Clinic today

 Backing up a little bit cause I never got a chance to report on birthday and Christmas!  He had a great birthday, we did a combo party with his December birthday siblings Ryan and Merin so this is his 'section'.  He wanted a batman birthday.  It is hard to believe he is 5!!

 Like I said on the last post the night of his birthday we ended up in the hospital with fever.  He didn't feel well the next day and slept for most of the afternoon. Probably a combo of the steroids he was on for the croup and just feeling ill in general.

 He did perk up enough to catch a cookie in his mouth doing the minute to win it game at a family Christmas party.  He has the pale face and red around the eyes that he always gets when he is on steroids.

He felt a little better each day and we got to hang out with family on Christmas Eve.

We had a fun Christmas morning, Santa brought him what he wanted and then some.  He still has a cough and not as much energy as his cousins and siblings do, but he's hangin in there.

 After we opened presents we went with a few cousins and performed a little Christmas music program at a retirement home.  It was a great experience. We are glad Ty's Aunt Melissa put it together and invited us to come.  It was also a miracle that Ty didn't cough once while we were there.

 And so we get to clinic today.  I'm sure you can't guess what they are doing in this picture..We got to meet and say hi to a couple of 'cancer buddies' today that we have followed a little bit online.  Both of them are bone cancer survivors and have had an amputation of a lower leg.  Tyson was very interested in their 'Iron man' prosthetics.  They are real heroes.  I also got to chat briefly with a neighbor who's daughter has been there for weeks recovering from brain surgery.  We were happy to see that they were packing to go home.

It was a back poke day (chemo injected into the spine) so he is getting ready for sedation here

 And waking up from sedation.  It is amazing how routine this has become.

 There was a special treat at Primary Chilren's today, Jenny Oaks Baker and her children put on a musical program.  We stopped on our way out to listen for a few in the jampacked 3rd floor hallway.  Elder Oaks was there too.

 No fountain to throw coins in...for some reason Tyson thinks he needs to tromp through every bit of snow he encounters.  Since he was on dad's shoulders he felt like dad should tromp through it instead.

 We brought the kids with us so we could go see the lights on Temple Square. It was spectacular of course!  We love to see the Temple!

We also used our Olive Garden gift card that we got for Christmas from a very generous Grandma and Grandpa.  Thank you!

So Ty stays on same doses of oral chemo for now. (1 MTX Thursdays and 1/2 6mp 4 days a week)  His counts are pretty good but his liver something levels are a little high so they are going to keep an eye on that.  They told us not to worry about it but to call if he turns yellow. We thought that was a little funny afterward...Anyway here are his counts, oh and he weighed 17.1kg, same as last month.  and he grew a teeny tiny to 99.2cm.  ANC 1800, WBC 3.6, RBC 3.61, HCT 33.3, ALT 201 (normal range 10-25), AST 96 (normal range 15-50).  I guess it is pretty common for his type of chemo to irritate the liver...or whatever it is doing to it so they will just keep checking those levels when we go in.
Thanks for checking in!  Happy New Year!