Bennett’s ANC today is 3,220 from 2,625 one week ago. His WBC were 4.0 from 3.5 and 83 from 75 neutrophils. His hemoglobin is 12.6 from 13.5 and platelets were 148 from 198. His ANC is probably elevated from the steroids he just finished on Monday.

We had counts checked because his liver levels were critical last week. Today they have decreased to 145 and 520 from 257 and 854. These are still high but his Dr. wants him to continue his chemo dosage the same.

Bennett is not feeling well. He called me from school this morning with an upset stomach and headache. I took him medicine to school and he tried to eat a snack in the nurses office. A couple hours later, he called me and needed to go home. He had an upset stomach, bad headache, fatigue, weak and shortness of breath.

I called St. Louis and they indicated that he was supposed to take his 4 pills of caffeine throughout the day and not at once. His Dr. told Bennett yesterday 4 pills is what he needs to take and we thought at one time. He takes high doses of caffeine when in the hospital. This could of caused an upset stomach. The headache could also be caused from this or from the spinal tap. By evening, Bennett was feeling some better and ate a little dinner.

High liver levels can also cause an upset stomach and not feeling well so he has a combination of a few things that can be going on.

We pray that he feels better soon. So far he has no fever which is important. A lot of flu is going around in southern Illinois schools. It looks like a scary and concerning winter ahead. We pray for good health especially for people with low immune systems.

On the hunting trip at Pioneer Outfitters in Alaska, we met Mike Stroff and Randy that are with Southern Outdoor Experience located in Texas. They have a hunting TV show on the outdoor channel and sports channel. They air Monday nights at 9:30. Randy is the camera man and he video taped Mike hunting for a grizzly bear and dull sheep while we were there. It was really cool meeting them. You can visit their website at southernoutdoorexperience.com.

They did a taping of Bennett talking about his moose hunt that may air in the spring along with Mike’s hunting adventure of his bear & sheep. They also took a picture of all of us below that is on their website under photos. Pretty neat!

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Bennett is doing good. His Dr. appt went great today. She really enjoyed looking at his moose hunt pictures. She was glad to hear that he was feeling so well and that everything went good with the hunting trip. I think she was a little apprehensive too that he would stay healthy and not have any problems. It’s really a relief that he did so good. We know his “angel Ryan” was keeping watch over him.

His spinal tap went good today. He had two bolus of fluids that took an hour before and an hour after wards to try to help keep his spinal headache under control. He also laid flat on his back for an hour. Usually we have to wake him up after he has the spinal tap but today he was wide awake and was a chatter box. He never did fall asleep until on the way home. 3 months ago, when he had the spinal tap, he got a fever, felt bad, and had a major headache that started two days later. He was admitted to the hospital for 3 days. We pray that it doesn’t happen this time.

May God bless Bennett with good health and keep him in remission forever.

“Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40: 30-31

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Bennett is doing really good. He has been trying to get caught up on his sleep. Once we got home from Alaska, he had a busy time with going to the Dr. and to school.

Yesterday, the varsity football team had a game in West Frankfort and we won. Hamilton’s football team played their last game Saturday morning in Marion and they won 18 to 0.

Today, Bennett started taking caffeine pills. The Dr. prescribed them for him to take 3 days before his spinal tap on Tuesday and take 2 days after. The last 3 spinal taps he has had major headaches and caused him to be hospitalized along with a fever. The Dr. is hoping this helps and also she is going to give him two bolus of fluids before and after the spinal tap. We pray he doesn’t have any complications or side effects from it.

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------[caption id="attachment_3034" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Dull sheep on top of mountain view thru telescope"][/caption]---

Hamilton and I took several pictures while we spent 8 days and nights together in Alaska’s wilderness.

[caption id="attachment_3003" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Ham & Moose on ET hill"][/caption][caption id="attachment_2972" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Hamilton, the lumber jack"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_2985" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Not another picture!"][/caption][caption id="attachment_2988" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Drinking the same water they use from the creek"][/caption][caption id="attachment_2990" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Can I have some privacy?"][/caption][caption id="attachment_2993" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Moose horns are as big as me!"][/caption][caption id="attachment_2995" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Bennett\'s moose\'s hoof that he gave me!"][/caption]

Bennett’s ANC today was 2,625! Yeah! It was 1,400 three weeks ago. His WBC was 3.5 from 2.5 and 75 neutrophils from 53. His hemoglobin today was 13.5 from 13.3 and platelets were 198 from 184.

His liver levels unfortunately were extremely high today. They were 257 and 854 and normal range is only 72. They were high last time too at 111 and 491 but now they have doubled. We will check these levels again in a week. We pray that they go down and they don’t cause any problems to his liver.

Everything else went good at his appt. He received the chemo vincristine by iv push, preventive pneumonia breathing treatment and an infusion of immune globulin. He also started steroids twice a day for five days.

Bennett and I both were surprised in his weight. He weighed 141 !! We just knew with the exercise during the hunt and not eating junk food or as much that he would of lost but instead he stayed the same!!!

Bennett is still taking calcium supplements. And right before the trip I started him on vitamin C to help keep him from getting a cold. We are so thankful that he hasn’t gotten sick!

May God continue to bless Bennett and all of the other SLCH kids and their families!

[caption id="attachment_2952" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Bennett looking at moose"][/caption][caption id="attachment_2954" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Moose is down!"][/caption]