Sam is still waiting for his white blood cells to rebound. No worries though — this is totally normal. Our Nurse Practitioner Gina (who is *great*) said a number of her kids with leukemia and following this protocol are in the same boat right now. Plus 2 bonuses: Sam’s happy about it because it means Homecoming is more likely (October 1). AND it’s the weekend so he’s home and can hang out with friends, go to his team’s soccer game, and other fun social things.

But all the fingers and toes crossed for Homecoming! 🤞🏼

Next blood draw will be Monday and Gina anticipates he’ll get admitted then. This admission starts with preparatory hydration therapy overnight, then an lumbar puncture in the morning, then a 24 infusion of medicine/chemo through his port starting Tuesday afternoon, with blood draws every 4-6 hours to titrate the dose, and then an extended hydration therapy for as many days as it takes his body to “flush” the medicine.

This medicine is more correlated to nausea too. So far, Sam’s nausea has been relatively minimal punctuated by 2 impressive, projectile vomits (one of Takis red spicy chips — which made even the experienced nurses go “hmmmmmm……” for a second, as we were at the outpatient clinic when it happened — not to mention this mom who was his companion that day 😂). The nausea medications are super helpful and some are given prophylactically so we are hopeful that this intervention continues to keep the nausea and vomiting at bay.