It's Not Wednesday...

... and we are in the hospital. Our weekly appointments for chemo are on Wednesdays, and since we were there on Tuesday, something must have been up. Last night Joshua started running fever and we were admitted to the hospital. We will likely be here for at least a week. Joshua doesn't seem to have anything left; it's almost like a system crash, and tomorrow he gets another double dose of chemotherapy which means there just isn't any time for him to recover.

Up to this point we have been so fortunate about the progress of treatment and lack of side effects; the last 2 days have been a different story. He frankly feels as badly as he has felt; every part of his body seems to hurt. He is alternating between constipation and diaherria and is generally uncomfortable; he only was able to sleep for about 3 hours last night.

These are tough days for Joshua, though not unexpected ones. These are the sort of things that happen during this phase of treatment.

Chips and Cheese

Just wanted to report on Joshua's progress thus far. We (as in all of us) have been praying earnestly about the side effects during these 8 weeks of Joshua's treatment. The doctors told us that most kids experience lots of nausea, the loss of any hair they might have left, and just generally feeling bad. 9 days into the treatment with no throwing up. No hair falling out. That's great.

But you can definitely tell that Joshua's medicine has increased. He gets tired very quick and very easily; he has pain in his belly even without the nausea; and is more emotional than usual. To be around him is to know that lots of days he just doesn't feel like himself. Another one of the strange side effects can only be described as obsession. When Joshua is on steroids (which he is for different week-long stretches during this 8 weeks) it seems like he gets an idea in his head and can't let it go. On Wednesday, it was "chips and cheese" from the Taco Bell at the hospital. He must have said the phrase "chips and cheese" 476 times between 5:30 am (he also can't sleep well during steroids times) and 11 when his treatment was done.

Would you please continue to pray about this stuff with us? Just so you know, at the end of these 8 weeks there will be another bone marrow scan to test Joshua's progress and see if he can indeed move into the next phase of treatment. Up until that time, we'll have good days and bad days I'm sure. Thanks for being with us during both.

56 Days and Counting

Today Joshua started the 8 weeks that we have been praying about - in leukemia world, this period of time is called "delayed intensification." So this morning Joshua had a spinal tap and two forms of intravenous chemotherapy. He goes back on Friday for another shot, and so the 8 weeks will go. As we wrote earlier, the side effects during this time are said to be the worst of the 3 years - vomiting, hair loss, fever, and hospital time.

So here we are, some 8 hours after the treatment, and nothing has happened yet. You can tell he's not feeling great, but he's still playing, still eating, still watching videos... lots of videos. Not much to report yet, I guess, which we are very thankful. The shot on Friday is supposed to dramatically drop his blood counts, which means he will be very susceptible to infection and sickness.

We continue to pray for low side effects and a minimum of hospital stays; thanks for joining us in those prayers. In thinking about you guys I am reminded about what Paul said about the Philippian church, calling them "co-laborers" with him. Now I know that Paul used that term to talk about his missionary efforts and trips, but the feeling I get from that passage is that those were people in his life willing to help carry the load. That's how we feel; this is a heavy load, but it feels much lighter with alot of people under it.