I am Arjun Jain

Friday, December 28^th  morning,  I went to the hospital to get my blood counts checked. I spoke with the doctor about the mouth sores, my runny nose and not being able to eat. Oh no! I lost some weight too. My mom was very concerned about my not eating so the doctor said that he will give me appetite stimulant. This will help me both with my runny nose and improving my desire to eat. I was happy to hear that.

While we were talking, my blood report came back. Nurse looked surprised. When my dad looked at the numbers, he could not believe  his eyes. My  ANC was 7660 which is normal. I was looking for my name on the report to make sure it was mine. First I thought there was something wrong with my eyes and I saw by mistake 7660 but then as I looked more clearly I could see it was 7660 actually. Nurse said that she checked 2 times already for the name, date and the numbers. I was just SURPRISED.. no other word for it. You know what it means? … it means that I am like a normal kid who can go outside to enjoy some fresh air and don’t have to worry about infection. I think my bone marrow is doing a good job now. I hope it stays like that. I know I still have to go through 2.5 years of treatment but atleast I don’t have to stay home all the time. I hope rest of the treatment my numbers remain normal!

I started my medicine in the evening. At first I thought that it is not going to work but I believe that it is actually working because I ate my dinner really well after many days….Yay!!

Saturday was my finishing my math assignment day. I am trying to catch up with my assignments as I am feeling better now. I do not want to be too behind when my school opens again. I was feeling great because my throat was better and I actually started eating. I even went to the temple in the evening and then went out to eat in a restaurant to celebrate my normal ANC and health. I ordered 2 entrees today and tried eating more than I could to make my parents happy. This felt like old times when I would go out with my family and have fun chatting. On our way back, I explained to my grandma the difference between the steroid medication and the appetite stimulant. My dad was impressed by my understanding of the concepts of different medication.  It really is interesting to learn about the assortment of medicines out there to treat almost every problem.  I wish tomorrow is better than today!