Time to reflect

We are so thankful that Logan is responding to treatment so well. It could be so much worse, and we are reminded of that again today. My cousin Rick's wife, Michelle, just passed away last night after a long and hard-fought battle with cancer. It is tough news, and brings forth the harsh reality of this horrible disease. It does not discriminate, it does not judge. It can happen to wonderful people, people with or without families, elderly or children. There is no rhyme or reason, it just does not make sense. All we can ask is that you hold your loved ones tight, take a minute to think about those who are no longer with us, and advocate for a cure.

Here is a picture of Logan eating all of the sausage off of the pizza last night (with the exception of the pieces that were on his sister's portion). He still has that steroid appetite, and puts a smile on our faces at such a hard time.

We also want to thank Jen, Rich, and their family for bringing some clothes over for Logan and also for the lovely card and gift card for dinner. It was great to see you guys, we will have to get together for longer next time.

We took the plunge

Well, it lasted five months with minimal hair loss, but that is over now. After receiving the third dose of Doxorubicin, Logan's hair starting falling out last Saturday. Now, he had a lot of hair to begin with, so he still looked ok this morning. But it was considerably thinner, so we decided to take control. Logan was not super excited, but we shaved what was left of his hair. What he was excited about however, was getting to help shave Daddy's hair. This was really the only incentive he had to cooperate, but as usual he was a trooper. As you can see, he has filled out considerably over the past week due to the steroids and increased appetite. He has been cranky too, so we are glad they are over for now so he can hopefully go back to himself. He is also having some foot pain that we think may be chemotherapy induced neuropathy. It seems to come and go, so hopefully it will not stick around too long. Here is a picture of my handsome men:

Still holding strong

Logan went in for a finger poke today to check his labs before the weekend. His numbers are down a little, but he is still doing pretty well. His ANC is 1000, platelets over 200,000 and hemoglobin 10.4. They think he is doing well, and should pass for chemo next week (hopefully). Though if his numbers are too low for chemo, he should still be pretty good.

On another note, thank you to my doctor (Dr Becker) for taking some extra time with me today. I went in for a check up today, and I had not seen her since Logan's diagnosis. For some reason, I just started crying when she came in. Thankfully, she spent some extra time with me to really listen, even giving me her number if I need anything. She is pretty amazing.

Stay tuned for a surprise this weekend...

Looking better

Well, Logan's numbers have gone up some, though part of that can be attributed to the steroids "falsely" raising them. But they seemed to have a bigger jump than the doctors were expecting, so that is good. His ANC is back up to 1300, and his platelets are 198,000. They do expect them to be lower by Friday, but seem to think they will go up next week as long as he does not get sick. In the meantime, he is staying close to home. Logan has not been feeling great, and he mainly just wants to watch TV. But here is a video of him when he had a burst of energy last week and decided to ride his horse:

And down they go...

Logan has been doing great. He has lots of energy, and has been having plenty of fun. So, I was a little surprised with his numbers today after his finger poke. I know that we are expecting his numbers to go down, and that the steroids were supposedly making them look good last week, but they are down significantly now. His ANC is now 300 (down from 1300 last week, and we are happy with anything over about 750-1000), and he is classified as neutropenic. His platelets are around 38,000 (down from over 500,000 last week). Good news on his hemoglobin is that it actually went up and is 11.4 which is almost in the "normal range." Also, they are not low enough to need any blood products yet. So, this is the drop we have been waiting and preparing for. He really should not go out in public, and needs to avoid anyone who is remotely sick. Logan is at a very high risk of getting sick or an infection. We are on high alert, and this is a time in which he will automatically go to the hospital if he spikes a fever because it can get very serious very quickly. Unfortunately, it cancels plans to go to the indoor pool tomorrow. Oh well, keeping him healthy is much more important. My only problem will be to keep him entertained, because he feels just fine and wants to go out and do fun things and play with all his friends. He does not let anything get him down. In fact, Logan and Alexis decided that we needed to go on a picnic and play at the park on Tuesday. I don't think they noticed that it was snowing the whole time!

A fun night at Hockey Fights Cancer

We had a great time last night with the Craic Addicts enjoying a suite at the Avs game. The kids were so excited about going to see a hockey game, and it just kept getting better. We went from club level tickets to being upgraded to a suite at the last minute. This was pretty fun for us all, but the kids loved having our own little space. Logan was getting pretty into the game, and was cheering and jumping up and down. How he maintained his super high level of energy without getting cranky until 3 hours past his bedtime, I do not know. But he did so well! Both Alexis and Logan are asking when we can go to another game.

