Oliver made huge progress today.  His platelets were at 30 and hemoglobin at 10 - so no transfusions two days in a row!  He is still severely neutropenic (can't fight any type of infection) so we have to take certain precautions, but this is expected given the cancer and chemo treatments. This afternoon, he took his "pill class" in his room.  At first, he was explaining to the instructor he could not take his pills because he was allergic to them.  He then said his mommy and daddy would not approve of him learning to take pills, especially the red one.  Once we let him know it was ok, he took the pills with no problem.  He was so excited, he said he wanted to take 4 more to show all the nurses and children in the playroom his new "magic trick".  I think he may have a future career in arbitration - the staff couldn't get over what a great negotiator he is!  So now, he has to take the dex by pill tonight and tomorrow.  It supposedly doesn't taste very good, so we may try to cover it in fruit roll up (a tip from other parents going through this).  Will keep you posted, if he can get the dex down both times, we can get out of here tomorrow (hopefully in the morning).  We all are looking forward to getting home and out of the hospital.  After the successful pill class "graduation" we celebrated by taking Oliver to the playroom and upstairs to see the aquarium.  He had to wear a mask and all the nurses were calling him Doctor Oliver.