About Me

My photo
Bakersfield, CA, United States
Hans was a busy, happy, sweet and fearless three year old when he was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma. He fought his disease like a "gladiator" for nearly 6 years. Hans was an animal lover to his core. He was 'guarded' at home by his three cats, Black, Orange and Cotton. He also had his Golden Retriever, Honey, to keep him company. Hans enjoyed swimming, biking, gardening, grilling (he had his very own grill!), horseback riding, playing video games, building Legos, and flipping between Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Animal Planet. Hans loved all members of his family and he was a loyal friend. He had to go through a lot of treatment in his life. But Hans powered through it. His attitude was let's get this done! His motivation was always to get back home, to his family, pets, favorite foods and pool.

Friday, November 04, 2011

Bouncing along the bottom

Hans' counts are not doing anything. He has no ANC, a WBC of .13, Plts down to 11 and HGB of 8.6. His fever has been persistent for now nearly, but not quite, one week. It's a funny fever - it goes away with Tylenol. It sometimes doesn't crop back up for 20 hours, but then it sure does. It was just 103.1 this morning. The other funny thing is that Hans looks pretty good. He is sitting up and doing more Lego! Thanks, this time from pals in TX. I haven't seen the card and notes, but Kev brought down all the loot last night. HOW SWEET! Perfect timing for this hospital visit.

They don't know what is causing the fevers. He has no pain. Nothing has come back in the blood and urine cultures. And, actually, the urine has been free of the ketones, proteins and blood we were worried about! They are giving him one IV antibiotic and they are also going to start IV Fluconazole, an antifungal, for a little bit of Thrush. They are also going to start looking for other fungal infections. They have done some blood work which will take days. In a day or two they may order more, and they may also order a CT to check look for any signs of fungal infection in his sinuses or lungs. Kinda crazy! Esp considering he is really looking pretty well. However, he is not really eating much here. Poor kid is "just sick of being here". He misses his dog and taking her on a walk:( He doesn't tend to eat well inthe hospital. Despite the fact that we spare no expense on his requests and keep Aimee running to stay on top of his demands. He is picking at bites of chicken, nibbling chips and salsa and taking in an ounce or two of smoothie.

Kevin has been here since last night, I'm swithcing out and going to be with Elle tongiht, get her to her last soccer game tomorrow, and then we'll both come down. Thanks to Claire and her fam for taking in our girl on a moment's notice.

Stem cell harvest remains a possibility. But, we are actually also discussing the possiblity of giving Hans his last tiny bag of stem cells back to him if his counts don't recover. Our doctor thinks they will, though, next week. ICE is tough stuff. The only solace is that we can visibily see that it is doing something to the tumor in the Lymph Nodes.

Thanks for your donations to Hans' CNCF Park! http://www.cncfparks.org/help-a-child/park/21/ check it out today, it's gone up over $8,000!
And, don't forget you can also Scarf it Up! for a cure 15% of Internet sales go to the CNCF in honor of Hans' "Five Year Campaign". (I'm only going to hit you with this stuff for one more week:)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I suspect Hans' system is trying to make sense of all that has gone on...and continues to occur! His resilience is nothing short of miraculous!

I pray that the coming days will evidence Hans' positive response to the IV. ICE is harsh, and it may take a bit to bounce back!

Hans...may your chicken be crisp and yummy, the spaghetti tacos irresistible, the smoothies tasty....AND the Lego challenges never-ending!!!!

Hugging you from afar...with kisses coming your way on the breezes!

Aunt Susy

Patrick said...

Dear Bone Marrow -

Please defrost from your ICE-induced slumber and get back to work. Hans is wonderful, sweet, funny, and BORED. Get back to work and let him walk his dog, eat chips and salsa, and spend time in his own home where he can build legos with his sister, mom, dad, and dog while packing on the pounds.

I understand you've had quite an difficult journey yourself and for that I am sorry but get you %ss in gear and get this boy home.

thanks
pat

Ashton Blackman said...

Yeah! What Pat said! WORD!
Ashton Blackman

Anonymous said...

I second Will's Dad. And Aunty Susy. xx- Erin

Anonymous said...

CRUMMY!!!

Sending love and peace from Santa Cruz.

At least he has the legos! After seeing Hans in the hospital with his legos last time, he goes into a kind of meditation putting them together. I think that it is incredibly healing and intellectually challenging for him. And all of the Doctors are very impressed and comment how his lego abilities are much greater than his age.

Hans is a fighter! He will continue on his fight against all of these health struggles. In that, I am sure.

xoxo

Roxie