Maintenance to the Max

We went in yesterday to check Carter's counts.  His bone marrow has been working very hard this past week to recover.  And recover it did!  White blood cell count of 9500 and ANC 7400!!  Hemoglobin 10.1 and platelets 276,000.  The steroids he was on last week probably helped with this huge jump.  But no matter, this means that maintenance is 100% on.  He started his other two oral meds last night and will continue on those for a really long time.  SO here we are!  Aahhhhhh maintenance, you taste so sweet :)

Can you see his hair growing back?!?!

Just a few short weeks ago we were wondering how long it would take for him to be back to "normal".  As in, doing things for himself again like getting dressed, getting himself a drink of water, getting himself in and out of the car... things that he used to do but hasn't for a really long time now.  And other simple things such as playing with his brother or friends, have enough energy to stay off of the couch for more than 20 minutes at a time, walk from one room to another without asking to be carried, and just be happy and act like he's feeling good.  These last couple days he has been doing so AWESOME!  I guess I kinda forgot how emotionally and physically taxing it is caring for a sick little boy because it had become my normal.  But these last couple days, we have been overjoyed with how happy and energetic and fun he is again.  Throughout this journey we've had glimmers of happy healthy Carter shining through but didn't want to get too excited, knowing it would fade with the next dose of medicine.  Now, there's no foreseeable end in sight of feeling good and it feels amazing.  He feels it, too.  Yesterday, his brother drank his whole glass of milk way too fast and then threw up.  We were talking about it later and Carter said, "I don't throw up anymore!" like it had just occurred to him how good he feels now.  Him and his brother talk about how he smashed his dragon all the time.  Jude might be more excited than all of us - he has a friend and playmate back for good!  Two days ago was just a really great day.  He came out in the family room from the hall and announced that he had cleaned my room.  I had sorted the laundry on my bedroom floor so there were piles of clothes everywhere and he'd picked it all up and put it on my bed.  I honestly don't remember the last time he helped without being asked first.  He used to do stuff like that all the time - little kids love to "help".  At the end of the day, he got hurt and started crying a little bit and I noticed that he hadn't cried all day long until then.  I hadn't realized how much crying I'd become used to.  It's great to hear laughing all day long instead.  We're all just enjoying the moments around here.  I could get used to this.