Back in the hospital and needing your support (message from Cynthia)

Hi everyone,

Yes, we're back in the hospital with Harry this week: we had to be admitted from clinic Tuesday, because his counts were extremely low and he had a fever. His white blood cell count was nearly zero (0.04) and his hemoglobin was 70, so he needed a transfusion on Tuesday and he had platelets transfused Wednesday (his platelet count was at 9 and it’s supposed to be at least 100). Poor Harry: his counts were so low on Tuesday the lab phoned up to the clinic to check if there could possibly have been an error in the blood sample. Harry is feeling pretty under the weather: he has been nauseous and fussy – although, as usual, “fussy” for Harry is really not very fussy at all. He’s also been having trouble keeping down his feeds, so we have switched to feeding him very slowly and continuously to try to slowly get food into him.

His oncologist said that this is to be expected: by now his bone marrow is starting to “get tired,” so it will take him longer after every round to recover. I’m expecting now that especially after each ICE round, we’ll be admitted for febrile nutrapenia (fever with low blood counts). So far nothing has grown in his cultures, so the fever seems to be just a side effect of the low blood counts (and the doctors don't really know why that happens). They want to keep us in for at least 72 hours, though, till his counts start to recover a bit. And although it doesn’t always look like it to us, Harry’s oncologist and the oncology nurse tell us that he is doing amazingly well and that we should be thrilled at his progress.

Please help us do that by keeping us in your prayers: right now, we’d just like to see all of Harry’s counts go up so that he’ll be able to come home on Friday.

And, of course, we’d really really like to hear from the doctors at Sick Kids in Toronto. The waiting to hear from them about the possibility of a transplant is agonizing. We feel pretty powerless, right now, without a sense of where we’re going, exactly, and how we’re going to get there. I keep telling myself, though, to have faith that Harry is healed, that God has healed Harry and I have to trust and be patient, live each day one day at a time, not to focus on the future, just to know that God will take us there and the journey will unfold as it is meant to unfold.

Even though that feels very, very hard right now.

But you know, despite how crappy Harry’s clearly feeling, he’s walking better than ever on the ward. He can now push his favourite little cart steadily around the ward by himself; all I have to do is manage his bundle of cords and pull the IV pole along. Next job will be teaching him to steer!

Which seems only a fair exchange: as always, Harry’s fullness of joy, life, love, and laughter makes everything easier on us. Through all of this he never stops smiling and laughing. Jesus said let the little children lead us, and that is just what Harry keeps doing, our constant source of inspiration.

Love to you all and grateful thanks for all the ways your prayers and meditations support us,

Cynthia