Day 700 - Searching for answers (UPDATE)

     This morning Evan went in for his monthly chemo appointment.  Evan and Cristy were mistakenly taken to the wrong room, and after a minute Cristy's mind started to run wild. The mistake was quickly corrected, and they were sent to the Infusion area as normal.  They accessed Evan's port, drew his blood and started his medications.  Evan's primary doctor eventually came in and they called me to deliver the news; it appears Evan has relapsed.  His blood counts were all much lower than normal, indicating the leukemia has returned.
     The doctor told us he would meet with his colleagues to determine the best course of action for Evan going forward and let us know something tomorrow.  Because of Evan's past infections they're less likely to entertain certain treatment options that might have worked with other patients.  I sat in stunned silence on the call listening to the doctor provide his feedback.  We should know more tomorrow, but it appears that regardless of what plan we go with Evan will be admitted to the hospital for some period of time.
     I couldn't be more surprised than I am right now.  I'm scared, hurting, confused and dread having to see Evan go through more pain and suffering.  Not sure what the future holds, but I hope there is some sort of treatment option that doesn't completely cripple him again.  He had just gotten back to the point where he was moving around normally again.
     Cristy is going to try and take him to school in the morning so that he can say good bye to his teacher and friends.  The official last day of school is next Wednesday, but I'm going to advise against him going due to his extremely low blood counts.  It's going to be a tough weekend ahead unless we can get some answers.  I'll update the blog as reliable information is available.

UPDATE as of 5/17/2018 @ 9:25 p.m. EST
     Cristy and Evan returned home around 6:00 and after talking briefly about everything from baby sitters to cancelling summer plans we received a call from Evan's doctor at 6:30.  His first statement was that he had good news.  After running some additional tests on Evan's blood work the pathologist (who stayed late to run the test) discovered that there were no leukemia cells.
     What does this mean?  Even the doctor wasn't sure what to think of the findings.  While it's good news that there hasn't been a relapse as originally indicated, the medical team is still unsure what is going on.  Evan's counts showed a high number of lymphoblasts (immature white blood cells) and low hemoglobin, platelet, red and white cells.  His theory at the moment is that Evan's bone marrow is simply exhausted due to two years of fighting and drugs.
     Next steps are somewhat dynamic pending further data.  In the short term he has asked us to hold any more chemo medication.  We'll up our blood tests to weekly to keep a closer eye on his counts overall.  Should leukemia present itself we'd then go back to working with the medical team on options.  The doctor felt it counter-productive to talk next steps and needlessly worry ourselves if a relapse isn't confirmed.
     Naturally Cristy and I were ecstatic to hear the news.  We've been worried sick and it felt like day 1 all over again.  The doctor apologized for the false alarm and assured us he doesn't give relapse information without being certain.  He's an older doctor and informed us this was the first time in his career he has seen counts like this without a relapse.  For the moment we're in wait-and-see mode.  I'm sure I'll be overly cautious and just hope we can finish out the remaining school year without any more surprises.  We're not through the woods yet, but for the time being we're relieved that leukemia has not been found.