Nice rebound

Dear Madeline,

What an interesting last 10 days. I very much wanted to write to you last week to tell you about how your appointment went and to go over your counts and the like, but that didn't happen. Instead, because your appointment did not go as planned, you were admitted to the hospital overnight for precautionary purposes. I had very much wanted to write to you about that as well, but thought better of it and instead allowed the span of several days to fill the gap and help me see things a little more clearly.

Long story short, your vital signs and your counts all looked fine at your appointment last week but you were, as we were informed, accidentally given too much medicine. There's really not much more you need to know about that, but you did get to see all of your new friends on the nursing staff on the pediatric oncology floor of the hospital again. And they were so happy to see you just being a typical baby (save for the cancer treatment, of course).

Mom and I were pretty nervous about how your appointment this week would go. Since you received 2 different chemotherapy drugs last week and too much of another medicine to go along with it, we were very concerned about your blood cell counts and your absolute neutrophil count and the attending possibility that you would need a blood transfusion, antibiotics, or additional hospitalization (or some, if not all, of these things) in order to get your immune system stabilized. Instead, you wowed us, and I think the doctors too. Everything seemed to be within acceptable ranges, and in some cases, your counts were better than last week.

I can't even begin to describe our relief... my relief. You've certainly been showing yourself to be a miracle baby, fighting through everything the doctors have thrown at you and returning victoriously looking for more, as if to ask if that's all they've got. You're stronger than most, which says quite a lot light of your tender age. To have kept almost all of your hair so far to boot, well I think you're just thumbing your nose at this cancer.

This week's treatment seems to have you feeling poorly, but you usually feel poorly in the 2-3 days after treatment. Still, Mom and I can't say definitively whether it's the treatment that's bringing you down or the 4 teeth that seem primed to burst through your gums any day now. Knowing you, the teeth are probably bugging your more than the chemo. We'll see if I'm right next Tuesday.

Love,
   Daddy