Answers Please

Grant had his regular clinic visit today. He got vincristine in his port and started his steroids tonight. His counts had come up quite a bit, but Dr. Heym still did not increase his at-home chemo all the way back up. He's being cautious and we go back in 2 weeks to check counts again. If his counts are still up, he will go back to taking the full doses he was before his counts dropped. That will be the day before school starts. Yes, I'm nervous.

Grant has also been battling a rash off and on for the last 4 months. Dr. Heym has not had many answers, but today Rudy instructed me not to leave without one, so we didn't. :) Dr. Heym had some guesses, but he wasn't willing to give me the sure answer I was looking for....and a solution. So, he referred us to a dermatologist, who got us in today. (B/c I couldn't go home without an answer and I think Dr. Heym is a little scared of Rudy.) :) After being at the dermatologist's office for almost 2 hours, they diagnosed something. I still don't get it and they sent home pages of information for us to read. Basically, it is something that adults usually get, but it has shown up (VERY RARELY) in kids that are being treated for ALL. Also, it is usually on the face and scalp, but can show up (VERY RARELY) on the extremities. Grant's rash has spread to his stomach, arm and leg. It seems that with Grant we can just skip over the "common side effects" column i.e. nausea or constipation. Those are not his problems. We can just jump right to the VERY RARE column i.e. crazy rash and stroke-like episode. We are now applying a cream to his whole body before bed that he has to wash off each morning. We do this for 5 days and then 2-3 times a week until we see the dermatologist again in 4 weeks. Please pray that this works and Grant does not have to deal with this rash any longer.

Grant was a champ at both Dr.'s offices today. He is a real trooper. We capped off the day with t-ball tryouts this evening in 107 degree heat. It was a great ending to an otherwise so-so day.