Happy 2nd B-Day Alex!

I can't believe it, but Alex is already 2! Time goes by so quickly - I only hope the next 2 years of our lives go as fast. We had a 4 day celebration - his real birthday, cupcakes for him at school, a little kiddie party, and then the family function. I don't think he quite got that everything was for him, but he seemed to enjoy himself. As is par for the course whenever there is a birthday celebration, Catherine was on steroids. Friday marked Day 29 of Long Term Maintenance. We got a dose of Vincristine at the office and started our monthly 5 day pulse of steroids. Luckily Catherine didn't get the jaw pain, but she is very tired and the rage is pretty bad this month. As a result, I kept her home from school today.
On Friday we saw Dr. MJ for the first time in months. She is very good at thoroughly explaining everything to me. Turns out that on LTM, Catherine's counts don't effect her scheduled doses of Vincristine and steroids as neither are myelosuppressants (meaning they don't lower her counts). Only the 6-MP and methotrexate are held when her ANC is below 500 and those doses do not need to be made up. That is currently not a problem as Catherine's ANC was 5100 on Friday. They expect them to be high again this week given that she will be finishing the steroids. Steroids aside, their goal is to keep her ANC between 500 and 1500 during LTM. That seems to be the way to gauge the amount of chemo she gets. If her counts are above 1500 for 4 straight weeks, then they will raise the dose of 6-MP she gets. I can't believe we may actually be headed in that direction given all the delays we had in the past. But as usual, I've been told that this is normal and happens all the time. Next week is Halloween, I'll be sure to post some pictures of Jasmine and Fireman Alex!