Good To Go

Logan has been cleared for chemo tomorrow. This is the same regimen as last time... 3 days on, 4 days off, 3 days on.

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, 2009 has been a rough year for us, but we still have much to be thankful for. At the top of our list... a little boy in remission, of course, but we are also thankful for all the support from our friends and family during our journey. Amanda is thankful for her very own bedroom (we spent yesterday painting Eric's old office and moving Amanda in... Eric set up his home office in the basement last weekend) and Logan is thankful that Amanda is no longer leaving messes in HIS room! : ) He is also VERY thankful that Mom agreed to set up the Christmas tree today! : ) He's been BEGGING me since the day after Halloween to set up the tree, but I have a long standing rule... NO CHRISTMAS UNTIL AFTER THANKSGIVING! So I guess we fudged a bit today because Thanksgiving wasn't officially over (Eric was busy in the kitchen making our feast) when the kids and I dragged out all the decorations. They did a MUCH better job decorating this year than years past. They still clustered some ornaments together while leaving some bare spots, but over all they distributed them nicely.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Wait and See

CBC from today is back. White blood cells up slightly, Hemoglobin up slightly, Platelets took a nice big jump but Logan is still not deemed ready for his last round of chemo yet. We'll check back on Monday for another CBC and if all is well, he will start chemo on Tuesday. This weekend we are pushing the iron rich foods to help him make those red blood cells. BRING ON THE DARK TURKEY MEAT!!!! : )

High and Low

Logan's latest (revised) blood count is in:
White Blood Cells = 3.6 (YEA!)
Hemoglobin = 7.2 (TOO LOW!)
Platelets = 77 (SO SO)
Absolute Neutrophils = 2.0 (IN THE NORMAL RANGE !!!! YEA!!!)
So it looks like the the bone marrow stimulating shot did it's job to raise his white blood cell count. However his doctor is concerned about how low is Hemoglobin is so tomorrow we are heading back to the doctor for another blood count to check if he needs a transfusion before the holiday weekend.

The Last Shot

Last night marked a special event in this house. The last of the dreaded shots... at least until the next chemo round. I must stay that we ALL dreaded that crummy shot, but Logan woke up VERY cheerful this morning and skipped into kitchen and announced to all (in case we had forgotten - AS IF!) "NO SHOT TODAY!"

Dreaming Of A Healthy Christmas

Logan is not healthy enough to start his last round of chemo on Monday like we had anticipated. We are now scheduled to begin the following week on November 30th. This is going to push his recovery into Christmas : (. If history repeats, he will not be able to be around germs come Christmas morning so we may need to delay our return to KC to visit family. We have one ray of hope... the new bone marrow stimulating hormone he was put on in the hospital. We're going to talk to his doctor about putting him on the injections as soon as his chemo is finished in the hopes that he will be healthy for Christmas.

Houston... WE HAVE HAIR!

We had lots of fun today using the micro setting on my camera to try to show you some of Logan's new hair. His head is full of white peach fuzz with occasional patches of short brown hairs. However, the BEST part is his eyes. HE FINALLY HAS EYE LASHES!!!!! They are still quite short and sparse but definitely there.

From afar he still looks bald, but it won't be long now until he has a full head of hair. His last two rounds of chemo feature drugs that don't cause hair loss so it's getting to grow back a little earlier than we expected.

A Symbol Of Our Love and Devotion

Today, Eric, Amanda and I all "took one for the team". RIGHT IN THE ARM! The H1N1 flu vaccines are FINALLY available at our doctors office. We had to wait until the injection became available because the nasal mist can shed the live virus for up to a week and infect our little immune suppressed boy. Eric and I had to get special permission to get the shot since we were not in their "high risk" group. Logan took GREAT pleasure in reminding Amanda, Eric and me ALL DAY about our upcoming shot. With all the crap he has to put up with on a daily basis, we let him enjoy this small victory and the ice cream spoils afterwards.

Diane Drew The Short Straw : )

Logan had his first at home shot last night and since Eric is squeamish about blood and needles I had to be the one to poke him. He was very brave but also accusatory afterwards... "THAT WAS MORE THAN ONE SECOND, MOM!"

Home Again

We had to wait for his 12:00 antibiotic before we were released. Now we are home and waiting on Pharmacare to bring us his meds and supplies.

