Bennett’s ANC today dropped to 585 from 1,088. His WBC are 1.3 from 1.6 and nuetrophils were 45. His hemoglobin is only 8.6 from 7.9 after having two blood transfusions last Tuesday. His platelets dropped to 42 from 112. This is very concerning of what is causing his counts to drop this much. The chemo he is taking shouldn’t make his hemoglobin and platelets drop.

I called St. Louis today to see if they had found out anything yet from the biopsy and that I was concerned about his counts. I didn’t hear back from them except his Dr. left a message on our answering machine at home. (that I didn’t get until late tonight).

Bennett had two bad headaches today. He had one this morning and he took Tylenol to help. He went to baseball practice today but only watched. He had another bad headache this afternoon and he took more Tylenol. After two hours of it still not helping, he took some pain medicine at Hamilton’s baseball game. He felt some better after awhile.

His ankle is not really bothering him. It is swollen though and he is still using his crutches.

The waiting is horrible to hear back from his tests especially when his body is telling us something is wrong. We are praying for good test results. Also that whatever is wrong with his ankle and lowering his counts, that it can be cured. God, please keep Bennett cancer free forever!

“From the end of the earth I call to you, when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Psalm 61:2

Bennett was sprinkled today at our church, First United Methodist Church. He was confirmed several months ago and chose not to be sprinkled at that time. He wanted to be emerged and we chose him to be baptized in my parent’s pond when it warmed up. With Bennett’s sickness a month ago we have decided that he doesn’t need to be exposed to dirty pond water so, he chose to be sprinkled in his church. We are praising God for his goodness and his love!

“All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. Therefore, we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Romans 6: 3-4

Bennett’s home from McKendree Basketball camp! What a relief! He felt good and had a great time! He coached and cheered on his team. The 8th grade team won the championship game in overtime by 2 points! They were League Champions and Tourney Champions!

Bennett’s ankle is swollen some. About the same as when he left on Thursday. He said it bothered him some but he only took one pain pill a day. Tonight’s his last night to take steroids, yeah! I was worried if he would remember to take his medicine three times a day but he seemed to do great.

Hamilton’s all star baseball team played 2 games in the Benton tournament today and won both games. Yippee!

Grandpa Page came home last night. He is doing good and glad to be home. He has 4 to 6 weeks of being off of it and keeping his foot elevated. Since the cast is so heavy, he cannot maneuver around by himself. We are praying that the Dr.’s figure out why he was dizzy and fell the other day.

Bennett’s next blood test is Monday morning at our local hospital. We are very anxious to see what his counts are doing. Even more anxious and nervous of finding out the biopsy results. We are praying for good news and his ankle to be healed.

“Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice.” Psalm 55:17

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Bennett is doing pretty good. I just talked to him on the phone for about 15 minutes from basketball camp. He said his ankle is swollen and hurts a little. His team won 7 games and lost 1 today. He said it was a little boring sitting on the bench the whole time. I am sure he would rather being playing and was looking forward to doing just that. He’s glad to at least go especially compared to last year.

Hamilton’s in house championship game was tonight and they won. The US Bank Cubs went undefeated 16-0 for the season. It was a great game and everyone played good.

Grandpa Page is still in the hospital and hopefully will get to go home tomorrow. He had emergency surgery on his foot/ankle last night at 11:00 p.m.

We haven’t heard anything from the Dr.’s in St Louis so we are assuming nothing has grown from the cultures. The biopsy results won’t be back until Tuesday. They indicated that they had to wait for the bone to soften up where they actually could do the testing so it would take at least 7 days. I am praying for patience, strength and encouragement.

“I considered all this in my heart, so that I could declare it all: that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God.” Ecclesiastes 9:1

Bennett is doing good. His ankle just bothered him once today so he took some pain medicine. He took the big bandage off it tonight.  It has the steri strips on it so you can’t really tell how it looks for sure.  It looks a little swollen around it.

His color looks Great!  His rosy cheeks sure brightens up his face. He thinks it is from the steroids he is taking. I think it’s from the blood he got yesterday.  He also might of gotten some sun today on his face. He went fishing this morning with Grandma J.  He only had 15 crickets to use.  He caught 9 really nice size blue gill and than threw back a couple small ones.

He weighed 121 pounds yesterday. I am glad he didn’t lose any but he sure hasn’t gained any either while on the maintenance phase.

He went to Hamilton’s baseball game tonight and kept the score book.  It was a close game and Bennett really cheered on the boys and giving them words of encouragement.   This reminds me of yesterday after Bennett’s surgery, he told the Dr. and the nurse that they did a good job.

Bennett leaves in the morning at 7a.m. to go to McKendree College basketball camp with the 8th grade basketball team.  Of course, he can’t play but he is going to go watch plus hopefully have fun hanging out with friends.  He won’t be home until Saturday.  It’s going to be tough being away from him and not to worry.  It will be good for him to go and be with friends which is important.

We had a scare today, Grandpa Page fell and broke his ankle in 3 different places.  Hamilton was at the house with him.  He had to go to the emergency room and is in the Herrin hospital. He will have surgery on it sometime.  We pray that he isn’t in too much pain and gets well soon.

