Update 2/2/09

Evan is having a good day today. For that matter the past 8 days have been good days. We measure the quality of the day based on simple factors: presence of nausea, presence of pain, amount of energy and participation in events/activities outside the home.
Each Monday we take a trip to Evan’s pediatrician and have blood drawn for lab work. The numbers are available the following day and we have been charting the ups and downs of various numbers. While all the numbers are important for ongoing life, the chemo knocks the immune system off line for a couple of days and it takes his body time to replace these key ‘fighter’ cells called neutrophils. These cells are the primary component of a person’s WBCs (White Blood Cell). When these counts get to below 500/micro liter Evan becomes susceptible to infections that would require hospitalization to control. With each passing chemo treatment, Evan’s time in the danger zone increases; first round ~1 day, second round ~5 days, third round – we’ll let you know.
With that information as a backdrop; We are getting ready for his next MRI which will be done on the afternoon of February 17. Evan also has a return visit to the onco-surgeon on February 12, and his next round of chemo is scheduled for February 20. The visit with the onco-surgeon will be to review progress of the chemo and determine the next step in his treatment course. The MRI will provide a more quantitative evaluation of the tumor size and its response to chemo (Has it grown/shrunk and by how much).
On the homefront, things are busy. Evan was able to get his computer to school for initial evaluation for the Science Fair 2009, and he qualified for the next round. He continues to work on it, refining, repairing, improving, and correcting. He also attended Legopalooza at the Moorehead Planetarium at UNC, on the Scouting front he is building his final entry into the Pinewood Derby and getting ready to receive his Arrow of Light and crossover to Boy Scouts.
That’s the news for the day; pictures at 11; and right after that another exciting episode of ‘The Lobby Sherrif’