Day 289 - Music to our ears

     Yesterday evening Evan and the Hayes Kindergarten classes put on a musical show of popular nursery rhymes.  It was very entertaining and great seeing how excited all the kids were during the performance.  It's memories like this that make parenting so special.  During the show I was beaming with pride for all sorts of reasons and based on conversations Cristy had with the doctors yesterday I'm hopeful that I'll get to attend many more concerts in the future.

Evan and Nolan post concert.

     Thursday morning Cristy took Evan to school as is our normal routine.  She picked him up a little early so that he could get his final dose of chemotherapy for Interim Maintenance.  This being his last session before the Maintenance phase, I had all sorts of questions, but at the root was really just one thought:  Have all these treatments, tests and trials been worth it?  Obviously no doctor can answer that with a yes or no; however, Evan's primary oncologist gave Cristy a response that helped put my mind at ease.  I'm sure he's well versed in its delivery over his many years in this field of medicine.  To paraphrase, he said that after the Induction phase the leukemia cells were below the detectable range, and that if we keep up with the rest of his treatment there is less than a 10% chance of relapse.  Following his appointment Cristy and Evan braved Atlanta rush hour to get him back to the school in time for his concert.

Evan got Honor Roll for the past 9 weeks!

     I'll get some updated photos of Evan's body in the next week or so, but his arm, chest and surgical wounds all look much better.  One of the photos below shows the new port setup that Evan will use from here on out during his chemotherapy sessions.  I talked to Evan about it yesterday and today.  While he was apprehensive about the needle entry into the port, he was relieved that with the numbing cream it didn't hurt.  For future appointments I hope he feels much less anxiety.

Port entry on his right side.

     All of his blood counts were back to a "normal" range.  I used the quotes because during the previous blood draw his WBC counts were considered a bit high.  Infection?  Reaction to chemo or some other drug?  Tough to say for sure, but I'm feeling better that his overall counts are returning to more normal ranges.  His ANC was a 3.2, WBC around 5.7K, Hemoglobin was 10.3 and his Platelets were 303.

Movie night.  This evening we watched Moana.

     On April 23rd the family and I are going to take part in the Cure 23rd Annual Lauren's Run 5K.  Cure is one of the charities near and dear to our hearts.  While simply running in the 5K would be enough, they hold a picnic afterwards for families and participants.  I was told by one of the Cure folks that many of the kids (and some parents) dress up as super heroes for the run.  I guess I'll need to break out my old Batman costume to show my support and satisfy my inner child.  Evan isn't quite ready to run a 5K, but Cristy signed him up for the Tot Trot.  I'll let Evan walk as much as he chooses and then likely toss him in the stroller for the remainder.  For anyone interested in joining us I've provided the link below.

23rd Annual Lauren's Run 5K

  Cristy and I didn't setup a team for this, although we'll likely do one next year.  We had shirts made (see below).  If anyone would like a shirt let me or Cristy know and we can order you one.

#PruittCanDoIt

     Thanks as always for reading and following along with Evan's adventure.  I have some ideas for future blogs to help capture the highs and lows of the last 10 months.  Despite many of the setbacks we've had I'm happy to see Evan doing as well as he is.  Mobility is still a challenge, but I'm confident that can be addressed with more exercise.  Maintenance should see his blood counts balance out enabling him to better fight infections as they present themselves.