7 LONELY PLATELETS

Today is Friday and we were really hoping we would get to go inpatient today to get Caleb’s last round of high dose chemo. However, the bad news is his numbers weren’t quite high enough to get admitted today. His platelets specifically held him back, at a count of 43 when they have to be over 50. The good news is all of his other numbers were strong and his energy has been great. His ANC is back up so we feel comfortable going out and doing some fun activities over the weekend.

We have spent the last couple days playing and having fun with Grandpa and Grebbie! They have played games, attended appointments, and helped with dropping Tyler off at summer camp. The kids love it when they are in town!!!

Caleb had a checkup for his hearing again as well. He is still doing great with his hearing aids and they were just getting a new reading on his hearing levels to give to the ENT for an upcoming appointment. There has been some build up of negative pressure in his right ear. We have been watching it for a while and I was told it probably won’t get better, but may only get worse. So we are going to meet with the ENT again and decide if we are going to put a tube in his ear before we leave to go back home. Build up of negative pressure over time could cause his ear drum to rupture and that would be way worse than the procedure of having a tube inserted and relieving that pressure. So, we will think about maybe going ahead with that procedure. But Caleb never minds a hearing test. He loves his audiologist Ms. Skye, and loves the games he gets to play in the booth. He’d go to a hearing test every day if he could ha ha!

Tyler has been going to summer camp all week and LOVES it! Every week of summer camp has a theme and this week has been performing arts week. He has made puppets, musical instruments, and a lot of art. They also have “water wednesdays” and “field trip Fridays”. So today they all went to the movies to see Secret Life of Pets 2. He loved it and I’m so thankful again for his school providing him fun, learning, friends, and a normal schedule so he doesn’t feel shuffled around in the middle of all of Caleb’s appointments. AND Tyler had a huge milestone this week when he lost his first tooth!!! I can’t believe we are already at that stage… I have a kid going into Kindergarten and losing teeth. Time slow down!!! But we had fun with the tooth fairy visit… he received some dollar bills and some “superhero coins”. He woke up at 5am to see if the tooth fairy came and was too excited to even go back to sleep. Other than the waking me up at 5am part, it was definitely a fun memory!

Last but not least we had a very special visitor today. Our Wealth Management Advisor, but most importantly family friend, was in Memphis on business and stopped by to say hi and see Caleb. He brought the boys a basketball and Caleb loved it! He played the entire time! And he also brought a special donation from Jim Meeks and the Memphis and Arkansas Network Office for St. Jude in honor of Caleb. We are so touched by people’s generosity and Caleb was excited to give the check to St. Jude! And also he LOVED playing with his buddy Cedric!

We are going to enjoy our weekend and feel confident that Caleb will be admitted on Tuesday for his chemo. I think we are so used to delays at this point that we weren’t even that disappointed today. This whole experience is the ultimate test of “just take what life throws at you”, so nothing surprises us anymore. We will have a great weekend and move on with Cycle 5 next week!