The Post of the YEAR!

Hey everyone!

I guarantee this is the post you have been waiting for...

We took William yesterday afternoon for a check up at the Children's Hospital Hematology/Oncology Clinic. Due to a merge a few months ago this was our first trip to the Minneapolis clinic...our new home away from home in some respects. We were a bit nervous about finding the place so we left early with a bit of excitement.

We arrived at the beautiful building and walked in to a spacious waiting room, our familiar face Javonn (The St. Paul Clinic's receptionist), shouting out "Hello Mr. Moeller" as she always does when we walk in. They always treat us as if they know everything about us. True friends on our journey!

William ran from us to the play area setting his sights first on "Cozy Coupe" car that looked like a fire engine. He was in heaven and we had to spend a few extra seconds promising that we'd play more when we got back from our trip to the lab. He went reluctantly but was thoroughly pleased to spot a wagon to ride in and kid chairs shaped like puppies downstairs in the lab waiting room.

We went in for his blood draw hoping he wouldn't be scared in this new place. Daddy held him on his lap as William watched the lab tech put the needle into his arm. The bravest boy I know never cried, and actually said "Thank you" to the tech as we walked out!

Oddly enough, when it was our turn to get roomed, they told us that they were very busy so they put us in a big room; one that is probably used for many cancer treatments. It was basically a hospital room, big bed, sweet TV, and an XBOX360 too! We had to wait a long time so we were thankful for the large space for William to run around, and all the toys inside for him to play with.

Finally Dr. Messinger came in to see us. (He is not our own Hematologist, but one we have seen many times before and he definitely knows William and our story). As always he came in with his huge smile and gentle accented voice that is filled with love for children. He has always taken the extra time to establish rapport with the kiddos first whether blowing soap bubbles while washing his hands or letting William play with his stethoscope and the light on the otoscope to check his ears.

This Dr. walked in to our room to catch us off guard and ROCK OUR WORLD! He told us that the numbers he sees are very pleasing to him. He said that he can now definitely diagnose William Henry with Autoimmune Neutropenia the form of his blood disorder that goes away by age 2! He said that William is on his way to normal numbers. He said that our baby is better. He said that he is healthy and PERFECT! He said that this issue or in his words "this hell you have gone through" will not have any effect on William's future in any way. He said that this will not happen to any future children we may have. He said that this will not put William at risk for any other Autoimmune disorders in life. Any the best words of all...He said that we never have to go back to see them again. He said, "Forget about us!"

He explained that testing William periodically to check his ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count) is now pointless. He feels confident that he can fight infections on his own! He knows that we can advocate for him at any time should he have a drop in Neutrophils and an infection (which he also said is not likely). We no longer have to rush to call the on-call Hematologist at the first sign of infection or high fever. We no longer have to run down to Children's ER each time with grave worry of what we'll find. The only time that we would need to demand that Dr.'s check William's Neutrophil count is if he showed signs of a severe infection such as another abscess.

Dr. Messinger then congratulated us, kissed William and told our little guy to run after him as he went to get our FINAL print out of William's numbers. He said goodbye and that was that. We walked down the hall not fully reacting to our life changing news. We ran into Javonn again who stopped us because she "can't let us leave yet." She had to go and grab his Christmas gift from the Clinic. (If you remember from earlier posts, each child and their siblings get a gift at Christmas time because of an angel who died of cancer see her caring bridge site sometime it will inspire you! http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/princessmaddie)

William got to open his toy, got to hug Javonn, and another very special lady...his Nurse Linda who has been there for a lot of our journey too. We told them both with huge smiles and watery eyes that this was our last visit...that we aren't coming back.

We took William to the lobby, where he got the golden coin he earned for being a good boy and let him put it into the toy vending machine they have there. All kids get a prize on the way out! He picked a super ball, and had to spend 5 minutes replaying the moment he got it by stuffing it back up in the vending slot, pretending to turn the handle and letting the ball come out again. He took another spin in the fire truck "Cozy Coupe" and then we said good bye.

Nothing really set in until we got to the car. Then I lost it. I cried and cried, just as I am right now. No words can explain the way this feels! We have traveled on a journey that we didn't sign up for. We walk away now SO changed by everything. We are more knowledgeable, we are tougher, we (I) tend to worry more, we look at our child in a more thankful way and appreciate every move he makes, and we feel SO SO SO LOVED by so many people. In a way we are lucky not only for the incredible outcome we are now celebrating, but we are somehow lucky for the experience as well.

