Checkup

We had a doctor's appointment today at the oncologist's office. First one in 6 weeks. Dante was very good and super silly in the waiting room, singing and jumping around. Once he saw his old friends, like Lee, Darlene, Pam, Irene and Dr.Grana, he decided to go all shy with them, but he was obviously happy to see them. I really like everyone at the clinic, but someone who is strong on time management needs to have a sit down with them. Our appointment was at 11. I think we finally saw Dr. Grana around 12:45! We got into a room, but then we just had to keep waiting. Luckily, Dante was occupied with the ever handy "sticker book", which has saved us during countless clinic visits.

After all that wait, they decided to just do a finger prick CBC. His ANC is 4400. His platelets are up to 183. His hemoglobin is still low at 11.4, but much higher than during our previous visits. If you recall, we were getting concerned about how his hemoglobin was not rising. Dr. Grana said that she thinks his body is just taking a little longer to get his red blood cells back to normal. She thinks his immune system is back to normal and everything looks really good. We will have another CT scan in June, and at that time we will get another AFP test(tumor marker) done.

While we were there, I couldn't help thinking back over the past 9 months. We have met some really great people and our eyes were opened to an entire other existence that many people are living in daily. We are so thankful for how everything has turned out for Dante and us so far. We're also very thankful for all the people who we have met along the way. In the clinic today, there was a little girl Dante's age, Edith, who we always saw at the hospital and once shared a room with. She had so much hair, I didn't even recognize her! I couldn't stop staring because I didn't believe it was the same person and I was so happy to see that she was obviously healthier. I have also been closely following another friend, Sara, and just get goosebumps when I think about how happy I am about her progress. We have recently heard about a couple of kids that have lost their battle to cancer and our thoughts go out to those families.

When Chris and I first got the phone call from Dr. Patranella in August, telling us that Dante had a tumor in his pelvis, we thought our world was ending. We were so terrified that we didn't even want to discuss the thoughts that were going on in our head. It seemed to just get worse and worse until we had an exact diagnosis. From that point on, we proceeded with a different attitude and tried to not let those thoughts come to the surface. We were determined to stay strong for Dante. I am so thankful to be able to soon celebrate Dante's third birthday, that words cannot express.