Day 21 Update

It was a cold and frigid day... I'm running out of opening lines other than "Nathan had a good day today". Well I guess it was a good day but there are still some worrisome issues. Nathan still refuses to walk because of the pain of standing on his legs. The concern is that the pain should be gone with only 13% blasts and low white blood cell, red blood cell and platelet counts. There should no longer be an excess of cells causing the bone pain. We keep working at it though and he did do some "exercises" on the floor today. Trying to convince him that he needs to keep his body moving more than from the couch to the kitchen to the table... I'm getting a bad premonition of him being 30 years old and living with his parents and all he does is lay on the couch, raid the kitchen and eat at the table! Actually right now that doesn't sound too bad.

Nathan did mention this morning to his mother that he missed his friends. We told him we'd try to make a play date for later, however when we tried to follow up later in the afternoon he was too tired to be interested. He did sit at the table though and draw pictures for friends and family since his friends had all drawn him a picture. After supper Nathan did manage to work his puppy dog voice on Auntie Pam again and Ella came over for a visit while Johnathan and Carter were playing hockey.

And of course, what is a day without a food story. I think this might have been one of his highest volume days. For his breakfasts he had by three poached eggs (one of which was supposed to be his Dads)followed by chicken noodle soup. Lunch was chili, soup and yogurt. Afternoon snack consisted of Rice Crisps and Boursin cheese. And supper was soup followed by evening snack of chili and yogurt. When Nathan finds something that works for him, he doesn't like to change or switch it up. Nathan has layed right off fruit which in thinking about it, is a good thing as they are high in sugar. With the sores being so bad we aren't able to get into his mouth to brush. Shelley has one of the finger cloths you use on babies gums so will try that tomorrow. We did try a new drink for Nathan as he seems to only want milk - Pediasure mixed with ice cream. This will provide him a little more protein to fill that hunger void.

One milestone of the evening was Nathan telling his mother tonight that she was right. When asked what she was right about he indicated his cheek wasn't as sore so must be getting better. She was right that the medication he hated taking was helping to get rid of the sores. Shelley is glad this is in writing for the days he is a teenager and thinks parents aren't "right":) In all seriousness though, Nathan increased his intake of yogurt which when you have mouth thrush is said to be a natural cure as it has the good bacteria that is needed to fight the bad. So who knows which is working more for him. We were just happy to hear him say his mouth wasn't as sore.

We continue to pray each day and are very grateful to all the friends and family that support us with their actions and their prayers.