Urban putty walls

We have been living like hermits. Staring at the same walls day in and day out. Luis' immune system is still too weak to spend among the general public, except when necessary (e.g. at the hospital). And in those cases, we are super cautious with a mask, sanitizer, and lots of reminders ("Don't touch the buttons! Don't touch your face! Don't touch anything!"). Do you know how hard it is to tell a 4 year old not to press the elevator button or hold the rails on an escalator? He knows that if he catches 'sick germs', he could have to sleep over at the hospital for a few days, but in the face of a shiny button, I think he forgets.

When I looked back at Luis' blood counts, I see that he has been neutropenic (i.e. compromised immune system) for over two months. Every opportunity to get out of the house is a breath of fresh (Windsor) air. Today, I had a chance to go grocery shopping without Luis. My big outing. As soon as I got in the car, there was a pile of reminders about Luis' condition: parking stubs from the hospital, face masks, letter for the hospital.... There's really no escaping it.

The last few blog posts, I was looking forward to Luis starting the next phase of his treatment protocol. Each week, his blood is tested and I am met with disappointment. He hasn't had a chemo treatment in 3 weeks. His body is supposed to rebound so that we can move along this journey. I totally didn't expect this kind of delay. The nurses say that it takes some kids' bodies longer to replenish their system. We were advised to take him off the antibiotic that he was on since it could have been suppressing his immune system. He only takes the medicine 3 days per week (used a precaution), so this weekend will be the first time since the start of his treatment that he will be off this medicine. I want to see his numbers come up, but I don't want to get my hopes up. Every week, I get my bags packed for London only to be told that we're staying home for another week. It's getting old.