Well, it’s been awhile since we have had a quick appt at St Louis. We left at 7:15 and I got home around 6:00. I took Bennett straight to the middle school girls basketball game.

Bennett needed a blood transfusion today again. This time it was his platelets count that was too low at 10. It needed to be at least 50 before he could get the PEG shots in his legs. So he had a blood transfusion of platelets. Platelets are yellow, it is weird that they are this color and are a part of the blood.

Dr. Shenoy wasn’t as concerned with his high blood pressure until it stays in the upper 90′s for several weeks. I showed her my chart from the last two months and she said it hasn’t been high enough consistently to cause any problems. She thinks it’s elevated from all the chemo and steroids that he has had. We are to continue to keep track of his blood pressure daily.

Bennett mentioned to the Dr. that his hand and sometimes feet have sharp pain in them from time to time. She did a blood test to check magnesium and calcium and both were normal. This is a side effect from the chemo vincristine. He had this drug weekly for 3 weeks and was off for 2 weeks and now he will get it for 2 weeks again. She said we may have to lower the dose of this drug if the pain gets worse or have further problems. His feet and hands could go completely numb to where it would be difficult for him to climb stairs, walk, or hold anything in his hands.

Prayer for Bennett is so important that Bennett doesn’t get any severe side effects from the chemo drugs and also that the drugs are killing any leftover leukemia cells and preventing any new ones.

The 3 shots in Bennett’s legs went well. He does have a bruise from one of the shots. We had to stay an hour after he got them to make sure he didn’t have any acute side effects. He also got an iv push of vincristine.

His ANC today was 1,272 which is good. Hemoglobin was 8.6. Last week it was 8.1 and he got 2 RBC transfusions. Since this is lower than what they would like but not low enough for transfusion, we are to get blood counts Thursday morning at our local hospital to check all counts but specifically hemoglobin.

“Do not worry about anything, but in everything in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Philippians 4:6