Counts going down ...

Bonjour! Hello!

Some of you may know, but Ben's tortoise he's had since September, passed on last week. We don't know why. We did everything we were supposed to do. We fed it properly, bathed him everyday, took care of his environment keeping it at the right temperature, the right moisture etc. Bruce, the expert we emailed suggested it could be choking on something or a precondition we didn't know about. Difficult to say. Ben, and all of us, were saddened by this but we move on. Ben is thinking about whether he wants another one or not. RIP Spyro.

Ben had a blood test last Friday, to check on his blood counts. This is the time when the counts start going down. They did. Almost everything went down: the white blood cells, the hemoglobin, the red blood cells, the lymphocytes , the platelets and his neutrophils. The neutrophils are what helps him fight off any cold or flu he may get. So if it goes down further, we may need to keep him away from crowded areas. His platelets, which help his blood clot in case he gets cut inside or outside his body, are rather low so we will be checking his platelet count again Monday to see if he may need a transfusion on Tuesday. If his red blood cells are low, he may need a transfusion for those as well. This is week 4 coming up of the 6 week cycle. It is at this point that his counts are lowest. They are then supposed to start climbing to normal

levels during week 5 and 6. Then the 5 day chemo session starts again.

Ben received his report card last Thursday. Despite everything he's been going through, Ben received straight A's. Great job, Ben!! So proud of you!!

Today, Ben artistically altered his mandarin. He said it's a before and after photo of his MRI. Good imagination! So creative!

I will post in the next couple of days to update you on his blood counts. Thank you all for following up on Ben's treatments.

2 Comments

JIN

11/30/2015 09:40:40 pm

I'm a Panorama parent and yes, I've been following up his treatment in this blog and my prayers. Even though the blood counts are

a bit low, I'm so happy and excited for Ben's amazing cure(I guess I can almost say this after that beautiful MRI!). I'm quite sure that

only good things will follow, so keep the spirit high as you always do and hang on the chemo just a little longer! Also, so proud of

your report card!

REPLY

FRANÇOISE

12/2/2015 11:52:49 pm

The sky was a bright mandarin this evening. Exactly like the MRI on the right, Ben.

Lots of love to the 4.

XOXOXOXO