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Well, round 1 of chemo went pretty darn well last week. Eli had a great weekend and we were even moved to a double room with the promise of never having a roommate! As expected, Eli’s counts finally hit zero, so he’s at the top of the risk factor for getting infections. That being said, we’re unfortunately going to have to start cutting back on the visitors, especially school aged ones that are potentially around sick kids all day. 🙁 Eli won’t like that news since he has been enjoying visits from his buddies from school and his friend Henry from Ames. Yesterday brought on round 2 of chemo, which should ensure that Eli’s counts stay in the dumps for many weeks to come. In fact, today alone he needed blood and platelets both (have you donated blood lately?) We have been giving him ’round the clock’ Zofran to try to head off the nausea and I think it’s working pretty well since Eli hasn’t been sick once so far. He definitely loses his appetite and doesn’t feel so hot, but at least he isn’t throwing up.
We did have an hour today where Eli wasn’t connected to his pole, so we made the most of it with a bath and a quick trip outside to a park area where he worked with a physical therapist on throwing and kicking balls and climbing stairs. It was nice to get out of that room for a little while, even if it was a bit chilly out.
Many of you already figured out that I created an Eli Horn page on Facebook. He’s too young to have his own account, so I created a ‘celebrity fan page’ for him so people could use it as an online community to leave him messages and such. There used to be a rather inactive ‘praying for Eli Horn’ group, but I’ll be closing that one down. I will always use this website as the place to put major updates, but wanted a really easy place for people to leave Eli messages and even post pictures. It started working immediately with people who started “Liking” Eli’s page and posting messages and their favorite pictures of him. Sometimes I’ll post little quips on there like I do on Twitter, but the real updates will always come from here. If you are on Facebook and want to check it out, I created a shortcut to his page by pointing www.elisarmy.com there. Thanks to everyone who has already “Liked” Eli. 🙂
Eli also has an app (‘Of course he does’ I hear you saying to yourself). If you have an Android device, just search the App Market for Eli’s Army. If you’re on an iPhone, download the Uppsites app and then search within that app for Eli’s Army and mark it as a favorite. It basically just makes this blog easier to read on a mobile device, it’s not really anything fancy. I don’t even know yet if it supports notifications for when a new update is posted. 🙂
We’re working on ordering Eli’s Army hoodies. Just something fun for people to show their support. If you want to sign up to have us order one for you, just go here for a brown hoodie (http://tinyurl.com/43rsgmr) and here for a green hoodie (http://tinyurl.com/42mgtpt). This lets us get an idea as to how many hoodies to order, which we will do mid-November. Thanks for your help on this, Kris!
Also, for anyone in the Central Iowa area, Eli’s great friend Henry’s mom (Susan) is going to 20% of this Friday’s sales at her store (The Pumpkin Patch on Main Street in Ames) to Eli’s Ronald McDonald House bill in NYC. Finally, if you want a replacement Eli’s Army bracelet (or have just never had one before), click on the Shirts tab up top and order a bracelet for $1 (to cover the postage). We are definitely blessed with great friends and supporters and we appreciate it very much.
As always, thank you for all of the prayers!
Here are a few pics from this week:
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