Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Wednesday, July 23, 2003 10:22 AM CDT

Luke here. Very little to report. We are in the slow period following chemo and with little planned as far as procedures or tests between these cycles. As Susan's last post indicated, Nathan's counts were still good on Monday and we will be going back on Thursday for counts and expecting transfusions on Friday. There are telltale sings now that his counts are falling. His nose is starting to seep some blood which likely means his platelets are falling. His spirts remain good. He is, as Susan put it, "a little green" in the morning. We give him his anti-nausea meds before he gets out of bed and he hasn't had any serious vomitting this week. He is eating okay. Sometimes he gorges on a big meal, other times he seems to have no appetite. We are hoping to keep his weight and nutrition up so we don't have to put him on supplemental nutrition. He had lost more weight than we had expected before Monday, but I think he will hopefully hold even now and start to creep back up. He has been playing hard with quite a bit of energy which is both good and bad. It is great that he can forget about all the stuff going on and play all out, but I think he gets over tired doing so with his body being beat up by the chemo drugs. He gets very cranky in his down times. All in all he continues to do great though. We'll let everyone know how his counts are tomorrow.

Thanks for continuing to visit the journal. We often check the counter on the page. It is interesting how closely people are following. There was an explosion of hits around the time of start of chemo and his surgical consult. I'm often surprised at how many people check the journal and how often they do so. Please continue to sign the guest book from time to time. I still check it almost every day and I know Susan does too. Knowing you are visiting and reading your words of encouragement are very important to us.