Going Home...

We got word today that Alex will be going home today (after 5pm)!

They are "topping him off" with a unit of hemoglobin before we go, so he can hopefully make it until his Monday clinic appointment without a transfusion over the weekend.

Yesterday, he received a unit of platelets, which we hope take him until Monday too.

Hi spirit is up, and his color is good. The awful bruises are fading away. We laughed a lot last night...it felt so good!

This last week was a blur - I cannot even tell you what we did from day to day. All I know, is that Alex got a whole lot of chemo, which has taken his white cell count from 90,000 (normal is 5,000- 10,000) down to 200 today. Since those remaining white blood cells are most likely leukemic, he essentially has no immune system.

We have to be so careful right now, his body can't fight off infection. Lots of hand washing, and hand sanitizer is a must. Unfortunately, we will have to screen his visitors to make sure that he isn't exposed to something that might seem mild to a healthy person, but could be disastrous for my immune-suppressed son.

This weekend, we are just going to lay low, and look at having visitors next week. This is the hard part - he is going to want to play with all his friends, and we will just have short play dates for at least 3 weeks.

Looking at the calendar, it seems that if all goes well, Alex will be able to attend the last two weeks of school (crossing fingers and toes). In the meantime, the hospital has given us a kit called "There is a monkey in my chair". The program provides a big stuffed monkey that will sit in Alex's chair at school, until he can come back. The kit also includes a disposable camera, a photo book, and journal so the kids at school can take pictures, and send them to Alex in the kit's backpack. There is also a book to read to the kids, and a teacher's guide. Alex's teacher was so excited when she saw the kit today. Alex has such a sweet class, and she knows they will really love the monkey! His classmates don't want any other kid to sit in Alex's chair, so the monkey will sit there instead. Next year, we hope to get Alex placed in a first grade classroom with many of his friends from this year. That way, they can keep the tradition of the monkey alive until Alex can come back, which will probably be January 2012.

I also wanted to say "thank you" to all of you who have taken Alex into your heart. It means so much to us, that our amazing boy is loved by so many!