Good News, Friends

Delayed intensification, a.k.a. the rough 8 weeks, a.k.a. the hardest part of treatment, a.k.a. living at the hospital - is over. And it went out with a whimper rather than a bang. We expected that Joshua's blood counts would once again bottom out before he got to move into the new phase of treatment - maintenance - and apparently they did, but they did not cause him to have any fever and consequently no more hospital time. That's great. Wednesday he officially begins the maintenance phase that will last for about 30 months, or the next 2 and 3/4 years or so. During that time, he will still be getting chemo, but most of it will be given at home with regular clinic visits. Just as a practical reference, it is during this phase of treatment that kids go back to school if they are of age.

On another note, we thought Joshua was going to have another bone marrow test on Wednesday to chart his progress and give us some exact numbers about the leukemia that hopefully does not exist in his body any more. He will not have that test. According to the doctors, there is no reason based on his other blood work, labs, etc., for them to suspect anything out of the ordinary is happening in his body, so in their words, "No test needed." I guess we would like something a little more definitive than that, maybe because it's more dramatic, but we'll certainly take the oncology team saying that we don't need to have that test. We are operating under the assumption, then, that Joshua is fully in remission, and that he is not undergoing chemo at this point to necessarily fight the leukemia as much as to maintain and fix the bone marrow so that he does not relapse.

It seems almost trite to say, "Thank you" to you, the army of friends who continue to stand beside us, because the Lord has been moved to action because of your relentless badgering. There is a strange story in the gospels about the judge who is stirred into action because of the annoying woman who won't shut up. She just keeps asking, and asking, and asking for justice. In some way, that's supposed to be like our prayers except that God is not grudging in His responses and does not find us annoying.

In my imagination, I'd like to think that the Lord heard time and time again about this little boy - who incidentally shares a name with His own son - and that so many people had talked about him and thought about him and prayed for his well being that there was no other option than for Him to act.