I'm sure this won't be my last blog on the subject as there is just too much to say and you all know how much I need to talk! :)

Final words for today... THANK YOU!

All the love we can squeeze into you, and a huge, wet, drooly, "Mwah" from William too!

~The Healthy Happy MoellersWilliam at St. Paul Children's Hospital on December 11th 2009 (9 months old) after surgery and a bone marrow biopsy.

William on December 12th 2010 the day after the record snowfall in MN!

An October Like No Other!

Hey all!
Did October cruise by or what? Some big things happened to us this month and it's good to share them with you.

First William started full time at his new daycare. We ended up switching because our other daycare couldn't offer us 5 days a week and we didn't want to expect my dad to keep taking William 1 day a week to make up for it. His new daycare is still in Woodbury and he goes there with one of his little buddies (Enrique who is 12 hours younger than him and a teacher friend's son) and now another teacher's daughter Rylie. He is now adjusted and VERY happy there! It was sad to leave Jan's and we still miss her though!

We REALLY had a great Halloween and totally made up for last year when all 3 of us were suffering from H1N1. Thinking back to that sometimes is mind blowing...it was the first time William was EVER sick and getting through it with Mommy and Daddy being sick was tough! (Who knew that that was just prep for what we were heading towards in that year?)

The Tuesday before Halloween, my mom and I took William trick-or-treating at Kowalski's in Woodbury. They had little stations set up all over the grocery store and I was BLOWN away to see how he knew just what to do. I realized later that he had been playing with a trick-or-treating plastic pumpkin at daycare for weeks, loading it up with little toys etc. so he'd been practicing. At the store he was so happy each time they would put something into his bucket and for the next several days he would dig through, bring us something and wait until we let him have a little taste!

Now for the crazy part of that night... If you remember that Tuesday was the first night of the huge windstorm we had. After trick-or-treating at Kowalski's William and I had to stop at my parent's house to borrow something for Paul. (He was teaching his community ed. pottery class as usual). As William and I arrived home and drove down our alley, we slowly dodged blown around garbage cans only to see our neighbor guys moving some brush near our driveway. Our nextdoor neighbor Rodger said, "You might want to park in my driveway because you are not getting into yours!" I pulled forward to see one of our greatest fears...our neighbor on the other side's enormous Silver Maple tree lost a huge limb in the storm. Of course it fell right on our garage! (If you don't know...Paul has put an enormous amount of work into the garage since we moved here...go back in our blog archives to May 2008 to see where he started from if you are bored).


The AMAZING and lucky part is that the tree fell just 15 minutes after Paul left to go teach his class. It also fell 15 minutes BEFORE William and I got home. Had we not stopped at my parent's house for a small errand, who knows what might have been. All I know is that we both park on the driveway, never in the garage, and the main part of the limb landed right where my car is normally. It also took down our neighbor's main power line, wedged it under the limb, and remained live on the ground for several days.

Immediately the fire department showed up to check out the live wire and to mark off our yeard with yellow tape. I was so in awe of everything happening that my only reaction was, "Can my son see your firetruck?" Ha ha ha! They walked me down the alley to their truck and let William
get in. He was super excited and they even turned the lights on for him. Unfortunately I set my bags and camera down in our yard and didn't get any photos.

We're still wading through that mess with insurance and getting bids for repairs but we know it will all work out.

REAL HALLOWEEN
This year we had 2 fun costumes for William. His real costume was a dragon outfit from Old Navy...it was cuddly, shiny, and adorable! We practiced wearing it a few times the week before and he had fun running around in it growling in it. On Halloween we visited my grandpa Papa Dick and William trick-or-treated there. Then my parents came over and we took William trick or treating around our block. He liked that but his favorite part of the night, was answering the door for all of the trick-or-treaters at our house. He would squeal with delight when he heard their knocks!
William' second costume was purely for Mommy and Daddy's entertainment but was a hit! This summer we found an employee name tag in the parking lot at Target. We just HAD to dress him up as "Eddie." See for yourself!


The big news of the month is that on the same day the tree fell, I took William for his latest finger poke and ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count). We were wondering what we'd get because he had just had the Flu/H1N1 shot and at this point his system might show any complications from it (if there were any). Instead when the results came in...his ANC was 1,232 ALL ON HIS OWN! This is the first time we have seen this in nearly a year!!! Generally we have been told that 1,500 is the bottom of the normal range, but he is getting darn close! We won't see the Hematologist until late December early January but for now we can't even begin to explain how this makes us feel!

