Eric was discharged!!!! It turns out that Sunday the 5th was the peak. His WBC counts dropped on Monday and, even better, his blast count dropped by half! His Oncologist stopped by and let us know that he and the Clinical Associate (CA) Pediatrician that was looking after Eric in the ward that week had agreed that if his counts were down again on Tuesday we would be allowed to go home. We got lots of movie suggestions and watched some of those while hoping that his WBC count would be down again the next day.
Tuesday morning when we woke up the first thing I asked Eric's nurse was for his counts. They were down a little, not like the day before, but I hoped that down was down. When the CA walked in the room with paper in her hand, I knew we were good to go! She had brought discharge papers!!! However, we did have to wait for a prescription to be ready at pharmacy. They had hoped not to send us home with the new chemo to drop the white count, but since his counts were only down a little that day, they decided Eric should continue with the chemo and re-evaluate in clinic later in the week. The chemo was ready at the pharmacy early afternoon and we made it home for mid afternoon. I crashed, hard, after a quick unpack, and Eric became one with the couch. He did come and tell me he was bored later in the afternoon and I told him to go away. It was such a relief to be at home after 11 nights in the hospital. That's our longest one in awhile.
Wednesday morning I had an appointment for car service. Side note: it regularly boggles my mind that while we're dealing with all of cancer crap, we also have to do normal life - make dinner, wash dishes, fold laundry and car service! Luckily I did have the foresight not to book it too early in the morning so I got a sleep in and slow morning before I had to head out. In the afternoon, we decided to get started on summer vacation, finally!!! I took the kids to Rocky Point Park for ice cream and a walk on the pier. We went to Chapters and picked up some books for our summer reading. Finally, we got Eric a haircut and now he's summer ready. Joel didn't want one because apparently he likes his hair like that. Eric kept saying this was such a great start to his summer vacation!
Thursday morning I had more errands and the kids had screen time. In the afternoon, we continued our efforts to make the most of summer vacation and I took the kids to Mundy Park pool. I had planned to read a book while the kids played in the pool, but Eric said "I want to swim with my family" and I can't deny him something that is so easy to provide. (We are not excluding Chuck. He is just at work and missing out on all the weekday fun.) We had a great time playing, but Eric is definitely short of breath in the pool, unable to swim as easily as he usually would be able to. After the pool, he went to a friend's for a playdate. This is a lot of activity for a kid who just spent 11 nights in the hospital and wasn't at school for the months before that. He made it a little over an hour and a half at his friend's place until he was too tired and ready to come home.
Friday we had an appointment at clinic. Since Eric was supposed to be at camp this week, which ends Friday morning, our appointment wasn't until 12:30. It was nice to have the morning free, but the clinic was busy so we had a lot of waiting with our afternoon appointment. I was very anxious with his counts not having been checked since Tuesday. Had they continued to drop? Would they be back up? Would they make us stay? I did not pack a bag which is tempting our motto of pack a bag, so you won't need it. While waiting (and waiting) in clinic, Eric went to play on the Xbox in the teen lounge. He doesn't usually do that, but had just realized that he could sign into our Xbox at home from the one in the teen lounge, same as he does with the Xbox in his inpatient room. That kept him entertained and I was able to read my book in our room, so at least that kept us busy while we waited. Finally, we got his counts and his WBC are down again and his blasts are down to 2.4!!!!!!!!!! This was such good news. Also, we get to continue weaning him off the steroid to treat his lungs and on Sunday he takes his final dose of the new chemo. He is still coughing, and was short of breath in the pool, but with the white cells dropping, the hope is that the fluid on his lungs will continue to improve. After waiting so long, Eric's nurse blasted those platelets into him, a bit faster than they're technically supposed to without an active bleed, but we were happy to get them in and get out!
Saturday Eric was ready for a bit of a rest day and Chuck and I had some errands to run. Of course, we still want to be having summer vacation fun every chance we get so we decided that after Eric's rest day and my errands, we would go see the new Moana live action movie in the theater.
Sunday we are off to a car show in Langley. Eric goes to the WCK (West Coast Kids Cancer Foundation) day camp in Surrey this week Monday through Friday. Both boys used to go, but Joel has aged out :( Eric will miss day camp on Wednesday to go to clinic for a count check and platelet transfusion. Joel and I are going to spend the week updating his room for the first time since we moved in when he was 2!
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