More of the same....

Grant is doing so well with treatment. He had his regular monthly clinic visit yesterday. The biggest problem we are having is keeping his counts DOWN. The treatment is calculated to keep his counts suppressed but not bottomed out. This range is somewhere between 750-1500. Grant's counts have been consistently over 2000 for the last several months. We have increased chemo every month in an attempt to hit that target range. So, it was increased again this month. Apparently, he is just able to process and digest the medication well. Just to give you an idea, he is now taking 9 pills of the chemo he takes once a week and that is just one of the medications he takes. But, when he had to take them last night (all at the same time), and I commented on how many it was, he said, "They don't even cover my tongue Mom." What a champ!

Also, I have to praise him for how brave he was yesterday. There was a new nurse at the clinic, which makes me nervous. And, Grant has to sit on the bed by himself now b/c he is too big for my lap, so we sit beside each other. The nurse counted to 3 and went to poke him and missed his port. Grant was sitting so still and patient. She had to take it out and poke him again. Then, she kept pushing really hard for some reason. Grant very calmly asked, "Why are you pushing so much?" I thought it was a very good question. I don't have a lot of patience for people hurting my child, so I was trying not to look. Grant handled it much better than I wanted to. When I was praying for him last night, I thanked God for sitting on that bed with us and helping Grant to be brave. Grant verbally agreed with a "yeah, yeah" during my prayer and has commented on it several times since. He trusts his God!

The only side effect he is experiencing is some stomach cramping periodically. His least favorite thing is having to miss school for appointments. School gets out at 2:45 and I picked him up at 2:15 yesterday and he was upset. We go back in 4 weeks....