Bumps not Welcome

Pablo's counts are creeping up! That's the good news. He still does not have an ANC, but his counts are on the rise. We will come home tomorrow and continue with his daily neupogen shots until Monday and do his IV antibiotics for nine more days. Pablo's platelets and hemoglobin were low, so he got both transfusions today. Gotta love the directed donors! Today, he received Brian's platelets and Sharla's red blood. It's so nice to know that he walks through life with a little bit of all the wonderful people that come in and donate for him. We are so grateful. He gets a kick out of it now, too. He wants to look at the bag and see the numbers and then asks, "Who is that?" He always smiles and says, "That's good." As soon as the platelets were done this morning, his energy level picked up. He ran down to the playroom and asked me for a hot cocoa from Starbucks. When I returned he came back to the room with four Mr. Potato heads and some miscellaneous parts... enough entertainment to take him through lunch.

Dr. M rounded today which was awesome. We love seeing him when we are there. We are predicting a delay for chemo, but probably not a full week. On Monday, we have to go in for the radioactive GFR kidney test. This test's results give Dr. M the formula for our next round of chemo... Carboplatin to be exact. This will be our fourth and possibly final GFR. That's another thing Dr. M spoke to me about today. 

As I requested, he spoke with all of his colleagues about the additional round of chemo that I have been bringing up in every meeting. He holds his position and has an army of amazing minds (like his) standing behind him saying that it is NOT necessary. They all feel like Pablo will have received ENOUGH chemo after this next round. He even said that if we wanted to stop now, he wouldn't put up much of a fight, but that we should complete our original road map which will end after this next round of chemo. This is hard for me, but as he also said, if we were just going to follow a straight protocol without modifications, then we could be anywhere without an oncologist. His job is to give Pablo his best plan and he has done that. As all of you know, we love our onc... really love him, like LOVE LOVE him... and we trust him and we believe that he is caring for our son and all of us, really, like we were part of his immediate family. He treats ALL of his patients like that, and we feel fortunate to have him on our team. 

With that said, Jeff and I need to go over all of this and make our final, no looking back, no regrets decision. It's time to turn it all over, people! To PABLO, to Dr. M, to the Universe and to God! All of them need to do their jobs and we need to accept our fate. We continue to have faith, hope and optimism. Pablo is ready to be done with all of this. His bumps are gone and they are not welcome to come back EVER. So, here we are today.

We continue to walk with gratitude and love for all of you through each and every day. Today is a good day.

love,
Jo Ann