Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nothing.

Yep. Jackson is still at zero for his ANC. Nine days, it's far longer than anyone guessed. Because his counts still aren't coming up, the bone marrow transplant team has moved Jackson to the "hard to immobilize protocol".

This new protocol basically involves giving Jackson a new type of drug that should help his body grow white blood cells faster. He will get two doses of one drug two times a day through his IV. He will also get another drug at night via a shot (Jackson HATES pokes!).

Today he got two shots in his legs. Did I mention that he hates the pokes? He earns a yellow bead for each intramuscular injection so that makes it seem almost worth it. The medicine that he gets for the blood cell growth will cause incredible bone pain, and I'm sure it will be a long night. The nurses said that the bone pain is a lot like growing pains that kids sometimes feel when they go through growth spurts- only worse.

So, you want more of a Jackson update other than just his ANC? Here's a little break down.

• Jackson has been stuck in his room for 9 days, but one of the doctors said that after visiting hours are over, and when the halls are quiet that Jackson can go out of his room and ride the bike (as long as he wears a mask). Jackson LOVES this, and has enjoyed getting out of the room even for a few moments.
• Jackson has a little friend that has been in the ICS unit also this week. Annabelle is 4 and she is fighting Ewings Sarcoma- I think. She is doing amazing in her treatments, and has seen lots of progress already. We LOVE seeing Annabelle and her mom Sally in the halls. Everytime we talk about Annabelle, Jackson just lights up. Annabelle has also been riding the bike lots this week, and every time she rides past our room Jackson gets excited to see her. She even brought Jackson a picture today and a balloon yesterday. I love that we have friends up there.
• We move Jackson's furniture in his room almost every day. We race remote control cars, and build jumps for them to go off.
• Yesterday we made a hopscotch on the floor out of medical tape. Jackson loves it, and I like that it gets him out of bed. Jackson also likes that the nurses, techs and even some of the doctors take a moment to do the hopscotch. It is very popular.

• Jackson and I made some t-shirts the last few days using the freezer stencil tutorial by iammommahearmeroar.blogspot.com. All of the nurses LOVE that too.
• Jackson has had a couple of therapy dogs come and visit. I am surprised at how excited he gets when they come in our room. His favorite dog is Elliot. You can find Elliot on Facebook- his name is "Elliot TherapyDog".

Hopefully that's enough of an update for now. I'm working on an upcoming post of some of my favorite things in the ICS unit. There are some very wonderful things there!