Feelin' a little sickie

Yesterday evening I went into the playroom to get a movie to watch and I saw "Isaiah Oates" on the list, he is Our Assistant Pastor's nephew. I had heard all about him but had never met him or his parents, so I went down and introduced myself. What a beautiful family. I went back to my room and had a bit of a rough night listening to Frankie cry on the other side of the curtain, but Luke was able to sleep through it all ! We ended up moving into a new room at six this morning (Frankie and his Dad had a bad cough we didn't want to catch) and guess where they moved us?...yep...our new roomie is Isaiah. He is six years old, Luke thinks he's pretty cool because he knew about a fun new Internet game.

Luke was feeling dizzy and his head hurt this afternoon. When his dinner came he almost threw-up at the smell. I had to remove it from the room quickly and while I was in the kitchen wrapping up his dinner he fell asleep. I'm hoping he will feel better when he wakes up.

Round 3

Here we are at the hospital again...Luke's ANC is at 2200. His Chemo should start at about 4pm. We are rooming with a little 3 year old named Frankie. He is one of six children and was recently diagnosed with Leukemia. Frankie has a 10year old brother named Tony (our new friend). Tony has been going back and forth to the playroom to fetch Luke x-box games! Sweet boy.

Luke's hair is all over his pillow. It's coming out much faster now. Before we left home he was following Aunt Cherie's suggestion and sprinkling his hair in the bushes for the birds to use for their nests'...he got-a-kick out of that idea!! :)

Little Wish

Your prayers are effective. Thank you all for standing by us. The Lord brought up Luke's ANC to 315 by Thursday morning and the Doc. said we could go home.! They think he is now on the up-swing so we even got a free pass on clinic next week, we don't have to go back until Luke's third round of Chemotherapy on Tuesday the 28th. Yay! We are keeping a watchful eye out for signs of his platelet levels getting too low (they were trending down during our hospital stay). He has a few dark bruises on his legs (which is one of the symptoms). If he gets too low, he may need to have a blood platelet transfusion.

All the kids are feeling much better now, the coughs are subsiding; but of course not until Mom was infected too. Daddy is taking somewhere around 20 vitamin C's a day (he thinks he's in the clear) .

On Thursday morning before being discharged home Luke got a fun surprise. A "Little Wish" from the Make a Wish Foundation. One of the Child Life Specialists' came in with a gift and her camera. He opened it and was overflowing with joy. It was a "Nintendo Game Boy DS"!!!! He was so excited to get home and show his brothers and sister. I told him many kind people from all over, give money to buy kids in the hospital special toys to make them feel better, Luke replied "and they waste all the money on a DS for me !?"

Monday night was a little stressful for Mommy. Luke's fever got up to 102.5 and he was really weak and tired. It's always hard to see your child with a fever but even more scary when you know his defences are depleted. Thank you Lord for your comfort, and healing! Luke is feeling well today, no more fevers! His ANC in now at 88. We can go home when he reaches 250. Sounds like a long way to go, but they tell me it can leap quite a lot in a short period of time. Joe, Grace and Peter are all being medicated at home, please pray they will get better quickly!!

-Erica

Back to the hospital

Just wanted to let everybody know that Luke had to be admitted to the hospital today at about 4:00pm. He has had a cold for the last couple days that he picked up from his siblings and the clinic wanted us to come in and have his ANC checked. His count was at zero and he has been running a slight fever, so they had him admitted to start a course of antibiotics via IV. We are currently waiting for a lab culture to come back to see if there is a virus or bacteria that they need to treat specifically out side of the general antibiotics that he is receiving currently. If this is the case they said to expect a seven to ten day hospital stay. If he only needs the general antibiotics, then we should expect a 48hr stay. Other than this he has been fairing pretty well. He has been in good spirits and is still acting like a normal five year old. He just tires out a little quicker than the rest. Thanks for your continued prayers and support.

-The Finches

2 Down, 2 To Go

God surpassed all of our expectations once again ! Luke's ANC went from 400 to 1400 this week so they admitted us into the hospital for his second of four cycles of Chemotherapy yesterday April 7. The doctor said this will be the hardest of the four cycles. He has been a champ though. After about five hours of pre-hydration, he had one hour of Carboplatin, one hour of Etopiside and 15 min of Doxo followed up by hydration until we were discharged this afternoon. One of the medications caused Luke to pee bright orange, which he thought was hilarious ! He woke up this morning with some aches and pains, but got up and dressed and was in the playroom feeling fine soon after. Daddy buckled him into his car seat for the trip home, and as we pulled out of the hospital parking lot he said "That was a nice sleepover!"

Chemo Postponed

Luke's ANC count was down to 400. He is pretty much house bound for now. We have to watch him close for any signs of fever of 100.5 or above. His ANC has to be at least 550 to start chemo, so we were sent home to wait. They assume his ANC needs a little more recovery time so they scheduled his chemo for next Tuesday April 7th. I guess this is a fairly common occurrence but a little scary for us since he is so vulnerable to infection. Please pray his counts will rise quickly. He is still feeling fine, despite having so few white blood cells... Praise God !