Day 556: 1st haircut
Elliott has been in the maintenance phase of chemotherapy for almost a year. He is slowly but surely starting to catch up in some of the areas that the intensive chemo slowed him down. We are starting to see him run, jump, and dance more. Also, last month Elliott received a haircut. Though he is two and a half, this was sort of a big deal for us. It was Elliott's first haircut! In 2014 I planned to take him to get a haircut before his 1st birthday, but Kyllan asked me to wait until after the party. That turned into waiting until after Laurel's 3rd birthday party, which was the week he was diagnosed. His hair has fallen out and grown back several times since then, once even coming back blonde. For the last several months it was falling out too quickly for Elliott to need a haircut, but slow enough that he had a full head of hair. For a long time his hair stood in as a sort of proxy for how well he was doing. It is good to be at the point that his hair is just hair.
Day 575: We got ready to take Elliott his medication, only to find him asleep on the stairs.
Elliott's treatment continues to go well. No serious side effects of chemo during maintenance, however, he is having more and more stomach discomfort and irregular sleep patterns. This happens to also wreak havoc on his parent's sleep patterns. For the past two months, Elliott has been waking up several times a night complaining about stomach pains. He's still pretty tired when this happens, and it appears that he doesn't always make it down stairs to to find mom and dad's room. We've caught him stretched out on the stairs asleep a few times. (Don't worry; I carry him back to his bed so his sister doesn't literally stumble upon him in the morning.) Clinic week, like this week, is a whole different story. One of the medications Elliott takes during clinic week leaves him wide awake all night. Saturday and Sunday he was up until the wee hours of the night talking, wanting to read books, and playing cars. Even Laurel is complaining about him coming into her room in the middle of the night wanting to play. It will wear off in a couple of days... hopefully.
Day 570: Elliott enjoys a lollipop while at chemo. He has learned that we generally let him whatever he wants while at clinic.
Climbing playground equipment is pretty new for Elliott.