William did make it through a Croup diagnosis which did develop into uncontrollable coughing for two nights called Reactive Airway Disease. After that though he has been doing fairly well. We always have his Nebulizer at home to help out with respiratory issues and although he hates it, we are not afraid to try it when in doublt! We are mindful of all of his sniffles, endless runny noses, coughing all night and other normal kid cold stuff, but for the most part he's been ok. He is happy, playful, and learning new things and new words every day. I'll say from now until forever that I've mistakenly blinked and he turned into a little boy!

Thanks for reading!
Love,
Katie, Paul and Sweet William

Quickie!

Hey everyone,
Here's a quick update:

We're all doing great. Healthy, happy, BUSY!!! I started Graduate school September 17th and have gone for 2 full weekends now. It is really fun, interesting and very pertinent to what I am already doing in my classroom. I am doing it with my good friend Erin too. On Sundays our husbands get together to watch football and William gets to play with his girlfriend Macie who is 6 months older than him TO THE DAY! (Older woman!) So far I am extremely happy for making this choice.

We went to our 6 week check up at the Hem/Onc clinic today. Things went very well. William's ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count) was 632 today. This was on his own without any meds. I meant to blog 3 weeks ago when we had it checked at our clinic. That time it was 648. This is a good sign that he is slowly re-building his ANC on his own. That leads us more in the direction of Autoimmune Neutropenia. (The kind that should go away by age 2!)

Dr. Schults was happy again with how William looked and acted. She said we can space his visits out to every few months and to have his blood checked every 6 weeks now instead of every 3. This is great for him because it means less pokes, (More wondering for Mommy and Daddy though).

We talked for a while about giving him his flu shot today. This year they have mixed the flu vaccine with the H1N1 flu vaccine. Dr. Schultz and I had some concerns because deep down we have never been able to completely prove that William's Neutropenia was not caused by the H1N1 Flu in his system last year. (Paul, William and I are pretty darn sure we all had it last October). We decided that the benefits of protecting him from the regular flu outweighed the chance that it could knock out his neutrophils again so he got the shot today. Now we wait 3 weeks and get his levels checked and see what we see...

Today was sadly our last visit to the Hem/Onc clinic at the Children's Hospital building in St. Paul. In order for them to provide the same services the clinic is merging with the Minneapolis Children's clinic. We now have to cross the river for our visits, but I'm told that the building is gorgeous, and all of our people will be moving over there! We will miss the old one though.

Hope you are all enjoying the beautiful (finally) Fall weather!

~The Moeller's

Dog Days

Hey Friends and Neighbors!
Here we are at the end of the summer...ALREADY!!! We have truly had a wonderful summer. Many play dates, swimming, camping, a great trip to Montana, and much much more.

We just returned on Tuesday from Bozeman MT where my brother Ted and sister-in-law Vanessa and nephew Linden live. We went out MT with my parents and went on a great trip to Yellowstone National Park and then headed to Bozeman at the end of the week for some fabulous family time. Our whole trip was a blast minus one small set back. I ended up in the ER in Red Lodge, MT on the morning we planned to head into Yellowstone. This was my 4th trip to the ER in the last 5 or 6 years for kidney stones. Luckily the pain meds worked fairly quickly and I was able to pass the stone while at the hospital after a whole lot of fluids in a short amount of time. The next day I was fine and we were on our way! We saw many geysers, pools, mud pots, and other geologic wonders, as well as many awesome animals.

William Henry has had a great summer himself. On July 13th we visited Dr. Schultz his Hematologist. He had been doing so well on his G-CSF medicine and when we checked his Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) it was still in the normal range even though we had spaced his shots out to every third day. She told us that there comes a time that we need to have a trial without any meds. We decided summer was the best time to do so because we are both home and if he got sick we could be available to go in to appointments, the ER, or heaven forbid...the hospital.

We skipped the shot of G-CSF that he was due for on July 13th and haven't given him a shot now for around 6 weeks. Three weeks ago we took him in to our regular clinic to check his ANC. We were a little disappointed to see that it was down into the 900 range (1500 is bottom of the normal range), but 900 was a great little number for a guy who used to average 0 without G-CSF!

We took him in yesterday to see Dr. Schultz again and she thought he looked great. He was happy (a little "P.O.'ed" after getting poked in both arms for his blood draws), and playful. She was very happy with the William she saw overall, but we had to wait a while for his labs to come back so we could find out what his ANC was. She reminded us that we use G-CSF to raise his neutrophil counts, but our goal is not to treat the neutrophil #, but to treat William's health. We really need to give him G-CSF only if he is ill or fighting an infection.

