Summer Fun, CBC

We decided to do our 'camping trip' at Cherry Hill in Utah this year.  Cherry Hill is a waterpark/funcenter and has camping spots that are grassy.  They keep really clean restrooms and their pools have never tested positive for crypto.  We had to go to Utah last weekend to pick up Brenna from teen camp at Camp Hobe so we decided to make that our camping trip. 

We knew Ty's ANC probably wasn't still 5000, but we were guessing that with the low dose of chemo he is on he wasn't neutropenic either so we weren't too overly concerned about stuff, but grateful for cleanliness and the absence of dirt. 

Ty got adventurous and decided he was old enough for cardiac canyon...he decided otherwise after they went under the second waterfall

And the all-time favorite for everyone...the dragonslides of course!

I took Merin and Ty with me to pick up Brenna on Friday afternoon to give them a break from the sun and a nap (it's about an hour to Camp Hobe from Kaysville) and that worked out really well.  

They have a pretty cool mini-golf course too which rounded off our perfect Friday of fun.  (not sure why Brenna is in the bush...perhaps she likes prickles and spiders)
We slept in a tent Thursday night, did Cherry Hill on Friday, slept in a tent again, and then Saturday a few of us were burned (yep, I accidently got the 'water resistant' sunscreen instead of the 'waterproof', we found out the hard way that there is a difference).  Luckily, I used the 'waterproof' one on Ty and I used it often so he didn't get anymore sunburns. Other than lots of sunscreen, keeping track of his meds, and his strange food preferences, he was like a normal kid and had a ton of fun!

We decided to go to Boondocks in Kaysville Saturday instead of the waterpark again. To our great pleasure, not only is Boondocks pretty new, it is also very clean, in fact there was a person cleaning stuff the entire time we were there. 

On the way home we were so proud of ourselves for doing a 'camping trip' that didn't include dirt or dirty water...and right when I was commenting about it Tyson piped up from the back seat, "When are we going to do a real camping trip, you know where there is a fire and you roast marshmallows?"  ha ha!  I guess we didn't really get away with it!  I guess we aren't really the 'city camping' type.  We need pine trees, a fire, dirt, and a river, but that's okay, his immune system will be more steady soon. (Not sure what 'soon' means, your guess is as good as ours).

His face, hands, back of legs, and back of neck are still peeling a little and recovering from their initial sunburns, but improving.  His lips look a little better too, the top lip looks pretty normal, and the bottom is a little chapped, but not as bad as it has been.  He has quite the aversion to stuff on his lips...everytime we have to put cream on his face/lips it is a huge deal, I have to hold him down and he cries for quite a while after.  I hate it.
For some reason he is super crabby in the mornings but usually perks up after a while and plays all day like anybody else his age.  I think the voriconazole that he is on makes him feel a little yucky.  He had a blood draw yesterday, he was pretty nervous since it has been a while.  They took a voriconazole (antifungal) level and CBC.  We haven't heard back about the vori level yet, but his CBC looked great!  WBC 4.3, HCT 37.3, PLTS 420, ANC 2200.  My guess is that if he keeps that up they will raise his chemo pill dosage a little next time we go since they are trying to keep his ANC around 1000 I think.  We'll see how things go in the next few days.  He goes back to PCMC on July 10 for a back poke and some vincristine.
Thank you for the prayers, concern, help, and donations.  We are so blessed and spoiled and want to do everything we can to pay it forward.