We got through the first leg of this round's treatments and Noah is doing well. I've buried the lede on MRD results before, but won't this time. He got a bone marrow test last Monday and the results again came back with no detected leukemia cells. This is another important green checkmark that, as [we've sadly seen](https://welovenoah.com/posts/12a4df97-0ea0-4fa4-972b-4d6d5f2a1554), cannot be t...

It's the last day at home. We're back at the hospital for round 5 (Intensification 3) tomorrow morning. Business as usual at the moment. We took it real easy during this break. We have in the others as well, but those were to be, I think, justifiably careful. This one was a little different because, on Monday, we got updated labs and counts were good. ANC was up to nearly 3,000 after being at 1...

Glad to report that Noah completed Round 4 (Intensification 2) and has been back home since Tuesday. Given we'd heard all sorts of time estimates (7 to 10 weeks to much more), out in 36 days was relatively quick. As of now he's scheduled to be back home for a couple weeks. His counts are still really low, but it was a nice turnaround from the week before. The last post noted that he spiked a fe...

We're now on day 27 of round 4 (Intensification 2). There's been some concerning fevers, but Noah's doing okay. He'd been feeling okay most of the round post-chemo other than some early stomach pains. Mid-day on Friday he started getting tired and hit the 100.4 "fever" threshold. At that point he had to get a blood draw from his arm. He did better with the "poke" this time, but still about his ...

We're 20 days into round 4. As previously mentioned, we expect this to be a longer round. Noah is doing okay. His ANC is zero as expected. He's already gotten a couple platelet transfusions and will almost surely get a red blood cell transfusion tonight as his hemoglobin is right at the transfusion threshold of 7. There's really no sign of count recovery, but also no real complications at this poi...

Time flies; tomorrow is already Noah's last chemo treatment of round 4. No real surprises thus far and he's doing well. He had a couple days pretty down for the count, but has had some energy and no nausea the last couple days. We started the round on Tuesday and got labs prior to his first chemo treatment. Hemoglobin was solid at 11.8, platelets at a very normal 348, and ANC at 2,142. That ANC...

Not much to report. Noah's been home since January 2nd. It's been a nice long break and we go back this Tuesday. We're gearing up for round 4, which is by far the longest; we've heard 8 to 10 weeks. First, a bit of recap on numbers since he's been home. It's a bit of a guessing game while he's here since we're not getting daily labs, but we did get them a couple times. On the 6th, we went back ...

And we're back home again. Noah was discharged from the hospital early yesterday afternoon and the 3rd round is _mostly_ in the books. At the end of each round he gets a bone marrow test and spinal tap. Those procedures do not get performed before day 28 of a given round. Since he was discharged on day 26, we'll need to go back on Tuesday to get them done. The collected bone marrow will again b...

It's been a bit since the last post. The important news is Noah is and has been good. There's been some excitement around here regarding facilities so I waited for some dust to settle on that topic. We're nearing two weeks off chemo, day 18 of phase three, and ANC (the immune system) has been zero for the last week. There is typically a delayed effect from the chemo before ANC really starts dro...

As of yesterday morning, another round of chemo meds is in the books. Thankfully, the treatments after the first night were a lot less eventful. The last post was on Tuesday, the morning after his first chemo treatment. He had a bad allergic reaction to the drug Etoposide and was somewhere between very difficult and unable to exhale until the drug was stopped. Staff had not seen that particular...

It's been two weeks since the last update which was the day Noah came home at the end of phase 2. As of yesterday, we are back at the hospital and headfirst into the 3rd phase of treatment. I meant to get a real upbeat "back to it" post out yesterday. This will still be pretty upbeat, but a new chemo med yesterday threw a bit more excitement in than expected. As a refresher, phase 1 (Induction ...

It's day 28 of induction 2 and we busted Noah out of the hospital for a couple weeks. This all went down with a lot less drama than last time around, but did come together pretty quickly. All in all, it went pretty well this round. Noah was originally scheduled for the bone marrow test and spinal tap tomorrow (day 29). They want at least an ANC of 300 for that test due to a heightened risk of i...

We're on day 19 of induction 2. Noah's ANC has been at zero for 7 days now. This is about the time I started getting concerned last go-around, but have a much different mindset at this point. First, we've seen his ANC hang at zero before and it eventually went up. Last round it actually took over 30 days to start inching up which was...stressful. If that happens again, so be it, but there are s...

