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We are back from another wonderful week at Topsail.... it is just amazing how much stress you can be under and just being at the ocean and with friends and family can make it all seem to go away.... "seem to go away" is the phrase I am going to emphasize... Our week was awesome but it did not make the worry go away... Grier was neutrapenic ALL week... meaning we probably should have been on house arrest.. not only did he not have any immune system but his platelets were low as well as hemoglobin! I was waiting for the other shoe to drop... BUT it never happened! NO fever.. no fatigue.. no bruising... !!! Besides body surfing, swimming, playing and eating all week ~ we had to take him into Wilmington twice for a blood test. The worst part was the drive to and from-- it was about 45 minutes EACH way.. I am a little spoiled with our 10 minute drive to the clinic... The pediatrician's office we went to was better than I expected... Their lab was awesome and Dr. Hawthorne called to check on Grier twice during the week... I think we shocked the girl that ran his CBC on Monday ~when she read his labs... his WBC was .1 and platelets were 54.. I was so happy they were not in a range for a transfusion... she wanted us to wait to talk to someone because everything was so low!! We didn't wait... Grier was ready to get back to the beach!

NOW WHAT???
Well... Grier's counts are still low... we knew this was a possibility with millennium.. He had another CBC on Saturday, Sunday, and MONDAY-- and he said "If they keep taking my blood I am going to be just a skull soon!" I think he meant skeleton but you get the point... he is a bit over it! Sunday was not in the plan.. but Saturday's blood clotted before the lab ran it... so we got the call Sunday morning about that!! They said to come up and have it done at the hospital... so Grier and I rode our bikes... Actually it was really fun.. We headed down the greenway and left our bikes with guest services while we ran up to get a finger stick... THAT is what we thought he was going to get.. but the lab had other orders that we did not know about... I did not have my purse with me so I did not have any Emla or magic cream... I asked them for some and then they said... WE CANT do ports here... oh... things were going south really fast... They needed to use a butterfly needle to get blood from his arm! Ugh.. I asked for emla but they said they did not have any to me... and told Grier they had a "special" cream... they proceed to put Vaseline on Grier's arms... and told him to wait while it works!! Seriously... he is no dummy... he knows his meds and creams! He cried for a quick second and before he knew it the blood was drawn and we were back on the greenway headed home on our bikes!!!
We had another visit yesterday... just a check up... and CBC again... luckily his immune system is recovering but his platelets and hemoglobin are still SLOW to recover... We were suppose to start the third cycle of MLN (Millennium) on Wednesday but his counts are going to make us delayed... he has to be 100 for Platelets and ANC of at least 1000! The good news is that they are going to FedEx to pills to us... so I don't have to fly up there to get them! As of right now we don't have a start date... we will just have to wait for his tired, worn out bone marrow to recover! CHOP called today and told me since he has been over 8 days of nutrepenia we will have to do neupogen next time to help his bone marrow recover faster--- we actually may try Neulasta instead of the daily shots... Neulasta is a one time shot that is given in the clinic... not be me! The hope is he will be ready in a week to begin the next cycle... he is going to have to get checked on Thursday and Tuesday ( since Monday is a Holiday!)- I didn't even realize Monday was a Holiday until they said it today!!!
Once again we are in a bit of Limbo with a schedule... Grier and I will have to go to Philly for scans after the 3rd cycle of Millenium... limbo is a little easier during summer... !
enjoy the pictures below (or on www.gogriergo.com)... if I had not told you that he had LOW counts I bet you would not have ever guessed!

The night before we left for the beach we went to Shrek the musical... Grier had seen it in NYC and laughed just as hard two years later in Charlotte!