[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
Chemotherapy cannot be administered if the amount of white blood cells in the blood isn't high enough, it's too risky.
Which is why Josh had to wait until Thursday, December 6th, to start the next course of chemotherapy, a.k.a. Consolidation. His ANC [A.N. this means absolute neutrophil count, which is the specific type of white blood cell that needs to be high, on a normal person it's above 1500] was 810, meaning he was still quite susceptible to infection. So the chemotherapy was scheduled for the 13th of December and for the 27th of December.
However, the greatest news was that... Josh was home!
I actually tried to bake a cake for the occasion, and made it only slightly lopsided, and only a little sunken in the middle.
I was rather disappointed, though, that Josh tried a bite of the cake, then spit it out. "It tastes like metal!" he complained. And I thought that I'd made such a good cake.
Of course, then I had a bite and it tasted fine, so I thought it was probably the chemotherapy drugs messing up his taste buds.
I'd looked up leukemia a lot in the last few months, and I'd read it was normal... still, it was so easy to forget these little things, at least for me. I'm sure it wasn't for Josh.
The biggest disappointment was that he'd only been home for about half an hour, when he announced that he was getting a little tired and he'd like to take a nap.
Of course, I accepted this, but Mike and Jamie were especially mad. "Daddy said when you were home you'd play with us!" Jamie pouted.
"Sorry, Princess. Maybe later?" Josh shrugged, then turned to me. "Wake me up in a couple hours, 'kay? I don't want to sleep the day away."
I agreed.
"Jamie, Mikey... how about we take a trip to the park? To make up for it. When we come back, we can wake Josh and then you can play with him."
Jamie and Mike eyed me doubtfully for a moment, then Jamie started bouncing up and down. "Yeah! Let's go to the park!"
Mike seemed confused, but then he started imitating his sister, though I don't think he knew exactly what was happening.
"Okay, let's go." I said, then helped Mike put on his shoes and coat to leave. I felt like going to the park, anyway. It was a nice day, cold, but what do you expect from December?
I grabbed their hands and headed to the park. I could go there in my sleep, I'd been there so many times with the kids over the years. It was only four blocks away from our house and a very pleasant place, with many benches and fountains and swings.
I sat on a bench, watching Jamie and Michael swing, looking like they were having the time of their lives.
"Hey." I heard. It was a light, musical voice of a woman. She sat down next to me.
"Hello." I reluctantly answered.
The woman held a little pink bundle in her hands, which I recognised as a newborn baby. I could not help looking at the little girl yawn.
"Isn't she cute?" I exclaimed. "You know, most newborns aren't really that nice looking, but this little girl is adorable."
She was, with the little pink cheeks, deep blue eyes and ever so slight stubble of brown hair.
"Thanks." said the woman. "I think she's beautiful too, but I'm her mother."
"What's her name?" I asked.
The woman softly answered my question, the love evident in her voice: "Her name is Julia."