Neutropenia

Cole is once again neutropenic, this time due to his chemo. It's a not unexpected result of taking Methroxate and 6MP. They've taken him off of his chemo for a week and hopefully it'll resolve in due time.

I thought I'd put up a definition of neutropenia here for folks to consume. Wikipedia defines neutropenia here. Here's a few excerpts:

"... a hematological [meaning blood] disorder characterized by an abnormally low number of neutrophil granulocytes [a type of white blood cell]..."

Neutropenia is dangerous because neutrophils are what allow the body to fight off bacterial infections. Without neutrophils, the body is susceptible to bacterial sepsis, or systemic bacterial infection.

They measure neutropenia with a number called ANC, which stands for absolute neutrophil count. Here are the ranges:

• 1000 to 1500: mild neutropenia, minimal risk of infection
• 500 to 1000: moderate neutropenia, moderate risk of infection
• 0 to 500: severe neutropenia, severe risk of infection

Cole's ANC on Thursday was 380, so he falls into the severe neutropenia category. Needless to say, that isn't something that makes a parent's heart feel good. Hopefully, though, since he's been taken off of the chemo that's causing the neutropenia, his counts will come back up soon.

Now, my good reader, I hope that you're more informed on what I mean when I talk about neutropenia.

Thinking Outside the Box

Yesterday, I was watching Cole and Dalynn do some of Cole's rehab. It's a fun little game that he loves. He sits on a stool and we place a tub of sand in front of him. In the sand are buried little plastic animals like lions and dinosaurs. Cole has to feel through the sand with his toes and find the animals. It helps rebuild the fine motor control in his feet.

So, I'm watching Cole and Dalynn do this, and Dalynn is showing Cole what it means to point your toes and then flex your feet. She commented that he had "pretty points" and I had a sudden thought. What if we got Cole dancing?

Now, I do have to admit that I had to fight a moment of sexist bias. "My boy's not some girly ballerina!" But, then I thought about it seriously. Dance would not only strengthen Cole's legs, but it would give him fine motor control back. It would probably do all of that quickly! Once I was honest with myself, it really made a lot of sense. Who's to say if it'll happen, but it's definitely something I'm going to keep in mind.

This Friday there is another fund raiser for Cole. This one is being hosted by the Noblemen of Norfolk. It's at the Granby Theater in Norfolk and it's from 6pm until. It's a Mardi Gras/80's night theme. Part of the proceeds will go to Cole's treatment, as well as part of the proceeds going to another cancer kid named Cal. We'll probably be there early, around 6, so look us up!

What Fungus Among Us?

The results of yesterday's CT scans came back today and the news is very good. The fungal infection in Cole's brain is basically gone, the infection sites in his lungs are either gone or greatly reduced (I think there were twelve sites total) and they only found 5 white blood cells in his spinal fluid (as opposed to 18,000).

All in all, that means that the treatment of his fungal infection is going extremely well and if we keep at it, which, of course, we will, it should be gone sooner rather than later.

Odds and Ends

There are a few odds and ends I need to take care of here on the blog.

First off, we've had two fund-raisers recently. One was at the end of January at Joe's Crab Shack. It was awesome, and my thanks go out to IV and Travis for putting it together. The other was at Chick-fil-a this past week and thanks go out to Chazity for putting that together. Cole wasn't able to attend Chick-fil-a, but Dalynn and Logan did, and they had a wonderful time.

We've recently been borrowing a friend's Wii, and let me tell you, you haven't lived til you've seen a 2 year old play Wii Golf. Cole's not so much interested in his handicap as he is in smashing the ball, throwing his hands in the air and yelling "TOUCH DOWN!" Once you're something like 10 over, the game automatically surrenders your turn, so Cole's shooting about a 30 on the front 3.

I'm working the angle that the Wii is good for Cole's rehab, and so far, so good. It's just a side-benefit that I might get to play Metroid and Zelda at the same time... It's really all about Cole, I promise.

Last, but not least, Dalynn and I got to take a night off and head to an adult party hosted by the Noblemen. They had their Red Hot Valentine's Ball on February 8 (this past Saturday) and Dalynn and I were in attendance! It was a wonderful night, with lots of dancing and fun. We even got to spend the night at the Cavalier Hotel (where the ball was hosted). We both got all gussied up (Dalynn in a smoking red dress and me in a tux) and looked very nice. Thanks go to the Noblemen, my Uncle John and my Mom for facilitating all of that.

Well, that wraps up this post. Catch you around later.

My Brother's Love Child

This is Logan. He's adorable, isn't he?


This is an old picture, as you can tell from the creases in the scanned image. I'd say it's about 28 years old. From left to right, it's my, mom Susie, my brother, Todd, my dad, Wayne and me, Mike.


Now, look closely at Logan and then at Todd. Kind of wild, huh?

The running joke in our family right now (besides the effectiveness of the Leukemia diet) is that Logan is Todd's love child. Dalynn is horrified every time I say that. The first time I said it, she gasped and informed me, "Well, he's not!"

The fact of the matter, however, is that Logan looks eerily like Todd when Todd was an infant. Not only that but Logan seems to be following in the footsteps of Todd with his physical ability. I took this video just a few days ago. Keep in mind that Logan is only 5 months old in this, and he's easily palming balls like it's nothing.




Now, it's entirely possible that I'm just a proud daddy and Logan is just a normal kid, but I think that history has my back, here. Logan shares at least a quarter of the genes that Todd has, and maybe those genes have made Logan a pint-sized super-star! After all, Todd's an amazing athlete, so why couldn't Logan be, too? Oh, yeah, don't forget that Dalynn probably has some good genes on her side, too...

So, if you see Todd, let him know I posted this, and give him a look at it!

Spin!

Cole and Logan don't often play together, probably because neither of them are of an age to actually play with someone other then themselves. Last night was different, though.

We put Logan in his Johnny Jump-up a few nights ago, and from the get-go, Cole wanted to play with and in it. He's much too big, however, which was a very distressing factor for him.

Last night, though, Cole decided he wanted to play with Logan while he was in the Johnny Jump-up. This video is of that.