Four month checkup

Malcolm's four month checkup was today and all of his bloodwork is fantastic. His platelets are a whopping 348, hemoglobin 146, white blood count 5.7 and ANC 1824. So all of his counts are well within the normal range. It is the first time since treatment ended that everything has been normal. His white count and ANC had been a bit low all winter. The doctor confirmed that Malcolm's disease would likely be visible by now if it was going to recur. So for all intents and purposes I think we can consider him cured of cancer!

It has been almost one year exactly since Malcolm's leukemia diagnosis began to unfold. It has been quite an experience and one that we would sooner forget than ever relive again. But it is nice to reflect that we live in an era where it is almost routine to cure diseases that would have been close to a death sentence even two decades ago. Hopefully progress will continue to be made in curing childhood diseases - one of the most difficult parts of being in hospital was seeing children who were so much worse off then Malcolm...

Malcolm continues to do really well at daycare. Last week when I went to pick him up one night he was participating with the other kids in the actions to "Row, Row, Row Your Boat". Sometimes he asks to see Donovan (by making his sign for Donovan) and if possible one of his teachers takes him for a little visit to Donovan's room (what great staff at the daycare!) His class goes on a lot of walks outside and will walk for several blocks. Malcolm walks until he gets tired - usually about 15 minutes - and then he can go into a stroller (the rest of the kids are expected to walk all the way!) I think this has been working well so far - my only concern is that he will get a bit lazy and not push himself - it is so much easier to ride in comfort in the stroller! But we will see how it goes.

His regular teacher is away this week but he is familiar with her substitute and had a good day today. He continues to do well with his signs though I have been remiss in not introducing any new ones this month - seemed like a lot for me to transition to work and for him to transition to daycare but we must resume moving forward in June. We are trying to get him to use more combinations of signs (for example, "want more cracker" instead of just "cracker") but Malcolm seems to feel that the one-sign method is more efficient and just as effective most of the time. Difficult to convince him otherwise!

Donovan is also doing well - he continues to enjoy swimming lessons and starts soccer next week. He has a school orientation session coming up in June. He continues to be Malcolm's biggest fan and rolemodel.

Mary Ellen