Numbers

We have long played the numbers game with Joshua.  

When he first came to us, the numbers were connected to sodium.  He was on a very strict diet in order to keep his sodium levels in check without medication.

When he was two and his epilepsy began to rear its ugly head, the number game moved in the direction of medications in his blood stream.  Trying to keep the meds in optimal range in order to control the seizures.

Four & a half years ago when Aplastic Anemia (AA) & all that entails, became part of our vocabulary the number game expanded.  The fight to keep his blood cells out of the basement.  To keep them above the magic "need a transfusion" line.   In all these AA years when Joshy has gotten ill his numbers have tended to bottom out.  

In the last year or so his white cells have started to make tiny bounces up when he has gotten ill.  Last week, when Joshy was in the hospital with the beginnings of pneumonia, his white cells went sky high.  This was a 1st in his AA life and, to be totally honest, it terrified me.  See 35-40% of AA patients end up getting leukemia.  Labs at the end of the week were starting to level out which was a relief.  Today, at Joshy's monthly check up at the Cancer Center, his number game showed...

Numbers are...

Returning to "Joshy norm"!  White cells are back down to their just below normal range "normal".  Red cells & platelets are back up to where they were a couple of weeks ago.

Basic breakdown - because we are weaning off the immune suppression medication, Joshy's white cells are free to react to  germs.

And so the number game continues!