Yesterday's ANC was...drumroll...........................120. Boooooooooo! We were bummed and Dr. Schultz was a little surprised based on how he looked overall. At this point though there is nothing wrong, it's just that his body is not yet keen on making enough neutrophils on its own. He has not grown out of his Autoimmune Neutropenia. We have plenty of G-CSF in our fridge and we can start it again if necessary at any time the Dr.'s decide he needs it(it would stink to have to start giving him shots again though). In the mean time we just watch him for signs of illness, fevers, or other signs of infection, and continue to LOVE spending time with our happy boy.

We go back to teacher workshops on Monday and he goes back to daycare. I think it will be a very sad day for a boy who has had both Mommy and Daddy every day all summer. (Not to mention how sad we will be).

We are thankful for the many many healthy days we have had this summer. We are certainly going to stretch the summer as long as we can. We will be living it up at the Fair a.s.a.p.! I am tasting Sweet Martha's cookies in my mind as we speak!

Hope you are all doing well!
Love,
The Moeller's ;)

Warm Thoughts...

Hello!
Schoooooool's out for SUMMA! School's out for eva!

Happy First day of Summer!

I hope all of you are doing well. We had a WONDERFUL summer day and we are SO lucky that we can both be home with William. We got up this morning, had a quick breakfast and headed out for our 1st successful bike ride with William in the Burley bike trailer! Last time we tried he screamed the whole time. (Now we can laugh about it). We're pretty sure it was the helmet. It kept falling over his face. Today Paul fiddled with it and finally it stayed up so he could look around and enjoy the ride. He was smiling a lot too. I can say that I was pretty tired by the time we got home (I was lucky enough to be the puller!)

After napping today, we enjoyed the heat by getting wet with Will's sand and water table and his blow up pool. He loved them both! He loves to splash and isn't afraid to get his face wet. As Paul was blowing up the pool Will climbed all over it laughing. Later as Paul was spraying the water into it, he immediately climbed in it clothes and all! We had the stereotypical kid with the HUGE white saggy diaper after a few minutes.


We got some SUPER news last week and I have been dying to sit down and blog so we could share it with you! (I need to back up though first and share a quick "Debbie Downer" moment 1st).

On Saturday June 6th, Willy woke up with a pink eye that looked puffy and swollen. As the day went on it worsened a little and worried us some so we called the on-call Hematologist. He said not to worry unless it got redder or he developed a fever. The next day he woke up and it seemed as though it had switched to the other eye. I had a crazy day running from a baby shower to a wedding shower that both started at the exact same time. One in Farmington and the second one in Woodbury. By the time I got home Paul was getting pretty worried because William had a fever of about 100.3. We called the Hematologist and they decided we needed to bring him in to the E.R. to be seen. By the time we got there the poor baby looked miserable. Both eyes were pink, half closed because they were swollen, and weepy and his nose was constantly running clear. The Dr. felt that it could be just pink eye, but it can be caused by allergies, viruses, or infection (which for William is the worry!).

They took blood samples and set him up with an IV just in case he needed it for antibiotics later. After a few hours they came to tell us something GREAT... His neutrophil count came in at 4,000 (1,500 is bottom of normal range) and this was his trough day meaning he was due for his shot of G-CSF medicine later that night. That meant he should have been at his lowest point before getting the meds. We were all astounded. The Dr. was so happy that she said, "I like these numbers so much that we get to treat him like a "Normal" kid." She sent us home with eye drops for pink eye and that's it! She asked us to follow up with his pediatrician in a few days.

He did develop a horrendous cough and cold by the time we got to his Dr. appt on Wednesday. With the stress of our last week of school and everything going on it was really tough. His fevers continued from Sunday until Wednesday and we decided on our own to start using his nebulizer to help him breathe. We had to keep him home from daycare and we were SO lucky that my dad was willing to take him since he was already busy being "Yaya" (Grandpa) with my nephew Linden who was staying with he and my mom for two weeks. DR. Warnken thought he looked pretty good and was happy with all we had done. He said the nebulizer was the right choice and he was optimistic that Will would start getting better soon. He was able to go back to day care for his last two days and we got through our final days of the school year.