Bacteria Growing In His Line

One of the line cultures grew out bacteria but that shouldn't delay our departure from the hospital. Logan will be sent home on antibiotics and the lab will continue to grow the culture to verify that it is sensitive to the antibiotic he is on. He will also need a once daily injection of the bone marrow stimulator. We're waiting for our walking papers right now... hopefully we'll be home before dinner time.

(bio-) Chemistry lesson

Q: Take one anemic child in a hospital room and add 220ml of RBC's and what do you get?

A: A rubber ball inside a pinball machine.

(I hope we are able to go home tomorrow).

Go, Bone Marrow, GO!

Blood Counts:
WBC = .3
Hemoglobin = 7.1
Platelets = 24
Abs. Neutrophils = Zero

Last night Logan was started on a new drug, sargramostim (Leukine), to stimulate his bone marrow to produce blood cells quicker so hopefully, if it works, he'll recover faster from his neutropenia. No growth on the cultures but his hemoglobin drop far enough that he'll be getting a blood transfusion today. If he can stay fever free for the next 24 hours, we may be going home tomorrow and they will probably be giving him one more platelet transfusion before we leave (but they will check his counts in the morning first). We will be sent home on a week of antibiotics but we don't know what kind yet. I think that's all the news for now. He's feeling good and so far is satisfied with playing video games, watching some toons and playing with a few toys in bed. Amanda and I brought him donuts for breakfast this morning so we'll see what his energy level does after he processes all that sugar! : )

Pin Worms?

Blood work is back... looks like Logan is neutropenic. Along with having low white blood cells and a fever, he is been complaining about itching and pain in the rectal area. The doctors think there is a possibility that he has been exposed to pin worms from the dogs and/or cats he's been around. Hopefully that will take care of his discomfort but he's still running a fever so looks like we'll be here until his counts come back up... at least through Sunday. No growth on the blood cultures yet.

Back At Wesley

Logan and Eric slept at Wesley Medical Center last night. His fever kept going up and he was "feeling bad". He couldn't explain what was wrong, just that he "felt funny". Same story as before... they are doing blood cultures and put him on antibiotics as a precaution. Amanda and I will head over there in a little bit and I'll post more after the doctors come by on their rounds.

I Blame Myself

Today was a beautiful day and the weather man is calling for rain turning to snow this weekend so I thought it would be nice to take the kids' bikes to the park... I shouldn't have done that! Logan is now running a fever. It hasn't spiked above 101 (the magic number that sends us to the hospital) but it's getting close. I didn't realize that a lot of activity can exacerbate neutropenia (low white blood cells) and bring on a fever. Right now he's eating lots of Popsicles and watching a cartoon marathon in hopes that we can reverse the damage done. In the mean time, Eric has packed his bag and is ready to go sleep on a hard, uncomfortable cot at a moment's notice. : (

Cool As A Cucumber

So why are cucumbers so darn cool? We don't know either, but we like the cliché. Logan is still fever free and eating 10 meals a day. No new bruises since yesterday... but it will be a while before he's back to normal skin tone. We have another CBC scheduled for tomorrow but we won't get the results until Friday.

One Bag, Please

We already knew Logan's platelets were very low by all the bruising he has, but it was confirmed this morning with a phone call from his doctor. White blood cells were .4, Hemoglobin 8.4, and platelets 8 so off to the hospital he went today (with Eric) for a bag of platelets.

I know a lot of you don't realize what I mean when I say he bruises easily so here are some photos of his colorful skin. He looks more like a leopard than a boy with all his spots. He is bruising so easily that just touching him is practically causing a bruise! It's a good thing that these don't hurt. He looks terrible but feels great so I'm okay with that.

Lots Of Bruises

Logan gave more blood today for a CBC and we'll get the results tomorrow morning. Right now he has many, many bruises all over his body and we're very worried (because he's so darn active) that he's going to start bleeding and not be able to stop. He's still eating like crazy and has WAY to much energy (for his mom and dad's peace of mind). No fevers so far! HIP HIP HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hanging In There

Logan is still doing good. Eric is a nervous mother hen checking him for fevers every couple of hours so so far he's been cool as a cucumber. I feel like we're living on borrowed time waiting for the other shoe to drop but the plus side is that MY nervous habit is cleaning so my house is sparkling! : )

I also wanted to let family members know that Eric and I have decided to stay in Wichita this Thanksgiving. We're sad to be missing the traditional family meals, but with Logan's underlying health concerns we feel it's best to wait until he's all done with chemo before exposing him to possible germs. We're in the home stretch now! We are planing on making an extended visit in December for Christmas. Thank you all for understanding.

