Bennett is doing good. He still is coughing every once in awhile so it doesn’t seem to have gotten any worse which were thankful.  He was supposed to have driving this morning but it was canceled so his next early driving is Thursday and than he has two more times left.    It is looking forward to being done.  He is enjoying his week with no practice and games.  Him and Lindy stayed after school today and worked in shop class.  They were hoping to make something but no wood was available. 

Hamilton was up Sunday night off and on with an ear ache. I took him to the Dr. yesterday and he has the beginning of an ear infection so he gave him an antibiotic.  he was feeling pretty good so he went to school in the afternoon.  Especially since he wanted to play in his basketball game that night.  They won against Eldorado and Ham played really well.

Bennett has joined facebook and is enjoying farm ville, He is kicking me off the computer right now so he can check on his crops!

Bennett’s ANC is 1,764 with 2.8 WBC and 63 neutrophils from 2,100 a week ago! His counts were really great. His hemoglobin was 13.5 from 10.8 and platelets were 182 from 92. So happy to see these go up!! He must of had infection to cause those to go down last week. We’re so thankful that his bone marrow his making good new cells.

His liver levels were the best they have been in months! We’re so glad they went down to closer to the normal range for once. His bun though was extremely high at 26, normal is 0 to 15. This controls your kidneys. He needs to drink more.

Bennett had a great birthday weekend. He sent the day yesterday with Lindy going to Buffalo wild wings and to the motorcross races in DuQuoin. Hamilton had basketball games in the Carlyle tourney yesterday so we were there. We lost the first game by 4 points against Edwardsville in the last 26 seconds. We won the 2nd game against Collinsville by 9 points. They played today against Nashville and we lost by 1 point. We should of one, we missed a lot of free throws and tries underneath the basket. The refs weren’t calling anything so it was a miserable game.

We had a blast on the way home though. We saw thousands and thousands of geese. We saw them yesterday and couldn’t believe it and wished Bennett was with us to see all of them. I prayed this morning in church (kinda selfish, I know) that they would be there today so Bennett could see them. There was even more. We guessed about ten thousand snows and blues. We went down a really muddy road and almost got stuck. We just stopped the car; listened to them, and watched them fly for 30 minutes. Bennett & Hamilton were in heaven! We stopped by Monicals in Centralia which Bennett really likes.

Bennett read the scripture this morning in church service. He did really good. He remembered everything to say and didn’t sound nervous at all. He was looking forward to children’s church as his favorite kids were there today that make him laugh. He really enjoys the kids. They are very intriguing to him.

“Therefore I rejoice that I have confidence in you in everything.” 2 Corinthians 7:16

God blessed us with an amazing young child sixteen years ago. We knew he was special but didn’t know how special he really was going to be.

Three years ago today, the life as we knew it changed rapidly. We all have learned many valuable lessons and appreciation for all things.

I’m proud of you Bennett for taking this all in and bringing out the positives and happy times out of your last 3 year journey.

I pray you use this gift that God gave you to live your life in a prosper, happy, and healthy way and to always follow God.

We will celebrate each day with you and look forward to all the birthday’s to come!

Bennett played his last Freshman basketball game tonight at Massac County.  We lost by 4 points in the “A” game. Bennett got to play a few minutes each quarter.  He did really good defensively.  He really looked like he had a lot more energy.  In the 2nd half, we had 10 fouls called on us and Massac only had one.  The refs can really control the game and they sure did tonight.   He played all of the “B” game and we lost by 20 points.  Bennett played well with several rebounds, steal and 4 points.  He made a lay up shot and made 2 out of 4 free throws. 

Bennett has driving in the morning at 6:00 a.m.  It will be an early morning for him with getting home late from the game.  He should only have 1 or 2 more days of driving after tomorrow.  He’s excited about that.  It would be nice if he could get his license on his birthday but he will have to wait about 5 more months.  Lindy is just going to have to drive him around until August. 

We are so thankful and grateful to God that Bennett didn’t have any injuries playing basketball.  It can be a very physical game.  He has had several hard falls that looked really painful and dangerous.  We pray his bones continue to hold up through his high school career.  He will have a week off before baseball practice starts the beginning of March.

Praising the Lord for all his blessings!

Only 3 days left for the Sweet 16th!!!

Bennett is doing pretty good.  He still has the cough and running nose.  He was really tired after school and tried to rest before his basketball game tonight.  We lost by 4 points against DuQuoin. Bennett got to play for about 2 minutes in the 3rd quarter.  In that time, he had a rebound, assist and foul.

Today, he had a sign language test in English. He had to know the alphabet in sign language and he got a 100. Pretty Kool!  Him and Lindy  really worked at it together.

Hope God continues to bless Bennett and all the kids fighting this horrible disease.

Bennett is doing pretty good.  He has a cough that is pretty consistent and also a running nose.  He started doing the netti pot last night and keeping up with it two to three times a day.  He made it through basketball practice this morning and school.

Him and Lindy went with us to Hamilton’s basketball games in Harrisburg.  We tied the first game and than lost the 2nd game.  Bennett has a home game tomorrow night and than his last game is Thursday night at Massac Co.  We pray he is up to playing and gets too so he ends his freshman season on a good note. 

We ask for God’s blessings on us all!

Bennett’s ANC is 2,100 from 4,116 yesterday.  It’s really making drastic movements each day.  His WBC are 3.0 from 4.9 and neutrophils are 70 from 84.    It’s possible they were elevated from an infection causing the fever but we don’t really know.  His hemoglobin has dropped to 10.8 from 11.7 and platelets from 109 to 92.

