Update on Caden

Hello all. Here is an update about Caden from my mother. If you read carefully, her spirits sound fairly high, which is very good. She isn't as young as Caden and it is harder for her to bounce back. I am also attaching the picture that she sent because I think it is cute. It's definitely a Happy 4th of July picture if I have ever seen one.

"It's Saturday afternoon, Caden is taking his nap (rare these days) so I thought I would take advantage of the free time to send out my update. The attached picture is Caden approved. It was very important that the picture showed him smiling. He also asked that I tell everyone that he feels good! Actually, considering everything going on right now, he is doing better than anticipated. What's going on? He is still running a fever; not as bad as last round because this round he is a big boy and is taking his Tylenol. "It makes me feel better Nana and make my bever go away!". I am so proud of him, we have come so far! Because of the mysterious fevers, he is on three antibiotics again. So far we are still blessed without the negative side effects we had last time and, the blood cultures have all been negative. His ANC count is still 0 so we all worry about infection. Purell is great stuff, if you don't use it, get some and use it, it helps! Of course being cautious of who he around helps too. He has developed some sores on his right foot and now has some red spots showing up in different parts of his body. They are not sure what they are because with his counts so low, any normal fungus or virus does not present itself in the normal way, thus making it hard to identify. To me, it looks like a staff infection. So, being the bossy Nana I am, I insisted they send in the cleaning staff yesterday to sanitise the entire room! I mean I moved everything around and out that I could and had the beds stripped and wiped down. I then wiped Caden thoroughly down with Chlorhexidine wipes. The sores on the top of his foot look a tiny bit better, the rest look the same. There was one rash spot under his arm that is completely gone today. I'm sure the improvement is due to both the antibiotics and sanitising. I asked the doctors how much longer they think it will be before his ANC comes back up and the shrug and say, "We expect them to come up sometime in the next 6 weeks." Humph, seems to me they said that 6 weeks ago. Okay, I am exaggerating, but it feels like it! Like I said last week, we are all ready to be done. Most of all, we want Caden to be better! Please keep the prayers going, I believe they are working. We enjoyed watching the fireworks on TV for a few minutes but Harry Potter was more interesting to Caden! Thank you and God Bless. Cindy"