Ok back to the good news:
This last Wednesday, we took William for his scheduled finger poke to check his neutrophil count. We are now taking him every 3 weeks. This has been nice, less pokes for him and less running around for us. Any way...about an hour and a half later I got an unexpected call from our hematologist Dr. Schultz. She said that she had his results from his poke. I said, "The one from last Sunday in the E.R. right?" Surprisingly she already had his counts from that day! She was so pumped to share that his ANC was 4,061! This again was a trough day. She said that because he has had two good counts in a row, we could start spacing his shots out a little more! Now instead of getting a shot every other day, he gets a shot of G-CSF every third day. We are all so happy and hopeful that he is on a slow path to growing out of his Neutropenia. We'll see and we definitely won't celebrate that yet, but at least this little bit of news is great for now!

Hope everyone had a great Father's day with family! We had a nice day together.
Tomorrow William and I are off to a playdate with his baby guy friends at a pool. Should be awesome!

Take care and wear sunscreen!
~Katie, Paul, and William

Sorry for the Lack...I'm Back!

Hey everyone who is so gracious to to keep up with our crazy lives!

I am ELATED to say that things have been going swimmingly these days! Pun intended.

Swimming lessons have been great after William's two week stint of crabbiness. Not sure where the crying came from, he was never scared of the pool but made it known that he was unhappy. We got to use life jackets last week which was fabulous! William has a super sweet one because his Godfather Cory spoiled him. He was so darn cute floating on his back and trying to get his toys in the pool. I am sad to say that tomorrow is his last lesson of this session. We'll have to sign up again, and hope that this summer is more "summery" than last year so we can hit the pools every chance we get.

Willy Poo has been wonderful in the health department lately too! YAAAAAH HOOOO! I just checked his ANC for today and it looks like it is 1,220. Last week was 1,521. (Bottom of the Normal Range is 1,500). We are taking him in for this test only once a week. We take him in on a "trough" day. A "trough" day is the day that he is due for a shot of his G-CSF. It means he should be at his lowest Neutrophil count and has the lowest level of G-CSF medicine in his system when we are checking his levels. Basically he gets a shot of the meds the same night as the test, so generally his Neutrophil levels are even higher than what we see on his tests.

He is incredibly energetic these days! Having a higher Neutrophil count will do that to a person. :) When you feel great you can learn new things and refine your gross motor skills! He is graduating from his goofy little butt scooting all over the house to crawling on carpet, rugs, and grass, and the occasional hardwood floors. He has been able to crawl for a very long time, but always chose to scoot around on his butt instead. I think he finally realized that crawling is much faster and he can get into more things. He is also "cruising" (walking while holding on to objects) EVERYWHERE! He traveled all over my parent's house today grabbing on to anything he could to keep moving. He only needs 1 finger when walking, and has tried to take a step or two away from objects he holds on to. Last weekend Paul yelled, "Oh my God Katie get in here!" I ran into the room with my heart in my throat to see that Paul discovered our boy climbing up the stairs on his own. By the time I got there he was on the 4th step. Look out Mommy and Daddy!


Our little baby doesn't look like such a baby any more which is so mind blowing. He's a pretty handsome dude though and looks a ton like his cousin Linden did at this age. One day I realized that their teeth have come in, in the exact same order so it's even harder to tell the difference in some photos. Linden and my brother and sister-in-law will be visiting MN from Bozeman,MT Memorial Day weekend. It is the first time since our wedding in '07 that all 3 will be here together; we are so excited. Can't wait for some cousin time together!

William's passions continue to be anything with wheels or things that spin. He has commandeered the neighbor's daisy whirl-a-gig so that it now resides in our grass and he will flip anything over to get at the wheels. I'm pretty sure he'll be moving on to lifting small vehicles to do this next! Anyone drive a Smart Car or Mini Cooper?

I was just talking at lunch today about the difference in our lives right now. Things have been really crazy with the end of our school years approaching fast. 14 days left with kids!!! I said though that when I start to think about a lot of the things we have been through this year I can conjure up this tightening in my throat and chest. I can feel myself tightening all over as if I am bracing my body for a physical blow. I realize now that for nearly 6 months I felt this way every second of the day, even as I slept. We were always on the alert and ready to head to Children's Hospital at any second, which we had to do many times. I know now what "Survival mode" is all about and I hope to not go back there any time soon.

