Round 4: Update

So, today is Day 3 of Round 4. This is the FINAL ROUND of this phase in Dempsey's leukemia treatment journey. I am eager to praise God for the completion of another round which means we are that much closer to the end. Granted, the "end" is still 1,096 days away (if we use Sept 1, 2019 as the end date).
ONE THOUSAND NINETY-SIX DAYS!! That feels like forever.

Lets get back to the positives, shall we?

Dempsey is kicking A this round as well. He continues to confound the staff here at CHOC with his numbers, energy, physical appearance, positive attitude, manners, humorous expressions, and all-around positive presence. It is such a blessing to mother this child. He not only makes the staff happy but me and his dad as well. When I step back and look at him for WHO HE IS, my heart just bursts with joy because God has gifted me with the opportunity to mother and raise this precious little human. What a gift!

Are you interested in what these Rounds have been about? Want to know what HD MTX stands for? I'll share with you a little bit about this phase of treatment.
Dempsey is in a phase called Interim Maintenance. For Dempsey, this phase is more intense than for the majority of A-L-L patients. Most A-L-L patients are given a Standard Risk diagnosis. Dempsey was technically Very High Risk (the highest rating) but he had "favorable genes" which knocked him to the High Risk category (the middle of the road). However, because he was initially VHR his treatment protocols fall between the HR and VHR parameters. Basically his plan was more intense than a HR plan but slightly less intense than someone with a VHR plan.
HD MTX stands for high-dose methotrexate. It is a pretty strong chemotherapy drug and requires hospitalization for the 24-hour infusion and elimination process. Each hospital admission is 4 days long. Here's the basic breakdown:
Day 1: port access, IV fluids for 6 hours before HD MTX can start, HD MTX begins and fluid IV continues
Day 2: still infusing HD MTX until 24 hour mark, still receiving fluids, labs drawn at hour 24
Day 3: no more HD MTX, still infusing fluids, labs drawn at hours 42 and 48
Day 4: still infusing fluids, labs drawn at hour 72 (This is the magic draw... if Dempsey is below 0.1 he gets to go home!)

"Fun" facts:
#1: on average, kids will have a level of 30 +/- at their 24 hour lab draw (the requirement is to be below 150)
Dempsey's level this Round was 8.94 at hour 24 and 0.32 at hour 42
Below is a table of Dempsey's levels for each of the four rounds.

Round/ Hr	24	42	48	72
Round 1	23.45	0.27	0.13	0.03
Round 2	42	??	0.22	0.03
Round 3	15.15	0.48	0.15	0.03
Round 4	8.94	0.32	0.16	0.04

#2: some kids can take up to 2 weeks to clear the HD MTX from their systems (this is horrible because that means the drug has been in their body that whole time)
Dempsey has cleared it each Round by hour 72
#3: by this phase, kids have lost most or all of their hair, are losing muscle tone, have a plethora of negative side effects
Dempsey has only had slight nausea thus far (and a TINY bit of vomit... but I blame his blood sugar cycle for that one)