After 19 of the past 20 days being spent in the hospital, he's home! We got the thumbs up from the doctor Tuesday morning, packed up our stuff and made it out of there by noon. That was the miracle---out by noon. William was still neutropenic, but the morning labs revealed his white blood cell count finally starting to recover.
Thursday labs showed a fully recovered ANC and all related blood counts. Whew. We celebrated by heading straight to Target to buy William's Halloween costume. I bought the other boy's costumes the day before, but William was left behind since we didn't know if his counts were high enough to go into a store. The boys are all super excited and I'm a bit bummed because I love planning and making their costumes. But we are trying to make life simple and I probably spent as much money on costumes as I would have on fabric with only a fraction of the time required. I'm moving on.
The hair is falling out. A gradual thinning is how I would describe the course of his hair loss over the last few days. This morning the course changed. William woke up and hollered, "Where is the lint roller? I'm all itchy with hair all over me!" A balding spot in the back has emerged and I'm trying desperately not to touch it too much. Clark, my new 8 year old, is getting baptized tomorrow night and I really want a nice picture of them in their suit coats, both with hair. William won't be bathing in the morning in my effort to preserve the hair. Otherwise, I probably would have shaved it off today. Perhaps Sunday night I will.
Three days back at school is in the plan for next week. Then he goes back into the hospital on Thursday to begin round 2 of chemotherapy. He is excited to return to his class and I sense the feeling is mutual with all his classmates and friends. I'm guessing his new wheelchair will be more popularity than self-consciousness. Friday was supposed to mark his return to school, but Soren had a preschool field trip to a local pumpkin farm and I opted to have William tag along. William will be in the hospital for Halloween, again, and missed out on that stuff last year. I decided the pumpkin farm and the memories of that day were more important than school. Having gone through this before, this time we are focusing more on the quality of his life. We understand the cycles, routines, risks, etc., and are trying to make this all less devastating.
glad to hear that william gets to be back in school and that he's doing some halloween stuff. loves to you all. thank you thank you for the updates!
ReplyDeleteJulie,
ReplyDeleteThis is Becky (Jackson) Smith (BYU Track team). I got your blog info from Dixie--I hope you don't mind. I have been following for a little while. I was so saddened to hear about William, and especially the fact that cancer is back. I want you to know that i have been praying for your family. I have been so impressed with the perspective and faith you have maintained during this ordeal. It really puts things into perspective for me and makes me realize that the things I complain about are so petty. I wish you all the best in the latest challenges with William's cancer. I will keep praying for you! Also, here's my blog address if you ever want to see what we've been up to. I haven't updated it for about a month--too busy--but I hope to soon. Once again, I am deeply sorry for all your family has suffered through, it breaks my heart! Hang in there!
It's great that Will gets to be home, back in school, and participating in Halloween activites at school, at leawst for a few days. Is there a Halloween theme with the costumes this year? Can't wait for pictures, of course. From our conversation with Clark last night, I know there were haircuts. Can't wait for those pictures too. Love to you all--
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