4-1-16 Drew's 2nd birthday

Happy Birthday to Drew!! We've had a great day celebrating the wonderful gift that Drew is today! My aunt was there with him this morning, while we brought the party over! We got the conference room, and set up our walking taco bar, party trays, cupcakes and other treats! Josh took the day off, his parents were able to do the same, as well as my whole family again, and my aunt! Then the we invited all the nurses, his doctors, the PCAs that have worked with him, and even our favorite housekeeper! It was a great way to say thank you to them for all their hard work during all this as well. Drew had an absolute blast, and Molly kept saying it was the best party ever!

On the medical front, we are starting Chemo tomorrow. At our appointment on Thursday they explained that since his white count was still really high, as well as another immunity number, they suspect the infection may still be around. They did admit him, and did a CT scan to rule out any infection hiding in his body (which also showed the tumor now at 5.2 cm across--down from 7.1 a cycle ago!), which turned out to be clear. The cultures that had been drawn have all come back negative so far as well. We are waiting the 48 hours for them to stay negative and planning on starting Chemo tomorrow if they do. They feel confident enough to do the chemo and weaken his body again, but have decided its best to take the line out next week after we are done with round 4. Then they'll put a new line in the next week before they do the stem cell collection, since they'd have to place a special catheter for that procedure anyway. That way if the infection is lingering in the line it doesn't come out again right before they go to collect the stem cells and cause anymore delays. This will mean all the blood draws will have to be done with pokes until they get it back in (a bummer for Drew and us who go with him!), but they seem to think its better to be safe then sorry with this infection. SO, we'll just pray that everything goes according to plan and no extra complications come from this hassle of replacing the line.

I'll attach some pictures from his party today!

~Heidi