I know that a lot of you are as anxious as I was to know what Eli’s counts were this morning. WBC is .4! That’s obviously not a huge increase from yesterday’s .3, but it’s still moving in the right direction.
Warning: More information than you probably wanted to know about blood counts in this next paragraph. 🙂 WBC means White Blood Count. When I say he’s at .4, that means he has 400 of them. You and I have anywhere from 4 to 10 thousand. ANC means Absolute Neutrophil Count. Neutrophils are the part of the white blood cell that fights off infection. The magic number is .5, or 500. Once his ANC is 500, they’ll let us go and he won’t be neutropenic anymore. When the WBC is so low, they don’t even report the ANC, however our doctor sat down and calculated out the ANC for me and it was 24. You and I have anywhere from 1,500 to 6,000. TYPICALLY, once the counts start to rise, they rise at a really fast rate because we’re giving him GCSF shots every night. So, at the risk of being too optimistic, our doctor said it’s feasible that we could be out of here in the next day or two if his counts start to shoot up like we would expect them to!
The other things that need to cooperate before they’ll let us go home are his fevers and his blood cultures. He hasn’t had a fever since Monday night at 8pm. If he gets another fever, they’ll make him stay at least 24 more hours to see if it gets worse. They are picky about that too, if they put the thermometer in his ear and it reads 38.0 C (100.4 F) or above, you are STUCK and there is no amount of negotiating to get them to try again in 5 minutes or anything. It’s officially a fever. They will typically try the other ear just in case, but that’s about it. The last 3 blood cultures have been negative, which is exactly the magic number. As long as they stay negative and we don’t have any more positives while we’re here, we’ll be all clear! Remember, next week is scan week!
So, here are the things we are praying for today. An ANC of 500, no more fevers, and continuing negative blood cultures! For those of you that might be thinking that those are pretty petty and small things to be bothering the Creator of the Universe for, keep in mind that this is the same Creator that knows every sparrow and cares for nothing on earth more than those that He made in His image. If nothing else, He’ll at least be glad to hear from you today. 🙂
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Luke 12:6-7)
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because He cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7)
By the way, I wanted to update some contact information. Through at least the second week in February, we will still be at the Ronald McDonald House here in NYC. I have had several requests for our address here so people can send cards/letters, which is great! If you do send a card, including a picture of your family would be fantastic because then Eli can “see” who is sending it to him and associate you with the card. You could also e-mail me the picture if that’s easier for you and I could show it to him on the computer while he opens your card.
Ronald McDonald House
Attn: Eli Horn – Room 401
405 E 73rd St
New York, NY 10021
Also, most people know that the best way to reach me is via e-mail (aaron@hornit.net), but if you are wanting to send a note to both Lacey and I, you can actually e-mail aaron&lacey@hornit.net and it saves me the step of forwarding on your e-mail to Lacey because we’ll both instantly get a copy of it. Yeah, I’m seriously that lazy. 🙂
Thanks, everybody. Have a great Wednesday!