end of ARAC

Nearing the end of Delayed Intensification!

As expected, Jaxon's healthy blood cells took a pummelling along with the big bad leukemia cells that the last two weeks of chemo was targeting.

As of Thursday:
ANC - 0.37 (marked on the lab report as "critically low")
HGB - 88 (down from 100 three days prior)
PLTs - 165

As soon as we arrived at clinic on Thursday morning, our Nurse Clinician (Anne xo) said that he looked much paler that day and that his HGB is definitely declining. Though 88 is low, and it took quite a jump from Monday's CBC (complete blood count), it wasn't so low that an immediate transfusion would be required. He is scheduled for a red blood cell transfusion first thing on Monday morning. A CBC prior to transfusion will determine if he will need a platelet transfusion as well.

The ANC is expected to drop to nil. For the next two weeks we need to be hyper-vigilant in reducing his interaction with other people. Even if he is in close proximity to someone who is not symptomatically sick - they could still be ill with something and pass it on. It's a tricky, slippery slope! After about two weeks, his counts should begin to recover and we can go back to just being totally paranoid about germ transmission.

We'll be going to clinic on Monday and Friday for the next two weeks to keep an eye on his counts. Remarkably, even with his super low counts right now, he's been really energetic and feeling good. He's a bit crabby but can we really blame him for that?!

We hope his counts will be good enough to begin Interim Maintenance 2 on Tuesday, October 14.