Counts bottoming out...Spirits soaring

This time of Sam's month scares me except when I see my six year old bouncing around the room as if having a compromised immune system was completely normal. Numbers mean nothing to him this month. His care and his response to his care have been so exceptional that you almost forget what the chemo has done to his immune system.

The C.diff is slowly but surely leaving his system and allowing him time away from his best friend john. He is eating pretty well even if he can't find hospital food he likes. He had delicious vanilla egg challah from Breadsmith all day and loved it. For dinner he ate the last serving of his Mom's famous Mac-n-cheese.

Just before lunch Sam had a surprise guest straight from an hour-long shower to wash the grunge of six weeks of Olin Sang Ruby Union Institute off of his body. When David walked in Sam let out a huge shout of joy, love and wonder at seeing his brother. Sam showed David his new room, the new pictures and some of his new stuff.

Both brothers loved being in the same space after the longest separation in their lives.

In the afternoon our friend Ami visited. Sam and Ami played Wii Fit Plus for over an hour. Sam showed her the bubble game he had perfected, snow ball fight and penguin fishing. When Ami was starving and had to go Sam had no idea why I was turning it off or why he was throwing a tantrum trying to convince me he wasn't hungry or thirsty. "Um... Sam, you've been exercising for an hour. If you eat something you might just stop yelling at me." One sugar crash later Sam was back to his sweet self.

Together we did some sticker projects decorating robots in need of some bling. We colored. We played some of the new iPad apps we downloaded. We watched a movie after Sam's bath and dressing change. We colored his Jungle Felt poster and yelled for joy when cousin Dan arrived. Dan and Sam finished coloring the poster as Sam told Dan all about his amazing day.

Hearing Sam tell it you would never know he was a kid with a white blood cell count of .9, a red blood cell count of 3.65 and a platelet count of 9. He was a happy beast all day in attitude, humor, stories, questions, teasing his nurses and regaling them with tales of wonder. He never stopped up until the moment I turned the lights off at 9:30. He talked up to the final minute and then was out like the light, quiet and resting at last.

I am most blessed with days like these. I am grateful for all the medical staff is doing to keep Sam at these levels even at his worst. I am thankful that Sam his owning his existence and doing his best to stay positive despite all that is happening. And my gratitude is endless for everyone who is praying and keeping us in their thoughts. I know Sam is having a great go of it because all our prayers are working and because he is truly a man of steel and one of the strongest men in the world. He teaches me about life everyday and makes me pray that I can be that strong someday too.