We are waiting to be discharged which we have to wait till 1:00 p.m. which will be exactly 48 hours from the time the blood cultures were taken,  They want to make sure that nothing is going to grow and we have to wait.  We’re all ready to get home.

We pray that Bennett continues to do well.  The only symptom he has is a cough that sounds congested.  I asked the Dr. if we would go home on an antibiotic and he said no.  We hope the cough goes away and doesn’t turn into anything worse.

*8:30 p.m. update

Bennett was discharged around noon today, we had to wait until the attending Dr. came by and released him.  He had no more fevers and his temp stayed down in the 98.’s.  He is feeling pretty good.  He is tired.  He always has a congested cough and a running nose.    Dr. didn’t want to give him an atiobiotic to go home on for that so we will see how he does in the next few days.

We will check counts again on Saturday, we pray they stay within normal range.  The first hospital stay night, they stopped his daily chemo but last night he got his regular dose. They indicated for us to continue at home as well.

Hamilton had two games tonight at home.  First one was against DuQuoin and we won by two points.  We played really good.   The second game was with Sesser Valier and we lost by one point.   He plays again tomorrow night in Harrisburg. 

Bennett was supposed to have a home game against West Frankfort but was canceled because of the snow.  We got about 5 inches.  Bennett has practice in the morning at 6:30. He wants to go because he only has two more games left of the season.

Thank you  for all your prayers, we are happy to be home!

Bennett’s ANC today is 4,116 from 5,166 twelve hours earlier. His WBC went down to 4.9 from 6.3.  Hemoglobin is 11.7 from 12.5 and platelets stayed the same.   He hasn’t ran a temp since yesterday.  Last night and today, it has been normal!  He feels pretty good, he has a cough that seems to be getting deeper but the Dr. said he sounded clear.

The Dr. wanted him to stay another day and wait to make sure the blood cultures didn’t grow anything.  Since his fever was pretty high and he had the chills.  He really thought his ANC was elevated from the steroids he has been on and also the fever.

We had his birthday lunch planned for today but had to cancel.  His birthday is next Saturday so hopefully he will feel better by than.

Lindy came with us yesterday so her and Bennett have been playing games and watching T.V. together.  It’s been a really quite day at the hospital.  Bennett said he now has been in the hospital every holiday.  He thought he hadn’t been here on Valentine’s day before.

We pray that everything continues to go well so he can be discharged tomorrow.    Thank you for your prayers.

Bennett has been admitted to Children’s Hospital in St. Louis.  He woke up this morning with a 101.8 temperature.  We called the on call Dr and they wanted him to come in. We got here around noon.  His flu test and chest xray came back negative!  He has had a cough for the last couple days.  He felt nauseated yesterday but got better through out the day.

His ANC jumped sky high.  It’s 5,166 from 1,232 a week ago.  His WBC are 6.3 from 2.2 with neutrophils are 83.  His hemoglobin is 12.5 and platelets at 110 which are good.  Since his WBC is so high, it’s possible a sign of infection.   Since he has been on steroids for the last few days, he can have elevated WBC but not usually this high.  Because of this and the fever, the Dr. wanted to observe him at least one night to make sure he doesn’t spike another fever.

His last temp was 100.2 at 5:00 so he is running a low grade.  They started him on a iv antibiotic called merophenum which he has had several times in the hospital.

We hope to be discharged tomorrow.  We’re thankful that he doesn’t feel too terribly bad.  We pray that this doesn’t turn into anything worse.

Bennett had a good appt today, it was nice that everything went like clock work and we made it in and out of the appt in record time, 3 hours!  They weren’t as busy today because of cancelations because of the snow.  The interstate wasn’t completely clear on the way there which I was surprised, they didn’t plow the passing lane in some counties.

Bennett had his usual stuff, iv push of vincristine, breathing treatments, and infusion of immune globulin.  He also starts steroids today which is 7 pills daily for the next five days.  He also took his weekly methotrexate of 6 pills.  His Dr. did not want to increase it because of his ANC being in good range at 1,200.  We will check counts again in two weeks.

She looked at his rash on his arms and she said we could continue using his cream.  He has had the rash for around two or three months and we thought it was some type of fungal infection from basketball and rubbing against sweat.  I recalled reading on a website of a leukemia patient that had a rash too and was called from the chemo, methotrexate.  I asked the Dr. and she said Yes it could be.  I’m not sure if she didn’t want to worry us but felt like she wasn’t going to tell us until I asked.  We visited today with another leukemia patient at the clinic today and she had a rash all over her neck.  I asked her mother about it andcome to find out, she has it all over her body and has had it for over a year and it’s from the methotrexate.  She said it continues to get worse and now is more blisters.  We pray Bennett’s doesn’t get that bad. Bennett thinks it will go away after basketball.

Bennett weighed 145 today, I won the bet today. We always guess of how much he is going to weigh. I knew with him having the flu that he probably lost a few pounds and he did.  Bennett guessed 150 and quickly changed it to 148.  The nurse always gets a kick out of us!

Bennett had the night off from playing a game. Hamilton had an in-house game and they lost by one point.  Lindy’s team played their 2nd game in the regional and lost to West Frankfort so unfortunately her season is over.  Bennett does have a game tomorrow and Thursday night at home.

We’re thankful for a good Dr. appt and safe travels!