I wanted to send out a thanks to Candice and Seth for sending over meatballs for a crockpot meal. That is what's for dinner tonight, we can't wait!

Logan goes tomorrow for a finger poke just to check his counts, and then back on Friday for chemo. Hopefully his counts are good, because the kids really want to go to the pool on Friday morning. Fingers crossed!

A little behind

OK, sorry, but I have not updated this in over a week. We have just been pretty busy with chemo, soccer, grandma and grandpa, and just life in general. Logan has been doing great. He is tolerating the new chemo drug pretty well so far. He did well on his first week of steroids. He was a little grumpy and easy to melt down, but overall did well. Not too many withdrawal symptoms after stopping those. He goes back on the steroids this Friday for another week. So, currently, all is well.

Many thanks that I am late/behind on sending: Thanks to Senora Teresa for bringing dinner about a week and a half ago, Thanks to Pam for bringing dinner on Tuesday, Misty for a gift card for dinner, and my SRE team for giving us a gift card for dinner. Thanks to Donna S. for sending a box of Halloween goodies for the kids. They were really excited to open it. And I will just get a jump on thanks that are in order for tonight. Thanks to Leigh Q for bringing dinner tonight, and to the Craic Addicts for giving us tickets to the Avalanche  hockey game tonight (Look for Logan to be introduced as a Team Hero on the Craic Addicts site today).
Here are some pictures of Logan at the Pumpkin festival on Saturday. He is with Alexis and his friend Weston making masks, and then very excited about his jumbo corndog:

Not so bad

Logan is doing pretty good. After chemo on Friday, he was just a little tired. He did throw up once in the late afternoon, but has not since then. So that is good news. He has been tired and a little easy to melt down, that is in addition to the dark circles under his eyes. He looks pale, but he is still playing and having fun. He played outside today which is good. Logan is still being a typical kid with what he wants to do. Other good news is that he is eating pretty well. That is probably due to the effects of the steroids, but he could use the calories. He is back to not having a spare ounce on his little body. So, we just keep trucking along and go back for chemo on Tuesday. It is one that he has not had since he was in the hospital, and we hope he tolerates it as well as he did the first time.

Next Phase: Delayed Intensification

Today Logan started the next phase in his almost 3.5 years of treatment for his Leukemia. This phase is aptly named Delayed Intensification. Sounds fun, huh? They are actually warning us that this is worse than the first month, and we all remember that that month was rough. So, we start today with chemo in his spinal fluid, one of the same chemos in his port, a new chemo in his port (nicknamed "red death" doesn't that sound awesome?) and he goes back on the steroids (a higher dose than before). The good news is that the steroids are for 7 days, then 7 days off, then another steroids for 7 days. Then he is done with them for this phase. He could probably benefit from an increased appetite for a little while. Logan has lost weight over the past couple of months, that you can actually see the catheter that goes up from his port under the skin. Next week he has chemo on Tuesday, and Friday (none in the spinal fluid, yeah!). After that, he has chemo on the next Friday which is when he starts the second week of steroids. Then he has an off week, and has to pass his counts to start the second half of this phase. We are expecting him to have low counts due to the new medicine, and have planned to keep him more isolated even from daycare. I think he will miss his friends, but will enjoy being home with family including Grandma, Grandpa for a week, myself for a week over fall break, and Nene (and maybe Papa) for a week after that.

Here he is, ready to take on this next phase:

And here is with Iron Man checking in for chemo today:

Humbled

Logan is doing great. He had his heart test last week, and it went well. We are just waiting to go in for a finger poke tomorrow afternoon to see if he passes to start the next phase: Delayed Intensification. Not so excited about this phase, but ready to get it started so we can get through it.

I continue to be humbled by the outpouring of love and support. As I have mentioned before, I have a hard time accepting offers of help. That is my job to offer help and support to others, not the other way around. But, we continue to feel the love. I just wanted to send out a thank you to Rebecca for dropping by some clothes for Logan as well as gifts for both Alexis and Logan. Also a big thanks to Elizabeth for bringing dinner Tuesday evening for our family despite having driven back from an out of state funeral that same day. Amazing. Also thanks to all who are sending positive thoughts, well wishes, prayers, etc our way. It is all greatly appreciated. How can you not smile looking at this face?