseat on the way home or back to the hospital, so it's no wonder he is tired today, it's been a big deal going home on day passes, on top of having low blood counts.

This afternoon Liam got a platelets transfusion and a red blood cell transfusion. Hopefully the red blood cells will perk him up. I always say a little thank you to the bags of blood.

During the transfusion, they take Liam's blood pressure every 15 minutes, when he's tired he stops fighting the blood pressure cuff, normally he's not too keen to leave it on.

Discharge Today

Liam's counts have come up, finally, we should be able to get discharged today. We have a busy day of tests first, then we outta here.

Liam had a platelets transfusion yesterday, so his platelets are up. The number they were waiting for were the white blood cells/ANC to come up, they aren't up much, but at least they are up, they tend to go up fast once they start.

Blood counts today:

	Liam's Count	Normal Range	When take action
White Blood Cells	1.2	4.0-14.0	n/a
Hemoglobin	92	110-157	<80
Platelets	59	150-400	<10-20
ANC	600

Friday before long weekend

Liam's red blood cell count was low, so he got a transfusion this morning. It was an efficient morning, so we were out of the hospital by 1:00. While laying in the hospital bed, Liam was tired and cried out "Mom, my eyes are trying to close!", thankfully he gave in and had a nap.

It was a quiet week from a hospital perspective, we had 2 clinic visits, then the transfusion. Liam had a touch of fever last night and this morning, but they monitored him at the clinic and he didn't have fever while we were there. We will see if we can make it this whole weekend without going to the hospital (with a fever, it's minimum of 48 hours in the hospital), it wouldn't be too surprising if we did have to go.

The kids at the clinic received cute teddy bears with Canada Flag balloons for Canada Day. If we would have been in the clinic for the afternoon, they had entertainment and some of the Stampeders football players were going to meet the kids! That just wasn't enough to keep me there for the afternoon :-)

Quiet weekend in the hospital

Not much going on, yesterday Liam had some diarrhea (likely from the antibiotics), but as a result we can't leave the room. Liam's going to need a transfusion for Platelets today, it only takes 10-15 minutes and is through his IV. 

This is all a part of our new "normal", getting transfusions is expected. And unfortunately fevers are going to happen as well.

Liam had a fever Friday morning, then he didn't have a fever again until the afternoon. He didn't have a fever Saturday or so far this morning.

We won't be leaving the hospital until Liam's blood counts come back. Nadir is the expected period when the blood counts drop, should end about today, and his blood counts should start going up tomorrow.

Blood counts today:

	Liam's Count	Normal Range	When take action
White Blood Cells	0.1	4.0-14.0	n/a
Hemoglobin	100	110-157	<80
Platelets	31	150-400	<10-20
ANC	0

Blood counts today

Liam should not look as good as he does or have the energy he does with these numbers! Liam's colour isn't great, but he doesn't look very bad.

Liam is getting a blood transfusion for his hemoglobin, this takes about 3-4 hours. So now Liam is getting antibiotics and blood instead of just antibiotics.