"Kids do heroic things when they have heroic things to do." Jeff Leland, Sparrow Clubs

My post tonight will give you a rudimentary snapshot of average values in a CBC - Complete Blood Count (at Tom's request). There are three I always report back about Hans. We got yesterday's labs back and Hans' WBC skyrocketed to 17! Holy cow! That's high. It can be attributed to the stem cell infusion he had on the 6th, and, perhaps even the Neulasta shot he got to boost his white blood count on the 9th. We can also point the finger at this high WBC for Hans' pain. The pain subsided on Saturday and Sunday and popped up again Monday and today. The pain is now a little higher up his back. The stem cells are baby blood cells that find their home in the Bone Marrow and set up shop as a blood factory. When the cells "engraft" and start knocking out all kinds of blood cells, it can be painful to the host (Hans). He's hanging in there. He didn't cancel school yesterday or today, but he did ask to cancel. I guess hesitated just long enough for him to decide he could do it. Lil trooper. Meanwhile, His HGB dropped to 8.3 and we are now expecting a transfusion later in the week... Platelets rallied to 53, but the platelet transfusion he got on Friday is likely why they are that high.

WBC (Child) 5.0 – 10.0 White Blood Cells (fights off germs)
Hgb (child) 10 - 14 Hemoglobin - Red Blood Cells Delivers oxygen to body, we transfuse under 8.0
Plts (child) 150 - 450 Platelets - Clots the blood to prevent bleeding/bruising, we transfuse close to 0~
Hct (Child) 30 - 42% Hematocrit - another measure of red blood cells, I don't tend to follow this one, I follow HGB because that's what we learned to track at TCH.

We've had some excitment around here! Kevin returned from AZ and we had him here for just two nights before work redirected him to Sacramento to check on his well and meet with the team. Ah man.

We got a wonderful treat of a visit with my Aunt Pati and her bf Tom yesterday. They were doing a few days in San Francisco and the wine country and they decided to make a rather heroic effort to come and see US:) They did get to see Kevin yesterday, and they got to accompany Hans on his adventure to Elle's Jr. High school, and were off!

I have to THANK Mrs. Hodges' class. This group of kids did an amazing thing for Hans yesterday! They pooled their money and went shopping for Hans off his Amazon.com wishlist!!! Soo sweet. Mrs. Hodges heard what was up with Hans and thought that her class/Elle's Language arts class would like to reach out to him. There is no better way to reach out to some kids than through Star Wars. We are continually touched by the kindness of others! The kids were soooo sweet. They treated Hans like a little rock star. He got a guided tour of the Junior High. What surprised me was that seventh grade boys were just as sweet (or even sweeter) to Hans than seventh grade girls:) Hans could have no better escort than his lovely sister Elle. She got to shine in her role as ambassador between Hans and the Junior High.