Oliver's counts have improved significantly and yesterday Oliver received his first chemo treatment at the clinic under maintenance!!  He is still neutropenic but his ANC went up from last week just enough to perform the spinal.  Oliver demonstrated tremendous bravery and did not cry or scream at all when accessing his port.  We are so proud of our little boy.  

We are told maintenance is far less intense and we can start regaining a sense of normalcy to our lives.  The clinic visits will be fewer than the past six months and will consist of the following for the next three years:  monthly vincrisitine via port access, quarterly spinal chemo, and biweekly count checks.  However, there is a trade-off (there is always a trade-off).  To visit the clinic less, we now have several more pills to take -sometimes as much as 10+ a day.  In fact, for the next three years, there will not be one day where Oliver does not have to take some sort of chemo via pill.  We gladly accept this trade-off for less time at the clinic, but three years feels a long way off.  There will be times during maintenance that Oliver's counts require him to miss school or he may need an occasional transfusion, but nothing like the last six months.  He should be able to start kindergarten in August.  We are a little nervous about this because any kind of cold or illness presents very grave risks, but we are happy for Oliver to be back around his school friends.  No use worrying about August, for now we are just enjoying less clinic time for Oliver - he looks great, he has started to regain some of his color and his hair is starting to grow back.  Of course, his energy has been consistently high and never ceases to impress the doctors.  Having your body routinely bandaged up with medical tape, prodded with needles and constantly feeling the effects of various drugs cannot be fun - and yet he endures all of this and much more and still selflessly encourages and comforts his baby sister, Larry and I and at times the other children who cry in the clinic.  We are elated to reach this milestone and know that the only way we made it through the past six months was through God's grace. We still have a long way to go but just continue to enjoy each day we have together.