Another week of tests.

Jake is beginning to get a little cabin-fever. Due to the low counts over the last couple of weeks, we have had to limit the interaction that he has with others. This means fewer trips to the store, fewer trips to church, and few family outings. Most of his days are spent inside the house, keeping himself protected from the risk of virus or infection.

Today he was able to get outside for a little while. He played with his brother and couple of other boys from our neighborhood. These are some new kids that have recently moved into our complex. The 2 others boys and Josh decided they were going to ride their bikes around. Jake came and asked if he could ride his bike as well, but unfortunately we could not allow this. With his immune system being low as well as hi platelet counts being low, we could not risk an accident on his bike. For most boys, scraped knees are simply signs of an active childhood. For Jake, a scraped knee could be the predecessor for admittance to the hospital. When the boys found out that Jake was unable to ride his bike, they chose to go put theirs away and just play football instead so that Jake could play with them. It was a wonderful site to see and the attitude those kids possessed was to be commended. Jake had a great time getting some fresh air, playing with friends, and giving his body a chance to get some well needed exercise.

Monday morning he will make another trip to the clinic for blood tests. With his counts being low, the doctors are trying to keep a close eye on them to make sure he is remaining as healthy as possible. They will use tomorrows results as a determining factor for whether or not to give him another transfusion. If the counts are anything like we have seen the last few days, we are expecting another all-day visit to the clinic to get some healthy blood pumped into his system.

Jake is a little naive with this process. We asked him if it felt weird having someone elses blood in his system. He said, "It's not from a person silly, it's from the hospital." Oh to be young again.