AWESOME!

Yesterday was Johnny's clinic visit. We were prepared for a bone marrow aspirate (BMA), but we were hoping that Johnny's counts came up enough that it wouldn't be necessary.

AND MAN, DID THEY! His platelets more than doubled, his red cells were normal, and his ANC was 1,280! Last week they were 240, so it was a HUGE jump for him! Of course we didn't need to go to PACU to get the procedure done -- oh yeah baby! We are going to adjust his dosage of oral meds for a few weeks, he will take 50% for now, then inch his way back up to 100%, if all goes well.

All of us were happy about the visit, but most of all Johnny, because I promised him that if he didn't need a BMA, on the way home I would take him to the skate park.

Before our visit I ran into Cara, one of the PA's, (who, by the way, is awesome), and asked her if Dr. Mahoney was being overly cautious with regards to the BMA. Cara's response was "No. Anytime counts are lower than expected for an extended period of time, it should be investigated". I piped in, "Even if he has a history of this?!?!" And Cara told me; "Yes, because he also has a history of leukemia..." . Oh yeah. I was still mad because I had to wait a week and OBSESS about what might be going on with Johnny -- is he still in remission, or is he making cancer again? I would talk myself into, and out-of each scenario daily (actually, hourly...). But now we can rest in peace at night knowing he is just fine.

Next week is Joey's Spring Break, so we are going out to CA to visit PoPo (Mike's dad). He lives in Orange County, and Johnny and I haven't been out in almost TWO YEARS! It's hard to believe. Should be pretty fun, we are bringing Grace, my cousin who is 17, and is super good with the kids. Mike will be coming out for part of the trip, but having Grace there will give me someone to talk to during the day, which is nice. We are going to be low key, just hang out, hopefully go down to San Diego and see some friends (Sarita and Matthew). I want take Johnny to the YMCA in Encinitas, because they are supposed to have a great skate park. We aren't going to bring any surf boards this time -- there always seems to be a bunch of beach closures due to toxins in the water in O.C., so we will wait until Johnny's counts are stabilized. Hopefully, we will be back this summer for the US Open of Surfing and the X Games, which are held in July/August -- back to back.

The last time Johnny and I (and the whole family, including Grace) were in CA, was 2004. We saw the X Games and the US Open, it literally was our best trip to CA! I think because the kids were old enough, and of course we had Grace to help with them as well. I had both the East Coast and West Coast surfing teams sign Johnny's surf board, while Grace and I sat on the beach in Hunnington and watch the best surfers in the world compete (actually practice) with hardly any on-lookers. It was pretty cool to be able to just walk right up to these guys you only see in movies (or PS2 games), and talk to them. Anyway, with that said, we have another trip to look forward to this summer.

I won't have a computer with me in CA, so I will have to update when we get home -- I will take LOTS of photos too!

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts, prayers, and words of encouragement!

xoxo
Jules