Be bold. Be bald.

Ty's hair began to fall out, and we have been changing his pillowcases as often as possible to keep him from itching.  We tried to prepare him by giving him a crew cut while he was under anesthesia the other day (for his MRI) and he doesn't seem to be emotionally affected by it, which is a relief.  He does, however, seem pretty down in the dumps today.  He was physically better than yesterday and he sat up for a couple of hours to play games and do some crafts, but he was generally very melancholy through it all.  I hope his counts begin to go up over the next few days so he can have more energy and go home for a few days.  He's been sleeping peacefully for several hours now.

Because Ty's tumor is pressing against his brain stem, the doctors don't always know how to handle his situation.  For example, any other child who has been running fevers for 6 days straight, and who have been neutropenic for more than a week, would be undergoing head-to-toe cultures and having any new hardware removed (such as the mediport that was placed just last week).  When I hear a doctor suggest that his mediport or his shunt might be infected I cringe because I just know in my gut that his fevers are a result of the pressure on his brain stem because he has suffered night-time fevers and night-time sweats long before we ever knew he had cancer and long before these foreign objects were placed.  For now, they are going to wait and see while maintaining a full spectrum of antibiotic treatments.  That's fine with me. 

We miss Gavin terribly.  He is being spoiled and having fun, but it's sad that Ty and Gavin are separated so frequently.  Here he is at Aunt Debi's house, enjoying not one, but two ice pops :)   Maybe we can all go home later this week.