Sam’s white blood cell counts were 700 last Tuesday so they temporarily took him off the oral medicine/chemo called “6 MP” (mercaptopurine) so that his counts would rise to the “magic number” of 1500 (hat tip to Nurse Practitioner Gina for calling and getting him to come in 2 days earlier than originally scheduled so there was the option of having 2 additional days of not taking 6 MP, and therefore 2 extra days of increase in WBCs — yay for proactive health care!).  1500 is the target for getting admitted for the 4th and final round of high dose methotrexate.  The earliest that admission will happen would be tomorrow evening. Tomorrow he’ll go to the outpatient clinic and get his blood drawn and based on the numbers, they will make a recommendation: go ahead with admission or wait for (probably) 2 days and recheck (it all depends on what the white blood cell count number is w/r/t 1500).  I have no idea how quickly or slowly 800 units of WBCs can be gained.  I do know it’s patient specific and so far Sam has been on the “slower to recover his counts” end of the continuum but we’ll see….)

There are benefits to getting admitted tomorrow: better chance of feeling good enough and having high enough cell counts for our Hawaii trip.  But HI isn’t out of the question if there is a delay until Thursday. So 🤞🏼 that whatever happens re. Admission, this last dose vanquishes any remaining leukemia cells and (a much further 2nd place)Sam feels strong enough to go to Hawaii.

We appreciate all your love and support!

#FULeukemia

#TeamSam