Adventure In Our Own Yard

What WONDERFUL weather we've been having! We've been playing outside as much as possible this week and today the kids were creating their own games and I just HAD to take some video to share. They decided to do some rock climbing with a tie down strap they found in the garage. The hooked it to their dad's BRAND NEW car : ) (good thing it's a company car!)


Only Amanda could go rock climbing in high healed shoes. My little girl loves to play outside and get dirty, she just wants to play with style!

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Then one more video from this weekend... we had the BIGGEST pile of leaves EVER then once we were all done playing, Eric and the kids moved the piles (one wheelbarrow ride at a time) to the garden where we chopped them up for mulch.

Here are the kids "helping dad" by holding the leaves down as he pushes the wheel barrow to the garden. You don't see this kind of selfless servitude these days!

I think the dogs had as much fun as the kids did! Amanda had a ball burying Casey in the pile.Logan is trying to make a leaf cave by excavating. As you can imagine, his plan was short lived. After that he decided to build leaf walls... much more stable (until the dogs jumped into the pile!). : )
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And more blood counts from Wednesday... Hemoglobin is up from Wednesday but the others are falling... who knows!

White Blood Cells = .5
Hemoglobin = 9.6
Platelets = 31
Absolute Neutrophils = .3

Wednesday Blood Counts

White Blood Cells = .9

Hemoglobin = 8.1

Platelets = 120

Absolute Neutrophils Count = .765



So, what does this mean? He's slightly neutropenic (can't fight bacterial infections), doesn't need a blood transfusion yet, and is able to clot blood should he get a cut. His white blood cells and neutrophils have both come up from Monday so good news for us. : ) We were told by his doctor that this type of treatment tends to cause the blood counts to jump up and down... Let's hope he's on the up and that the down doesn't go too low.

Getting Low

Logan had another CBC yesterday and we got the results today. His white blood cells are getting low... right now they are at .7 but no blood transfusion just yet with his Hemoglobin at 8.9. Platelets are doing good at 168, but his Absolute Neutrophils are at .29 (very low!), so we're being doubly conscious of germs and watching for fevers.

He is still doing well with a normal energy level and above average appetite. Tomorrow is another leg shot then we're done with this round of chemo. I talked with Amanda's preschool teacher today and there are numerous kids (about a quarter of the class) out sick with at least one confirmed H1N1 case. I'm SO thankful that we pulled her out of school last month!

Our Happy Halloween

Hope you and your family had a wonderful Halloween. This is a much anticipated holiday in the Neal home and the kids were ready a little early so we played in our costumes in the backyard to kill some time. Here's the whole clan ready for trick or treating.

Sadly, this year everyone couldn't agree (and by everyone, I mean Logan and Amanda... Eric and I aren't that picky) on what they wanted to dress up as so we didn't have a family theme this year. But it was a lot of fun seeing what creative things everyone came up with all by themselves!

Logan wanted to be a ninja. Here he is showing you some of his moves.

Amanda, who is REALLY into horses this year, wanted to be a horse rider from her FAVORITE TV program, Horse Riders! Her outfit included Logan's bicycle helmet covered in black fabric, black goo goo boots (that we had previously bought from a consignment sale earlier this year) and a 5 dollar stick horse form Dollar General.

Here are my two cuties taking turns on the tire swing. Don't worry, we didn't send Logan out trick or treating without shoes. He found some water shoes that he thought looked like something a ninja would ware right before we left.

And my adorable husband! He came up with this about 2:00 this afternoon. An ashamed Chiefs fan!

By the way... I was a witch if you couldn't tell from the photo : ) As Lucy from Charlie brown says's "A person should choose a costume that is in direct contrast to her personality." (hee hee)

And speaking of Charlie Brown. I SOOOO wanted us to go as the Charlie Brown clan since Logan has the bald head but all I could manage was him dressing up for 10 seconds while I took a photo.