I love this picture of Tanner. I think she looks so at peace with who she is.

November 12, 2009 Today was our fastest clinic day ever, which seemed only fair since last week was our longest! Tanner’s counts had dropped, but not terribly. Her neutraphils were down to 900 from 1,100 last Friday, which means she is neutrapenic, but is still so much better than I expected. The chemo takes 7-10 days to drop counts and we started back on the at-home IV ARA-C chemo today, so the doctor warned us that in the next couple of weeks, we should expect to see those counts go down significantly. We will administer the ARA-C at home for the next 3 days and she will continue to take the oral 6-TG until next Friday. The next two weeks, we just go in for counts and to be sure she doesn’t need a transfusion. If her neutraphils are back up to 1,000 at week 3, we will start Long Term Maintenance on Dec. 4. Unbelievable!

The doctor said we will need a couple of months of maintenance under our belts for her to be cleared to return to school. Tanner reminded him that we also couldn’t go back if flu season was bad (she really did!). So, maybe February… that would be such a gift.

After clinic, we went for shrimp scampi at Captain D’s (Have I mentioned her recent obsession with shrimp? It was pizza for a while, now shrimp and I think we might be moving on to chicken noodle soup!) and stopped by John’s office so a few co-workers/friends from out of town could come down and give her a hug. Then, we went to pick up Jake at Aunt Beth’s house. On the way home, she fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep for a while after we got home. She had a playdate with Corinne and Laurel and was tired again at bedtime. Maybe yesterday wore her out!

Anyway, it was a good day and a good clinic visit. Jake continues his cold and I continue to be terrified that Tanner will catch it. Have you ever tried to keep a two-year-old from spreading his germs? Impossible.

Thanks for all the love and support coming our way. We are carried by the love, prayers, good wishes and acts of kindness of friends and family. People never seize to amaze me. Last week, I looked out the window to find my neighbor blowing the leaves off of the front lawn. When he was finished, I went out to thank him and give him a hug. He is a cancer survivor himself and while we embraced he said simply, “I just want to do something to help.” I don’t even know what to say about this and the countless other kindnesses that have come our way. Thank you doesn’t seem like enough.

Love,
Beth