Sorry we haven't been good about posting updates on the blog. When we were in the US, I guess I thought of the blog as a way of letting everyone in HK know what's going on with Alex but I suddenly realized all our family and friends in the US (as well as HK) are probably checking the blog. Sorry about that!

As I mentioned before, Alex is now in the Interim Maintenance phase of his treatment. This is a milder phase with mostly oral medications (still chemo drugs) and a lumbar puncture once a month. During this phase the body has time to recover and blood counts can come back up a bit. Alex has been to the hospital here in HK 3 times for blood counts (good and improving each time) and once for a lumbar puncture and to have his port flushed. We are finding that although we can continue his treatment here, the way things are done are a bit different. Nothing major but it seems like we spend a lot more time waiting around for doctors and results.

Although Alex should be feeling fine during this phase, he is actually still very nauseated and vomits frequently. The doctors are not sure what is going on as he has been on anti nausea meds and they don't seem to help. The doctor here has reduced the dosage of his chemo drugs hoping that will help. A lot of it is anxiety so that is tougher to deal with than simply reducing his meds.

Since being back in HK, he has met up with some friends and has gone out a little bit. For the most part he is at home resting. He will try going to school but is afraid he can't control the vomiting and he says he has difficulty with reading. Things seem muddled. He'll be taking two classes. This way he can have something to focus on besides his health and graduate! The school has been amazing in working with Alex. Hopefully, he can enjoy what is left of his senior year.

Delayed Intensification (Re-induction and Re-consolidation) will start on February 17th. This means everything we did in Utah will be repeated for another 7 weeks. He's been through it so he kind of knows what to expect. After that he will be on Maintenance for the rest of the 24 months from when he started chemo. We have been told Maintenance should be very easy. Life should be pretty normal. We just need to fix the nausea.

We'll keep you posted!