December Health Jounal 20006

Dec. 10th was the annual light a candle hour across the world for CandleLighters. We light a candle for those children we've lost and those who have suffered. I'd like everyone to take a moment of thought for the family of Holly Bashor. Last night Holly was lost to Leukemia. Eugene lost a vibrant teenager to this dreadful problem. Please keep her family in your thoughts as they deal with this loss!!!!!!

Everything loods good. Xander is in good health and spirits.

Xander had a great Christmas. He is feeling good, even after Chemo yesterday. All of his blood counts looked great. They will do a little drop over the next week and a half, but should not drop enough to be a big issue. His Christmas we also good. We spent the day with his grandparents on my side (mom). It was a low key day. They are both very laid back so the Holiday stress people usualy get at Christmas just wasn't there. Xander delivered all the presents this year, and everyone had fun.

Xander is doing great!! He is so excited about Christmas. The tree is going up in the morning, and most of the presents are ready to go under. Thank you for those of you sending Xander Christmas cards. He so enjoys getting the mail.

The Candlelighter Christmas party was today. Santa brought Xander two toys from his favorite cartoon series, and he is delighted. The older three kids received gift cards to places they enjoy shopping. The kids were told a special elf had wanted to give the "cancer" kids a extra special gift so he and his helper elves had been very busy. Xander received from this "elf" a game cube and a game from the same tv series as his toys. Xander as you can imagine was estatic. He knows there is no way we could afford a game cube. He told me later that the people passing out the special gifts didn't look much like elves. He thinks they only said that to keep with the "theme" and that some nice person donated the special toys. Of course Santa is another story. He was real!!!!! What a cute kid!!!!

Everyone is slowly feeling better. Xander is still free of this nasty bug. I hope he stays that way.

Xander is dong pretty good. The rest of the famly is another question. We have all had a bug come through. This little gem included coughing, sore throat, nasal congestion, fever, boddy ache.... I'm fighting to get over it, Nichole had it, Chairssa has the works with fever, Dad is in the middle, and the Boys haven't gotten it yet. This one could be a real problem for Xander if he gets it, but we are working hard to prevent that.

Xander spent last night throwing up. It wasn't TO bad, but probably just more chemo nausea. Doernbecher wasn't worried. Other then that he was wonderful today. I kept him out of karate just in case the nausea was a virus going around. I would rather let his imune system have a couple of days before he starts more hands on contact with other kids. The Dojo has a giant container of germ-x by the door. Both Xander and I use it often. When he isn't well his only karate partner is myself to limit germ contact. He still has other partners for games and plenty of other kid contact. He just isn't touching their hands and faces for extended periods.

Xander is back. He has no fever, and is feeling almost perky. We received a phone call from Doernbecher this morning asking how he was. After getting the report the said I could deaccess his port at home, and not see his local pediatrician. The blood cultures were negative in the preliminary report so every one's opinion is that he just had a virus.

Dec. 3rd. What was Xander relaxing and doing great turned into Xander staying flat on the couch all day wrapped in a blanket. For those of us who know this little guy that is odd. We at first put it down to chemo fatigue, but it became obvious that its not. Late afternoon brought a fever of 101.4, and Doernbecher ordered us to ER for blood counts, blood cultures, and a DR evaluation. We drove there in a car with absolulty no heat (not a choice the van just doesn't have heat) by the time we got there the fever was much reduced, but the underlying cause could still bring it back. Xander was also comblaining about a headache and neck ache. Neither is related to a spinal headache, but could be a result of the fever or infection tha caused the fever. Inicially his blood counts came back with a ANC of 1060 wich is great (anc represents a percent showing how all types of white blood cells are doing. Under 400 is a automatic hospital stay, under 6 to 7 hundred means no public contact.) Xander had about 1300 when in Portland on Thursday, but 1060 is still solid. Unfortunatly when the Doernbecher Dr looked at these scores, he noticed that one of Xander's Nuetraphile counts was very elevated. This count affects the total score, but it shows sign of infection in Xander. If effect it artificialy elevates the ANC but is a negative sign. Xander was given antibiotics through his port, and sent home with his port accessed. Tomorrow he will go to see he Pediatrician. They will check his temp., evaluate his lethargy and fatigue, and check with the lab as the the results of Xander's blood cultures. He most likely will recieve the same antibiotics as last time, have his port deaccesed, and come home. There is always a chance when we go to a apt that we will ambulance to Portland. At every ER visit and DR visit we pack for several days just in case. The first time we didn't and stayed for 5 days in the hospital. I don't think that will happen tomorrow, but I'll post back when we know more.

Xander is doing great! The nausea was just chemo induced nausea. I'll have him take antinausea meds. after his next spinal chemo. He felt well enough to take his karate test yesterday, and although we don't get official results until Tuesday we know he passed with flying colors.

Dec. 1st

Xander spent last night throwing up. We are very worried about a spinal headache. Usually he doesn't have chemo induced nausea with the meds he received at Doernbecher. We are crossing our fingers on this because a spinal headache is nasty.

Nov. 30th.

Chemo seemed to go well today. If Xander is going to have a spinal headache it might not show up for a couple of days so we will watch close. His blood counts are outstanding, and he lost 5 lbs so he didn't need to increase his med. dose. His weight is more normal for him now. His spinal was more painful today then in the past, but Nurse Heidi talked game systems with him for the entire procedure, and he only winced without stopping the endless chatter. Not only did Aunie (my mom) come, but his grandparents on his dad's side as well. That ment Xander spend the min. up until the procedure playing conect 4 with grampy, and he sent Heidi off to collect Grampy as soon as the procedure was over so he could play more while waiting his half an hour before sitting up.

The other highlight of today was meeting Gage and his mother Lauren. Xander said Lauren was boring, but then she was a mom so it was ok. Gage on the other hand hit it off right away with Xander. If you look under Xander's buddies page you will find Gage. This little angel has spent nearly the entire month of Nov. inpatient at Doernbecher waiting for his counts to go up. When they finally do he gets to joy of having a bone marrow transfusion. ( a nasty and harsh procedure, but critical ) I have to tell you I felt like I have known Lauren my whole life. I think it was our common history with the boys health, but she is GREAT!!! Xander seemed to feel the same about Gage. They started off talking cartoons, and have all the same favorites. We are heading up to visit Gage again next Friday. I hope they have gone home by then, but this is cancer and you just don't know. If you get a chance head to Gage's web site and have a look at another life struck by cancer and a little soul who should be your HERO!!!