Sorry, finding the time to post has been a little trickier of late, but we're now on day 13 of induction 2 treatment. Noah's final chemo of this round was early on Wednesday morning. He's doing pretty well I think. The other day we got the ceremonial removal of the blue cover over the toilet, which is a nice step meaning his output is mostly not cytotoxic after 48 hours since the last chemo. We...

It's the day after Halloween and we're already over halfway through induction 2. The previous post was right before he was readmitted for round 2 and we hadn't had any labs done for over a week so there wasn't much to report. On Tuesday, we checked in at 8:30am and got a blood test, a new central line dressing, and spoke with the doctor. There were a few things covered: - In order to start t...

It's been a bit since the last post. No news has probably meant "okay" news. Noah's been home since last Wednesday. This last week also coincided with our Fall Break so Micah was home. We typically plan some sort of over-aggressive driving vacation. The last few years have been driving trips to Maine, Yellowstone, Arizona, and Canada. Those were all great and we packed a lot of cool stuff into the...

I have the best news: Noah is in REMISSION! The doctor called a few minutes ago and asked if I was sitting down. I said something to the effect of "I don't know; hunched over?". He hit me with it; the MRD tests came back negative. We talked for a bit and then I took the phone inside to put Mayumi on speakerphone. She listened as the phone visibly shook in my hand. After the call we interrupted ...

Whew, it's been a whirlwind of a week and it's not over yet. The very short report is: the bone marrow test was yesterday, results won't be until Friday, and... Noah just got home today. What?! Okay, to fill in some gaps here: Yesterday's procedures were a lumbar puncture and bone marrow test. The lumbar puncture (spinal tap) was again testing for leukemia in the CNS (Central Nervous System)...

We're now about 30 days in from the start of induction 1. I'll cut to the chase; the ANC (neutrophils) is still nearly zero. Noah looked so good coming into about day 15 that I really thought this number might bounce right back. In retrospect "starting the clock" on that has not been a healthy mindset. Starting the day holding my breath for counts doesn't really help anyone. Mayumi has been muc...

We're now on day 25, 15 days into recovery from the first 10-day induction. This is a waiting game here. The ANC is still zero; we wish it wasn't. I think the doctors thought it might be going back up by now based on other factors, but they've also said it can take time. He's been dealing with some temperature spikes in the last few days, with a high of just over 101. That probably doesn't soun...

A Different Kind of Update Today's post isn't a medical update. While we continue to navigate Noah's treatment, there's something else critically important to our family that I need to share. The Westfield-Washington Board of School Trustees is currently considering a redistricting plan that would move a portion of Viking Meadows students, including our boys, out of Oak Trace Elementary. Giv...

We're on day 19 of induction 1, 9 days past chemo. I'll hit the medical highlights right off the top here: A critical thing we're looking for now is to see his ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count) start to rise. Neutrophils are white blood cells that heal injuries and fight infection. The ANC has been zero for a number of days now and I am not without anxiety about that. We're hoping to see that go ...

Noah's last day of induction 1 chemo was on Saturday. We know that those meds continue to wreak havoc on his cells (both bad and good), but it's nice to have those twice a day sessions out of the routine. Since chemo started there's been a blue cover over the toilet at all times. It gets lifted when Noah uses it and then placed back when flushed. This is to protect the "flusher" from potential spl...

Today is day 9 of 10 of chemo induction 1. We left off at day 4 and the last days have gone okay. Noah's energy has been good; he's doing things and "wanting" to do things which is nice to see. I even heard him say he was bored at one point today. He's had some bouts of nausea/vomiting which I think is pretty par for the course for this sort of thing. We'd like to see appetite increase, but wei...

Mayumi shared the first post on Facebook last night. Now that most have been able to read an overview, we'll try to post more updates. I'm playing a little catchup here so this one is a bit long again. Today was day 4 of 10 days of chemo. Day 1 started with an echocardiogram. We won't find out for a few more days whether he has the FLT3 mutation but, if he does, there is additional heart mon...

How to begin? I'll start out with the hard truth that has changed our lives since last Friday: Our beautiful 10-year-old son, Noah, has stage 4 leukemia; specifically AML (acute myeloid leukemia). I still can't believe I'm typing those words. We don't know quite when it started. Mayumi, Noah, and Micah (7) spent the summer in Japan, seeing the sights, visiting family, and even attending Japanes...