Back to School!

I promise I didn't force him to go, he just doesn't want to smile!


Tommy was able to go to school twice last week. Wednesday, he woke up at 6am ready to go to school, unfortunately school doesn't start until 11 so that made a long morning. When I dropped him off, the teachers were all so excited to see Tommy. They made sure the school was sanitized and that all the kids would sanitize their hands too. I talked to his teacher about everything, and she actually went through cancer too, so she is well aware of how careful you need to be with kids and germs. He went right into singing time with his friends and sat between his 2 buddies who also had their heads shaved. They both looked at him and had to do a double-take, they said "hey Tomy" and gave him a big hug! It was so good to see him enjoying himself, and being a normal kid again. He sat and sang the songs with the kids, had a big smile on his face. I was really nervous to leave him, it was like the first day of school all over again, only worse! They assured me everything would be fine, and they'd call me if anything happened or if he was too tired to stay. When I picked him up he was so happy, he had a big smile on his face. Miss Maria said Tommy fell asleep so they let him take a little nap, and all the little boys and girls whispered while he slept. How sweet is that? He was exhausted when he got home, ate lunch and then slept for a few hours. He went back on friday, and had a great time. He took another nap, so next time he goes to school I think I will send him with a pillow and his blankie. I'm sure there won't be a ton of days in the next 6 months or so that he will be able to go to school, so we are going to enjoy the ones we have. He was so happy to be able to get out of the house and play with his friends. A couple of the kids said,"That's not Tommy, he's a different Tommy". Tommy came home and told me that, he didn't understand why they would think he was a different Tommy. It was hard to see him affected by what the kids were saying, usually he doesn't care. He doesn't know how different he looks with all the weight he has gained, which is good. So I just told him it's because you don't have any hair, and he was ok with that.
So we are off of the steroids, yeah!!! So we are slowly seeing the "roid rage" disappear, and the appetite is still there, but will slowly taper off in the next couple weeks. His legs should start to regain their strength, the headaches should go away, and we don't have to take those darn pills every morning and night. So Tommy couldn't be happier that we are done with steroids, for now. They will reintroduce them in the 3rd phase of treatement for a couple weeks.
Last thursday they did what is called a "minimal residual" test, which detects if there is any leukemia left in his blood. They send this one to Seattle where they have way high-tech machines that can detect even the slightest amout left in his blood. We should get the results back before thursday. If there is less than .1% Leukemic cells left they will place Tommy in the "standard risk" group, and he will get standard, possibly slightly augmented treatment from here on out. If it is greater than .1% then he will be placed in the "high-risk" group and his treatement will be a lot more intense, and the cure rate goes down for the "high-risk" patients. Most of their patients are in the "standard" group, so we are PRAYING that he will make into that category! We will let you know when we find out. Also, thursday if he is placed in the standard group, we go on to the next phase of treatment which is called the consolidation phase, and get a whole new roadmap of the next month to two months. If the leukemia is still there, they continue with the induction phase, which is what we have been in this month, until they get rid of all that cancer. Good times!
This week we are enjoying having his ANC up to 3000, which is almost normal. So Tommy has been able to play with friends and cousins this week and has loved it! He has laughed and smiled a lot more this week too. It is so great to see him feeling and acting a little more like my little Tommy. And I have to admit, it is so nice to have a little bit of normalcy back into our lives, for now anyway. The doctors said it won't get easier for a long time, unfortunately, and his counts will probably fall all the way back to 100 this month. We are still practicing good hand-washing and careful of where he goes. For now, he is pretty healthy and we celebrate his good days. If you look at the whole picture and think that we have to fight this for 3 years, it gets quite overwhelming, so we take it one day at a time. Please keep Tommy in your prayers! This fight isn't over, it's only just begun. Thank you all, we love you and are so immensely grateful for what you have done for our little family.
BTW do you like the background, Tommy picked it. He thinks it's "Awesome!"