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Bennett had a long day. We left at 6:00 a.m. and got home from the hospital around 7:00 p.m. Bennett’s two blood transfusions went good today. He had no allergic reaction. He was pre-medicated before hand with benadryl and tylenol. The Dr. indicated the low hemoglobin and the need for the two blood transfusions is probably from the problem in his ankle.

His biopsy went good. He had the surgery done at the Barnes hospital. It took about a total of 2 hours all together. The actual surgery took about 20 minutes. I wasn’t able to go in with him because they used a type of xray to locate the ankle bone for the biopsy. Bennett was nervous going in but felt good when it was all over.

His ankle where they did the biospy is bothering him a little so he took some pain medicine that the Dr. prescribed; he can take every 4 hours. He needs to keep the bandage on for two days and not take a shower. He didn’t need stitches.

They used a needle to take about 2 tubes of fluid and an inch of bone to run cultures and tests. It may take up to a week to get results of the bone biospy. The cultures results will be from 24 hours to one week to see if they grow any type of infection.

The Dr. said he needs to continue to stay off of his ankle and use his crutches. He cannot do any physical activity on it until they figure out what is wrong. Bennett has learned to navigate with the crutches. I am sure this is strengthening his biceps.

Bennett received an iv push of the chemo vincristine today. He started taking steroids again, he takes 8 pills a day for 5 days. He also took 13 methotrexate pills and took his daily chemo 6mp. He also is taking pepcid to help with heartburn from the steroids. And taking a gabapentin pill twice daily to help with the side effects of the vincristine chemo.

Thank you for all your prayers. We are very anxious of the results of the biospy/cultures.  We have faith in God to bring this to a flourishing finish.

“I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”

Bennett’s ANC today was 1,088 from 765. Yeah! We were glad to see it go up. His WBC is 1.6 from 1.7 and neutrophils are 68 from 45. His hemoglobin dropped to 7.9 from 8.9. Normal range is 12.5 to 16.5. He will be getting two units of blood transfusions tomorrow since his hemoglobin is very low. His platelets dropped to 112 from 173.

He had his MRI on his ankle. It was just like the other MRI he had a month ago when he was in the hospital. Today though he didn’t have to go all the way in the tunnel. The MRI is so loud. I recalled the other MRI he had. He was so sick with a fever at 103 and 104 degrees. I got that sick feeling all over again but said a prayer thanking God that Bennett is so much better. The Dr. that read the MRI told us as we were leaving that it looked like infection of the bone. He said he needed to stay off of it and purchase crutches. He said no wonder you have been in so much pain that it’s very painful. Bennett must be able to tolerate pain well because he would comment about his ankle hurting but not really complaining or upset about it.

His nurse called and said that they want to biopsy his ankle bone tomorrow to verify it is infection and what type of infection. His biopsy will be at noon. He will need to be NPO (no food/drink) because it will be minor surgery and he will be sedated.

The nurse wants us to be at the hospital at 8 a.m. so they can match his blood for the blood transfusion and start at least one unit of blood before the biopsy. It takes 2 hours to transfuse one unit so we will probably be at the hospital 8 to 9 hours.

His nurse also indicated that this very well could of been the infection in his body when he was admitted in the hospital and they couldn’t find it. He was discharged on Sat. May 17th and a week later on Tuesday, his ankle was swollen and he had an x-ray of it that showed he had fluid around it. We gave it about 2 weeks and it got worse one day so, we called his nurse and had to wait for the MRI today.

Please pray that Bennett’s blood transfusions go well tomorrow, (no allergic reaction) and that the biopsy goes well with no pain. We pray that whatever the biopsy shows that it is something that can be healed quickly and he continues to be in remission forever.

“Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble, I will call upon you, for you will answer me.” Psalm 86: 8-9

Bennett is doing good.  He hasn’t said anything about his ankle bothering him but he hasn’t played any sports on it either today.  We went to church and than went to Hamilton’s double header at the park.  They lost both games but the weather was just beautiful.

We go in the morning to our local hospital for blood test.  We will than go to St Louis for his MRI on his ankle.  We won’t find out the results of the MRI until his appt on Tuesday.  He will see his Dr. on Tuesday besides getting an iv push of vincristine.

Walk with God and trust his word, know your every prayer is heard…. for showers to refresh your soul, and seeds of faith to make you whole.  “Be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.” Matthew 9:22

Bennett is doing pretty good, His ankle is bothering him some. He stayed home off of it all day and iced it until the championship game at Nashville. He started the game and had a couple grounders hit to him out in right field that he fielded well. He batted three times and had a walk and got out twice. Both times though he had two good hits, one line drive that the 2nd baseman caught and than his 2nd hit was to center field that was caught. We were happy with his hard hits even though he got out on those two. His ankle was bothering him but he wanted to play anyway. His team lost 9 to 7 but got 2nd place in the Nashville tourney.

Hamilton’s all star team played in Nashville too and played three games earlier in the morning and afternoon. They won two and lost one placing 2nd in the tourney.

It is so cool to see Bennett playing baseball. He looks like any other player and he is playing like it!  Other than; you know our secret, his counts our lower than any other player……  he’s playing with low hemoglobin, low platelets, very low ANC and a hurt ankle. We are so amazed and pleased with his stamina! Thank you God for continuing healing Bennett Page #35 of his leukemia!