Cycle 3, Day +15: Farewell to some friends

Some of our friends, our bald buddies, the brave little kids fighting catastrophic diseases that we've grown to know and love and who've been by our sides while we've been in Memphis are beginning to go home.

We met a 4-month old boy named Carter who has leukemia when we were staying at Ronald McDonald House in October. Steven adores Carter and Carter always has a smile for Steven, even when he's waking up from sedation for his various procedures.

Carter was at Target House when we moved in in January. He's 9 months old now and just finished his treatments, and flew back home today. Incredibly, Carter has spent 2/3 of his life so far at St. Jude, we'll miss him.

Tyler, a 10-year old boy with medulloblastoma, a similar tumor to Steven's and who is enrolled in the same trial, is going back to his home in Georgia next Wednesday.

Steven is doing well, to us it seems he's not bouncing back as well this cycle as he did previously. His appetite hasn't recovered as well, his tastes are all out of whack, he's got some intermittent nausea still, he's been wheezing a little this last week (although that's probably the Memphis springtime allergies).

Despite this, his blood counts are recovering nicely. His blood counts were 100 on Monday, 400 on Tuesday, 1500 on Wednesday, 4800 on Thursday, and we don't have Friday's results yet.

We haven't had a chance yet to meet with Steven's neuro-oncologist to discuss his hearing loss, but we've corresponded by email and through his nurse, and he's recommending we go ahead with the full dose of chemo for Steven's next cycle. This is probably what we will do, but we are still considering our options.

Steven's spirits are good. We're looking forward to finishing Steven's last cycle of chemo, I think we're all getting tired.

-Kathleen