I am so blessed that right now I can think about all of that, then take a deep breath and try to let it go. I think every day is a miracle for all of us. I also think it may take a long time to really come to terms with everything we have dealt with. I am finally realizing that my baby was VERY sick, that my baby has a serious blood condition that is still inexplicable... that my baby had surgery, a bone marrow biopsy, 2 hospital stays, many ER visits and trips to the Hem/Onc clinic, and countless pokes in every part of his body. Sometimes it would be so easy to be ridiculously upset about all this, and I think that would be the easiest way to react. I try to remind myself that there are people all over the world who have been through something similar, even more so there are people who have been through things way more difficult than this. It helps to pray for those people and it puts things into perspective.

I love the incredible feeling I get when people ask how William is and I get to grin and say that he is GREAT! He is great, and right now we get to see the happy little boy that was hidden inside for a while.

Thank you to everyone who continues to think of him, pray for him, and check in on us from time to time. We couldn't get here without all of you!

Love,
The Marvelous Moeller's
XOXOXOXOXO

Enjoy the beautiful weekend!

Quick Update

4/14/2010 Wednesday

Hey Everyone,
It's been a while and I have been intending to update each night...here I am finally.

Overall I am SO pleased to say that we have been doing well. We (meaning I) are continuing to give William shots of the G-CSF medicine every other day. This is to keep his neutrophil count at a nicer level so that he has more energy, is happier, and feels more like himself. (It also protects him a little more so that if he gets an infection, his body may be ready to fight it).

During my Spring Break (the last week in March), William got to stay home with me. We had lots of fun activities going on, including a trip to the Mall of America with his buddy Enrique (and his mommy Renilda) to see the Easter Bunny at Toddler Tuesday and another visit to the MN Zoo with cousins Jeanne, Brienna, Chloe, and Dalila.

He was just not himself that week, he had a cold and was tired and moody all week. He threw up a few times, which we now think may have been a gag reflex from coughing too hard. I was a neurotic mess all that week worrying about what could be wrong with him. I was also a bit gun shy to take him places because he threw up all over himself in his carseat while we were running errands on our first day of break. His ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count) was only 50 that week when we stopped in at the Hem/Onc clinic. This was a SHOCK since we had been giving him the shots of G-CSF for a while already. Later the Hematologist said that it was quite possible it was so low because he might have been fighting a tough cold virus or something. (Fighting a virus will lower your white cells).

The good thing is that last week he started to bounce back. He was happy, but clingy, on Easter weekend and his energy slowly climbed back up. He saw the Hematologist and she thought things looked good. His ANC last week was 5,000! (Remember the bottom of the normal range is 1500 so this was a nice #!) He was a bit of a turd last week, waking up around 4:00 each weekday morning when my alarm for school goes off at 5:30. Guess he was really struggling to get off of Spring Break mode!

This week he has been a happy, smiley, boy with lots of energy. He can now stand up in his Pack-n-play and crib and he "cruises" around a lot (meaning he walks holding on to furniture or people). He still does not crawl on his knees, but is extremely skilled at scooting around on his bottom. He goes all around the house and it is pretty funny to see him try and scoot in the grass. I have noticed him pushing up on his hands and feet into the yoga pose called "Downward Facing Dog" so I think he really wants to learn to stand on his own. He has also gotten up on his knees and moved a few times before rapidly switching to his "scoot on the boot," so maybe he will learn to crawl traditionally some day. Oh and his ANC this Monday was 9,300!!!

During my Spring Break I got to visit with my friend Jen, a soon to be graduate of the U of M School of Pharmacy. For fun she looked up the cost of some of the drugs William has taken through all of his illnesses. She was telling me that the G-CSF he gets is VERY expensive. We get the G-CSF in these tiny glass vials, about the size of your pointer fingertip. We draw up 10 units of that vial which I would guess is not even 1/4 of it. Then we have to throw away the rest because they are single-use vials. We are now receiving these doses from the National Neutrophil Registry, because William is part of their studies so we get them for free. Jen revealed that EACH vial of the G-CSF he gets is around $240.00!!! She said that vials of the next level of concentration are around $1200.00! Thank you God first of all for health insurance, and second we now know that all those weeks of pokes 3X a week so that William could be in the Registry have been WELL worth it!

I hope the beautiful Spring weather is lifting your spirits and enriching your daily lives. We are enjoying walks and even tried our first bike ride with William in his Burley bike trailer. (He screamed bloody murder the whole way and kept pushing his helmet over his face, so guess who's going to be wearing a helmet during play time to get used to it?!?)

Thanks again to all of you who are keeping tabs on us in your own special ways. It won't be long and we'll be done with school and ready to rock the summer! Let us know if you're free!

Much love,
~The Moeller's