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 ;)