2005 Journal Entries

Archie is improving. He’s definitely not himself, but it feels as if the Archie we know and love is slowly coming back to us.

Each flow cytometry encourages us that Archie’s blood counts are headed in the right direction. His white blood cell count is still very high, as is his platelet count. His hematocrit and hemoglobin levels are improving on their own, and the percentage of blasts in his blood is slowly decreasing. When Dr. Hayes shared Archie’s blood counts with us this morning he punctuated the news with an exaggerated sigh of relief.

We are still moving forward with the bone marrow aspiration, now tentatively scheduled for Tuesday. Archie may still have leukemia and an aspiration will make a definitive diagnosis, although this threat seems to dissolve a little more each day. John and I, as well as the doctors, would like to get a baseline against which we can measure Archie’s blood counts from this point forward. That and we’d just like to see exactly what’s going on in there. Sometimes when Archie’s playing at home, reading his books, I look at him and see a ticking time bomb. I know that I for one will feel more secure knowing what’s going on deep down inside my little boy.

Archie is still puffy from all his i.v. fluids, but he is less puffy today than he was yesterday. He is waking up hungry and drinking more. Archie is still coughing, but the congestion in his chest sounds loose and manageable now. His oxygen has been turned down to one liter and he is maintaining his sats well. To our delight Archie looks around his environment and responds to our voices and faces. Today he even performed a little for the camera just like he does at home. It feels as if Archie is turning the corner, but we don’t expect to bring him home until the end of the week.

Thank you all for your support and concern. Thank you, too, for your calls, and e-mails, and visits. We appreciate it all so much. We’re looking forward to touching base with each of you soon.