June clinic visit

We went in for Carter's monthly clinic visit last week.  The Dr. said Carter looks great!  His numbers are up a little bit from last month.  White blood cell count is 2800, ANC 1700, hemoglobin 12.1 and platelets 211,000.  Since his ANC is slightly above the 1500 that they like to keep it below, they increased the dose of one of his oral meds a little bit.  His sedation went really well and he woke up feeling better and a lot less wobbly this time around.  He's been sleeping more since then, recovering from the chemo but he's pretty much back up to his normal energy levels now. 

It made me very happy the other day when I realized that this summer I will NOT have to put sunscreen all over his bald head!  And he hasn't thrown up in 2 months!!!!  The last time that was true was about a year and a half ago.  We are all so happy that he's feeling so good.  Also, I just registered him for kindergarten.  Holy Cow.  The office lady was so very sweet.  It's all over his registration papers that he's going through chemo for leukemia.  She told me, without asking any questions or anything first, that they will do whatever they can to help him and keep him healthy.  She said, "We're all moms here, we understand!"  She was so kind and caring and it helped to calm my anxiety a little bit.  He, of course, is incredibly excited to start school.  He will love it and do great there, I'm sure.  It's me I'm worried about.... and his little brother who will be so sad to have his best friend gone everyday.  But, life goes on, and thank goodness for that!

We have been busy!!

 Well, Carter is the police chief.  He was "sworn in" a couple weeks ago.  This was before the ceremony and all the media were filming and taking pictures, the sergeant was pinning on his stars, and he was completely oblivious, playing with the toys.

 Repeating the oath.

 Shaking hands with the sheriff.

 

 The next day we were invited to a service honoring the police officers who've been killed in the line of duty.  It was really touching and I'm very grateful that we were invited to be there.  Afterwards, Carter got to go around and meet all the police dogs.  Have you ever seen a police dog up close??  They're really big!  I was a little nervous but I think Carter pet each and every one of them.  He was very excited to find out that he's the "boss" of the dogs also :)

 We were in a parade, riding in the Sheriff's boat.  

 Carter was invited to be the ribbon-cutter at the opening ceremonies of the Rose Festival.  It was so awesome!  He loved the gigantic scissors, even though he couldn't hold them up by himself.

 

 He was on live TV as he cut the ribbon!

 After the ceremony, we were given wristbands to go on all the rides we wanted.  Oh man, they boys had a blast!!  After a few hours it started pouring rain but we still had such a fun evening.

His brother occasionally calls him "the sheriff" or "the chief".  And Carter often tells people, "I'm the sheriff!  Did you see me on the news and in the newspaper?"  He asked while eating an apple, "Do Sheriff's always eat all of their apple?"  I could see this working in our favor...

More fun to come!  But first, another clinic visit in a couple days.  Stay tuned.

Chief for a Day & 2 clinic visits

 

Carter has been chosen to be the Police Chief for a Day!  They do this program every two years where each police department chooses an honorary Chief (usually a child with a life-threatening illness or something significant like that).  All through the summer he will get to be in parades, go see SWAT team and K9 unit training, go on a boat patrol on the river, and whatever else they come up with for him.  He even gets his own little chief uniform!  He's being sworn in this Wednesday morning (contact me if you're interested in attending, it's open to the public).  The big ceremony with all the police departments and their honorary Chiefs will be later in the summer.  We are so excited and honored to be a part of this program!

His monthly clinic visit was the past week.  Everything went really well.  His blood counts are exactly where they want them to be, finally!  White blood cell count 2100, ANC 1100, hemoglobin 11.2 and platelets 214,000.  He went in to check counts a few weeks ago to see if we could start his oral meds again.  His ANC was barely high enough so he's been on half dose ever since.  He's so brave for his sedations now!  He just climbs up on the bed and closes his eyes.  I tried to capture his pose before he actually went under cause it was so cute.  His legs started falling over right as I took the picture so the sedation doctor held them up for another second for me.  Once he woke up he was really loopy and wobbly but he REALLY wanted to drive his little car.  He was very upset that we wouldn't let him.  He couldn't even sit up without tipping over!  After some rest and some snacks he was finally able to get into his car and then he was happy again.  He's been doing really well and is happy and energetic most days.  It's wonderful to see.

Make-A-Wish Check presentation

 We were asked to come share our story again at this Make-A-Wish check presentation.  It was at a car dealership and this time we took all the crazy kids with us.  It was great to share our story and say thank you to more people that have done a lot to make wishes come true for local kids.  No amount of thank yous will be sufficient to express our gratitude for that amazing trip but it's great to be able to say a couple here and there.

 

We also just go this in the mail:

 

It's a scrapbook from Make-A-Wish with tons of pictures from our trip!  It's incredible.  It's up on our mantle and Carter gets it down all the time and just looks through it, asks a lot of questions like, "Hey Mom, remember when we fed the dolphins?"   And then he puts it back until next time.  What a fantastic gift!  I cannot ever say enough good things about the Make-A-Wish foundation.  We love them!

April clinic visit

We went to the clinic for a quick monthly check-up and chemo on Monday.  Everything went really well.  Carter's ears are looking really good and healthy.  Yea!!!  His ANC is at 0 right now, so not many infection-fighting cells.  It's probably because of all the infections he's had lately.  For now, we're holding off on the oral chemo and will re-check counts next week.  I was hoping things would be less roller coaster-ish by now.  But I can't complain, it's SO MUCH better then where we were last year.

Easter Morning

Easter morning this year was spent in the E.R. by Carter and his daddy.  He woke up with a fever.  By the time they left, he was feeling ok and his fever was gone but we still have to take him in to get a blood culture and antibiotics.  They were there all morning and most of the afternoon (everything takes soooooo long in the E.R.).  But they got home in time for Easter dinner, the egg hunt, and decorating sugar cookies.  Not sure what the fever was all about, but I'm glad it didn't last long.  Although he wasn't feeling well this morning either and slept through most of preschool (it was at my house today so he just went down the hall and took a nap on my bed).

I'll refer you back to my post on Easter last year.  My thoughts and feelings are the same now as they were then.  What an amazing holiday to celebrate!

I'll give you one guess

I'll give you one guess why we had to go to the clinic again today.  Did I hear you say "EAR INFECTION"???  You are correct!  Seriously, this is getting ridiculous.  This is the third one so far this year!  Luckily, he felt a little better once we got to the hospital and has been doing ok ever since.  More antibiotics will be taken for 10 more days and there's murmurings of getting tubes put in his ears.  We'll see how it goes once cold and flu season is finally over.  Hopefully he'll stay healthy and his ears will drain or do whatever they are supposed to do to not get infected.  But on the plus side, this antibiotic is only given twice a day - so no middle-of-the-night doses!  Yay!