Has Captain Blood Count Finally Met His Match?

It seems so, friends. At our appointment yesterday, Joshua's blood counts were significantly lower than they had been. They were still at a good level, but down from the exceptional levels we had been seeing.

We as a family are doing our best to enjoy the next few weeks. February 14th will begin the 8 most difficult weeks of Joshua's entire treatment. As we were looking through the list of medicines yesterday with our doctor, we noticed that all of the new medications he will begin on that day have nausea listed as their number one side effect. Also, he will probably at long last lose his hair pretty quickly after the beginning of this phase. Further, one of the medications actually causes fever, and as you know, fever is the thing that sends us back into the hospital. For these reasons, we are virtually sure of at least one more hospital stay during those weeks.

I wondered if we should wait to write about what is coming until it is closer; after all, we have talked at great length about living one day at a time and worrying about today's concerns rather than tomorrow. I guess both Jana and I after our appointment yesterday are feeling a little more militant than usual. That is to say, we believe there is a virtual army of people - many of whom have never even met us - who for some reason have been stirred by our remarkable 2 year old son. And when you have an army at your disposal, I think the right thing to do is to let them fight.

So we have a little less than a month before D-Day; I think Joshua's treatment has gone so well thus far because of your participation in our lives through love and prayer. In light of that, I wondered if we could begin to pray together in advance of these challenges. As you think about it, would you please ask the Lord for minimum side effects of chemotherapy, for no fever, and for Joshua to continue to enjoy life.

Thank you for going to battle with us.

Captain Blood Count

Christmas has come and gone, and we are still at home. Not only that, but Joshua's blood counts have continued to go up. Just as a refresher if you are not up on your leukemia terminology, "blood counts" refers to Joshua's ability to fight infection. As you know, during chemotherapy, the reason why kids have to go back to the hospital many times has to do with the fact that the medicine kills their immune system, rendering them incapable of fighting disease. We are thankful to the Lord, and to you for praying that direction, that Joshua's counts have not dropped; in fact, they have gone up to be in the counts of a normal kid. This has caused us to believe (at least for these few weeks) that Joshua is, as many of you may have suspected, a super hero whose superpower is that he is impervious to the side effects of chemotherapy. We call him "Captain Blood Count."

So many things to be thankful for in the captain's journey right now - we have not been back to the hospital; the doctors are pleased with his progress, especially the way his body is handling the chemo; and that we have a few weeks off from going to the hospital. We are bracing for what will be the next phase of Joshua's treatment that should come near the end of February. Apparently, this next phase is dramatic enough that most kids have to check back into the hospital at that time. So we are trying to enjoy these weeks when he still feels like a superhero.

On the subject of our daughter (how strange does that feel) we feel like we have now the right life verse for her. Perhaps it's selfish for us to choose a life verse for her based on the circumstances of her birth, but we're doing it anyway.

Romans 15:13: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."