A long day at the hospital

Lucas's platelets was very low -- 10. So he had platelets transfusion today. And since today he is due for Peg-Asp, the chemo that tend to have most allergic reactions, he had to wait one hour in-between and stay one extra hour afterwards to be observed. Despite the fact that we spent 9am-5pm in the chemo clinic without a nap, Lucas had a pleasant day with good appetite and playing spirits. We watched four movies -- Shrek 4, Little Mermaid 2, Thomas (the one about discovery of the lost town), and Polar express. Lucas didn't really pay attention to the TV much, but he wanted it to be on when he is at the clinic. He had fun playing with clay, he used clay to make hats for everything the volunteer and I made for him--a hat fir each leg if the crab, ect.-- just so you get the idea. He also showed great patience doing the jewel-gluing craft session. I'm really grateful that my two boys still enjoy story-reading, role-playing, coloring and crafts. I will feel sad when they grow up to be only interested in computer games. We made some friends too. A 4-year-old boy named Luke who has T-cell leukemia and 2 months into the treatment. It's hard to believe that we are almost 3 months into it.

It was surprising for me that his platelets are so low. This is a repeat of first four weeks in consolidation and his counts weren't this low before (we are in week 7 of 8 weeks of consolidation). Doctor said that the cumulative effect is working as expected and usually platelets is the last to come back. They wanted him to go have a blood test this Thursday to make sure his platelets isn't dangerously low again. We did go to the clinic last Thursday and he ended up needing blood transfusion. I really hope the counts recover on their own and he wouldn't need any transfusion at least for the next two weeks before he enters Interim Maintenance. Each transfusion has its risk and burden on the liver. We just have to knock on wood everyday that Lucas will be strong enough to handle it all.