Nico’s fever broke Tuesday night and we went home Wednesday on IV antibiotics (every 8 hours) because Nico’s ANC (absolute neutrophil count) was still a big fat zero (and it needed to be at least 500). By Wednesday night I was back on the phone with the clinic since he developed a really strange looking rash on his neck. It looked like ringworm – big, bright red circles! I was cursing myself for letting him play outside until I gave him his next dose of antibiotics and the “ringworm” spread all over his body. He is allergic to Cefepime. We took him to clinic on Friday to get a doctor’s opinion on the rash and recheck his neutrophil count, and lo and behold his ANC was 800! He went from zero neutrophils to 800 in 48 hours! I cannot even explain how excited we were. This is the highest his neutrophils have been in weeks. We were even able to take him to a not-crowded shoe store to buy sandals that fit. I do not take these kinds of things for granted anymore. Nico has not been inside any store since before he was diagnosed January 2nd. You would have thought he was at Disneyland – gasping at everything and saying, “Oh wow!” Yesterday was a good day and we plan on taking advantage of this week off of chemo, especially now that we know his numbers are up a little. I am still too nervous to expose him to too many people, but we will definitely venture outside a bit more. It could be the last time that we can for a while. He will finish the Consolidation phase the middle/end of April and the two phases after that are supposed to be doozies. I try not to look to far ahead, but our doctor did tell us that on a scale of difficulty from 1-5, the next two phases are 4.
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