Visiting DC

Alex, Liam and I spent a lovely 6 hour car drive last Friday down to DC (thanks random bear on the NJ Turnpike) and will be here for a few weeks as Alex goes to class for work. Liam and I are spending our days visiting friends and seeing old favorites of mine. Over the weekend, we hit up Eastern Market where we bought some fruit, walked to the Capital and then down to the Mall. We took a ride on the carousel and looked at planes. Well, Alex and I did, by then, Liam passed out. However, he still had some astronaut ice cream when we got back to the hotel.

We are staying in Old Town, where our wedding guests stayed, so the memories have been nice. We are walking down King Street every day, just getting fresh air, checking out everyone. Since we've been here, Liam has been sleeping very long nights, which has been nice for us! We all are fighting allergies but so far, a little Claritin and Dayquil have done the job.

I was able to speak with CHOP yesterday about Liam's latest lab work. They tested his blood against a control in three situations to see how his immune system did. In January, it functioned at 55% level. This time...wow. The first test, 85%! Second, 90% and the third....100%. His IGG levels have also increased, from 491 to 719. Anything over 450 is normal so we are officially at a stable level for his IGG. The not so great but not unexpected news is that his t-cells, which fights and kills viruses, and also teaches other cells to do the same, decreased slightly. We are at 481 overall when a normal immune system is up around 1200. Within the t-cells, his cd4 dropped to 275. The goal is at least 700. So while his immune system is doing great with what he has, he still doesn't have much. We are going to stay on Bactrim and still hold off on vaccines. The immune team is very encouraged that his system functions normally despite the low number of cells. So when he has recovered and his system has gotten to the normal level of t-cells, he is going to be one seriously healthy kid!

That's all for now, happy spring and soon, happy Easter!