Home at Last!

So we packed our bags and off we went after a grueling day of deciding if we should go home or not before giving Timothy a blood transfusion. The nurses there think it's no big deal as they give blood daily to many patients. But when you read the risks involved, including 1/694 000 getting AIDS (!!), I would prefer to only get blood if it was really necessary. Tim's hemoglobin was borderline low in the morning so it was suggested to give him red blood cell transfusion. To make a long story short, we ended up re-checking the blood at 5:00 pm and it had gone up. So we decided to hit the road!

We arrived home at 8:45 pm and are loving being all together as a family. We all even slept in until 9:00!! Tim is neutropenic (low white blood cell count) right now so we are pretty much keeping ourselves in isolation to avoid Tim getting any infections that his body can not fight off. We will have clinic visits on Mondays and Thursdays until his next round of chemo. Please continue to pray for no illnesses in the family and that side effects would be minimal. So far, Tim's hair has not fallen out but they say he may just wake up one morning and have it all on his pillow. At least he doesn't have much to lose! It would be much more traumatic for a teenage girl. Tim's gender has been really helping him out in this whole situation as with the drugs he is on, it would likely wipe out all the eggs a female would have, leaving her infertile. But since he has not reached puberty yet, Timothy should not have any problems with fertility later in life. Main areas of concern are possible hearing loss, heart and kidney problems, and developing another cancer.

In other news, the home care nurse came to the house today to flush Tim's Broviac catheter and give him his daily dose of GCS-F which boosts the white blood cell count. Tim is looking kind of greenish but is otherwise all right! Thanks again for all your prayers and cards and phone calls! We love and appreciate you all!!