Alopecia comes all at once

Here is Levi two weeks ago on one of his donut runs to Ridley's. Notice the full head of hair being blown in the wind. Well, it hasn't exactly been a full head of hair of late, it has been thinning with some small patches missing and a receding hairline, but nothing too noticeable. We presumed we wouldn't have to bother with grooming under the impression his hair would just fall out, but after six months he was looking a bit scruffy. This is Levi after his first haircut in months. The doctor said if it hasn't fallen out by now it probably wouldn't. 

Here is Levi less than a week later. Bald as cue ball with the exception of a few stubborn tufts of hair in the front. His alopecia seemed to come all at once. 

We did a little snipping and shaving to make his baldness a little more uniform. Levi was in good enough spirits and even obliged to help.

He is now ready to join the ranks of Charles Xavier and Jean-Luc Picard!

This is Levi's hat that he picked out for himself. Of all the hats online he wanted a plain blue one.  It's the first of his hat collection and hopefully he can start acquiring many more.

Three months later

The last 3 months have been good ones for Levi and his recovery. He has tolerably finished the following rounds to treatment: induction, consolidation and interim maintenance I.

He has seemed pretty normal and has been able to participate in most of the activities he normally does. For example he rode his bike all the way to the park and back today. Most of the weight he gained from the first month is gone. Here's a picture of him and Tolkien back in December with their new church clothes. He does ok and although he still can't go to nursery he does like to go sit with his home health nurse during sacrament meeting. They've formed a special bond, on one of her more recent visits he insisted on making her an egg sandwich.

Levi has seemed to find ways to entertain himself indoors with all of this snow.

 And outside too!

 This was 1 of 5 ER visits Levi has had in the last few months. It's pretty routine...we arrive, they take all his vitals, they call primary childrens and they tell them to give him some antibiotics. Although routine it still takes 4 hours. The Heber hospital is getting better, it's not fair to compare it to primary's.

 All the while Tolkien has been developing a sense of personality. He enjoys tackling Levi, hitting Levi on the head and Levi responds in turn. They've already developed such a loving brotherly relationship. The other day Levi gave Tolkien a hug and said, "I love you Tolkien!" Today he rammed him with his head. 

This is Tolkien getting over his fear of walking outside. He enjoyed following his brother around the snow covered park.

Last week Levi started a new phase of treatment called delayed intensification. We hear it is one of the roughest phases. It lasts 2 months so we'll see how well Levi tolerates it. The nurses did assure us his hair would fall out during this phase of treatment. He has to take dexamethazone again. We'll need to up our food storage to appease his raging appetite. 

This is Levi getting a echocardiogram. All is well besides the small hole in his heart. The doctors weren't too concerned and said it will close up when he gets older.

Day 2 of delayed intensification.

 Seemed to be doing fine so he went to the park.

Two hours later...couldn't keep anything down for the rest of the day. Note to world; if you ever take dexamethazone be sure to also take zantac.