Down with the Count!

Ah yes, remember how I said we were waiting for the downward spiral of counts?

Today, Sam is neutropenic, he has a very low ANC. (Actually, it's a little funny that we "cheer" for an ANC of about 180 today and we will again cheer for it in about 15 days...the weird things that bring us joy. You'll note that we are only "cheering" now (in quotes) because who really wants to be happy about downward numbers. But in reality....whatever it's supposed to be doing is what we're cheering for. Even if we know it is yucky. Because it's all a part of the journey. Or so they say.)

I wasn't sure what today would be like. Sam woke up a little bit grumpy, but he actually perked up by an early (9ish) visit from the hospital teacher. Yes, there's a teacher who makes room-calls. She visits us for about 30 minutes a day - which certainly wouldn't be enough if we didn't have work and such from our school. The poor woman also doesn't speak Spanish, so she blanched a little at the thought of Sam's math book, which is all in Spanish. Luckily, she knows first grade math (whew) and she and Sam had a good time working through some iPad games that she showed him.

There were some good moments in today - I showed Sam a few stop-motion videos and we decided to make a couple of our own. That kept us busy most of the morning.

Creating a background for one of our videos.

Then a FaceTime chat with some friends at school gave Sam a big pick-me-up. He loved seeing his friends, who read him stories in Spanish, and then he read a book back to them. It was probably one of the highlights of the week! (Thanks, Rosie, Nick and Ms. F!)

The afternoon turned cranky. One of the signs of low hemoglobin is crabbiness and WHEW did it set in. We are planning for a blood transfusion in the morning. But on the upside, he held down all his food...

Our night ended by watching the President on television. Sam said, "wow, he and his family look just like they do in the picture they sent me." Yes, Sam, they do. How many kids can say that!?