Day 39 of 57 during Interim Maintenance II

This phase has gone well so far. Elliot  has been getting escalating doses of Methotrexate every 10 days in the office (along with another chemo drug Vincristine). He also received two lumbar punctures (LP) with intrathecal Methotrexate (this last one was his 14^th LP out of 27 total that he will get during the entire course of treatment, so he’s hit the half-way point!). The Methotrexate will reduce his blood counts, but it doesn’t right away. We are expecting his counts to be quite low the next several weeks.

Since his blood counts have been high, we traveled to Delaware and Pennsylvania to visit our families (Dave’s in Delaware and Melissa’s in Pennsylvania) in between his second and third doses. We actually came in to the office early for his second dose, so we had two weeks in between office visits. That is the longest we have been between visits! The doctors gave us a travel sheet that included his diagnosis, latest lab work, and a treatment protocol in case he got sick while we were away. Thankfully, he did well and did not get sick or develop a fever the entire time. He (and the rest of us) had a great time visiting family (a few pictures from trip below), and it was nice to have a little “normalcy” for a couple weeks!

His tastes have been funny the last few weeks. He is obsessed with popcorn, black bean and cheese quesadillas, and smoothies that Melissa makes with fruit and yogurt in the blender. But that's about all he will eat. He's had a few days where he's been nauseous and thrown up a couple times, but for the most part, he's felt pretty good. 


His blood counts were lower on last week’s office visit but still haven’t bottomed out yet. Now we are placing him on “neutropenic precautions” and limiting his exposure to crowds to protect him from getting sick. We go back the clinic Monday (day 41) for his last doses of chemo on this phase. The final two weeks are recovery time before beginning the next phase (Delayed Intensification II). 


Here's a few pictures from our trip...

Elliot playing on iPad with Pop-Pop (Dave's dad)

Elliot with Great-Granddad (Dave's 95 year-old grandfather)

Elliot and Addie with cousins Kayla, Alaina and Nathaniel