Happy Birthday

As far as birthdays go, this wasn't the best one Ryan's ever had, but I guess the alternative is much worse and I would have to say it was better than mine being stuck in a snow storm with Aubrey at home while Ryan was in the hospital. The nurse practitioners bought him a frosty from Wendy's while we were in Columbus as his appointment. He shared with me, it was good :)

Ryan had to get a bag of platelets today because the count was down to 10, but his hemoglobin was up just a little to 9.4, so no blood today. He now has to get his counts checked at Wayne Hospital in Greenville every other day for 2 weeks. In two weeks he will return to Columbus for a lumbar puncture and his first infusion of chemo for the next round. They plan to do that as an outpatient, so he'll get to come home between the three doses. About 3 weeks after the round of chemo, they are going to try to give Ryan some more of Russell's cells. This would be only immune cells, to help Ryan's body fight the cancer. This is also an outpatient procedure.

Ryan worked today while we were in the car - making phone calls and working on a tool order for school. I think he has about 1/2 day to finish tomorrow down at school.

Pray that his strength continues and that his platelets and hemoglobin begin building on their own so he doesn't have to have any infusions at Wayne Hospital during the next 2 weeks.

-A