Back in the hospital

Well, we skipped Mother's Day weekend only to land in the hospital 10 days later. Alex had a neutrophil count of 54 on Tuesday, so when he finally went over 101 on Wednesday afternoon, the clinic just sent us straight to the floor. His neutrophil count was 0 and it's still 0 today. So he'll probably be in until at least Saturday if not longer.

Frustrated

It's been a bit hair-raising here in central Oklahoma the last few days. Thankfully all of our family has come through OK. The devastation in Moore and Shawnee just breaks my heart. I see lots of folks asking "why were the kids in school? why don't they have basements?" etc etc. You don't see the northern states canceling school every time there is a possibility of snow, do you? This tornado in Moore went from absolutely nothing to an EF4 in a matter of less than 30 minutes. The one the day before went from initial firing to significant tornado activity in under an hour. As for basements-you can thank a high water table and  clay soils for that. I remember Grandma's basement in western Oklahoma filling semi-regularly with water to some degree or another. Now with that said, I do believe they need safe rooms in these new buildings. I'm still ticked off that the builder talked us out of putting one in our home because "it would involve outside contractors" and we didn't have the money to pay for it up front. 

Now for the real reason you're here.  We saw Alex's oncologist today. On the upside, the tumors have shrunk even more. On the downside, his neutrophil count was 54 (under 500 is SEVERELY immune compromised), the surgeon is out of town next week and we aren't even scheduled to see him until June 3 and the surgery is tentatively scheduled for June 18. I'm not happy about this four week wait. I know we need his immune system back to somewhat normal before surgery so he'll heal, but I'm concerned about this whole immune system bounceback/tumor regrowth dance we're gonna have to do. The oncologist actually mentioned more chemo to buy time, yet I don't get how that could be useful since it will just wipe out his immune system again!!

Happy Mother's Day to MEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alex WAS NOT in the hospital this past week. We broke the every 3 week cycle. Whew. He ran a low grade temp at times this weekend, but never high enough to have to go in.

He has now finished the 12 weeks of pre-operative chemo and is scheduled for an MRI on Friday. We will then meet with the oncologist a week from tomorrow to get the results and the plan for surgery. The PA was putting him on the surgical schedule when we left last week so that we won't have to wait as long once his scans are done. That's everything I know at this point. Everything after surgery will depend on how the pathology comes out.