3rd time in BandAid Junction

Once a month, Luke needs to go to the clinic for blood sampling...through his finger. Although he has an implanted IV port in his chest, they only access it for blood samples when he is receiving IV chemo (the less they access it, the less risk for infection).

Luke wanted to watch this video 3 or 4 times. This is from this morning. We hope it gets much more tolerable for him. He has at least 31 more of these over the course of his treatment (which ends, God-willing, in August 2013.

Oh, by the way, "BandAid Junction" is the place within Texas Children's Hospital where kids go for a quick finger stick, bandaid, and back home. We actually hang around after the stick for the results. They could just call us, but we find the in-person interaction helpful.

Maintenance Begins

We finally made it to the day all the doctors have been telling us about. The last 6 months of the aggressive chemo has been really hard and we have been waiting for this light at the end of the tunnel with maintenance. Thanksgiving started with Luke getting a blood transfusion and platelets because his counts were really low. We had a quiet Thanksgiving with the three of us and of course turkey and the fixings.

On December 8th Luke's counts recovered and was able to start the next round of chemo. He had a spinal tap of methotrexate and IV vincristine. He did well other than the fact he still struggles with access and deaccess of his port. Now that this phase begins we will only have to go to the hospital every 2 weeks. One week he will have a fingerstick for his blood counts and the other week he will have chemo. Also maintenance also means more drugs at home vs drugs at the clinic. He has oral mercaptopurine daily, dexamethasone daily for five days each month, methotrexate orally once a week, and of course bactrim. The regimen dictates our lifestyle, when Luke eats, sleeps, and goes out. At the clinic, he got a visit from Santa.

On December 22nd Luke had an appointment for counts and his counts were all normal. His ANC was 1550 which was an okay to go to church on Christmas. We enjoyed the holidays with some close friends and family. Luke got many gifts from Santa and may need another room just for his toys.

On January 5th, he had his first chemo of 2011. He had made counts and was given IV vincristine. The doctor says that we should be able to start having a somewhat normal life....going back to school, activities, playdates, etc.

Thank you for everyones love, support, and prayers through the last 6 months. Please continue to keep us in your prayers and that the rest of therapy goes uneventful.