Merry Christmas

photo courtesy of Molly Flanagan

Elliot was discharged from the hospital on Thanksgiving evening. He came home with his port accessed and we continued his IV antibiotics for 8 more days (once a day). His counts were still low the next two weeks for his office visits, so we just started the next phase, Interim Maintenance II, on Tuesday, December 13^th.  He has to repeat Interim Maintenance and also Delayed Intensification because he was moved to the high risk category because of his high Minimal Residual Disease (MRD) test on the 29^th day of treatment. Otherwise, he would already be in Maintenance now.  

This phase started out with a lumbar puncture, intrathecal chemo (given in spinal fluid), and two types of IV chemo. Then we came back the next day for another type of IV chemo. He has been feeling well for the past few weeks and has been happily playing. It has been so nice to have our happy boy back! It’s also been great to have his counts up so that he can get out of the house. All the chemo during this phase is scheduled for outpatient, so hopefully we will stay out of the hospital for a while.

We hope you all have a very merry Christmas!

“For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6