The Homecoming!

We got to come home!!!!

Tuesday afternoon Carter spiked a fever again so they gave him more tylenol and he took a nap and then he felt much better. Dennison, Vienna, and I all stayed the night in the hospital on Tuesday night while Jude got to hang with his awesome grandparents. All day Wednesday Carter did really well. He loves riding their tricycle around and I can't even come close to keeping up with him. I take a short cut so I only go half the distance and I'm still too slow! We got the results of Carter's blood cultures that afternoon and there was no sign of infection. Yea! After that, we got our discharge papers and instructions of how to give his medicines at home and we were free to go. Carter wanted to stay at the hospital. I guess that says a lot about the doctors and nurses there.
This might sound weird since he's going through chemotherapy, but Carter seems much more like himself now than he has for months. I'm sure the three blood transfusions has a lot to do with it. You can tell he feels better and he's so happy all the time (except when he has to take his "yucky medicine"). The nurses and doctors even commented on how much he smiles and how much better he looks now than when he first came in. It's nice to know that he wasn't just turning into a grumpy kid. He had a very good reason for being so grumpy and I'm glad we found out so we can take care of it and help him feel better. And we know he won't always feel so good. He's going through a very intense treatment right now, but we're glad to see that things are progressing nicely. All his blood counts and levels are looking really good. When he was first admitted, his white blood cell count was 130,000 (normal is between 5,000 and 10,000). Chemotherapy works very fast..... when we left the hospital yesterday, his count was down to 1,100. So, as you can imagine, since the white blood cells are in charge of fighting off infection, his risk for getting an infection right now is very high since his count is so low. He will just have to stay home and we'll be keeping anyone sick far away. Hint hint, if you're sick, I won't let you in my front door :) Some other numbers, if you're interested are the hemoglobin and platelets. When he was first admitted, his hemoglobin was 4 (normal is between 12 and 16) and his platelet was 9,000 (normal is 150,000 to 300,000). When we left yesterday, his hemoglobin was up to 7.9 and his platelets were up to 44,000. He received two platelet transfusions (I don't know if that's the proper term) while in the hospital. So he's coming along and we're killing cancer cells everyday! He'll go back to the clinic tomorrow to have his blood checked again and get more IV chemo. So, aside from any unseen complications or issues (which are kind of expected this first intense month), we'll be going into the clinic twice a week for blood checks and chemo. I'm sure I've left out a ton of little bits of information and there's still a lot we don't know. But this is all I can think of right now.
I have to say it again, THANK YOU for everything! The dinners, the gifts, the prayers, it's all so appreciated. And our apologies for not responding to all the messages we've received, but we have received them and thank you for them. We feel so much love and support which makes this 3-year process ahead of us feel doable.

Packed up and ready to go home