Gimme an M

That's right, we've hit maintenance! Thanks for sending your prayers, positive vibes, neutrochlorians, and neutrophil fairies. Hayden surpassed the .75 minimum with a 1.75 count. Yay!

This 'cruise control' phase kicks off tomorrow with a visit to the PDU for an Iron Man shot of vincristine and a spinal injection of methotrexate. Then we're off the clinic schedule for a few weeks. What will we do with the time? Well, school starts Thursday. And we have to reschedule his birthday party. And he's planning a return to tae kwon do. And...all good stuff!

Now that he's got an immune system, I took him to WalMart to get school runners. Auntie Nadeen was very kind and picked up H's school supplies while we were in the hospital but, as it turned out, we had to go right into the eye of the back-to-school storm today. And, because Hayden has a hard time going more than 20 minutes without food, we stopped at McDonald's. When we got to the front of the line Hayden suddenly blurts out, "Hey, that's me!". I look down and, sure enough, there's my boy's face in one of the photos for a Rainbow Society fundraiser. Now, I'd heard it was in McDonald's (thanks Rick) but it totally slipped my mind and I was caught off guard. As I pick up my jaw, Hayden points at the picture and rips off his cap, yelling to the young girl behind the counter, "Look, it's me! I have cancer!". In fact, he was wearing the same shirt so there was no doubt. I didn't look behind me but I imagine the expressions of everyone mirrored the people behind the counter - they were beaming at him. And, if there was any chance that the entire restaurant didn't hear, Hayden put that to rest by going to get a table (while I fumbled through the rest of our order) then turned back, waived his cap, and shouted, "Don't worry, I'm easy to find - just follow the bald head!". It was quite a performance...I almost thought he was going to get a round of applause. What a turnabout from the boy who refused to race at Grand Prix Amusement Park because he had to take off his hat to put on a helmet!

So this maintenance phase might take a while to level out. The doctors will likely have to adjust meds to keep his neutrophil count at an optimum level (between 1 and 1.5) but it feels like the beginning of the end. We certainly didn't take the shortest path and we still have a long way to go (March 24, 2012 to be exact) but this is a nice milestone to hit.