Medicine

As most of you know by now, Joshua takes oral chemo every night along with other medicine on and off for allergies, pain, nausea, and other side effects. From the very beginning for Joshua's treatment, he has been a whiz at taking his medicine. Actually, some of the time he even enjoyed the flavor of a few. Several months ago, I met a woman named Faith with a three-year-old that takes many of the same drugs that Joshua takes. We had been crushing pills, diluting them in water, and then pulling them through a surringe to shoot it into his mouth. Faith told me that she just puts the pill on a spoon covers it with chocolate syrup and lets her son crunch the pills and swallow. I couldn't believe it would work, but Joshua, being the great medicine man, did it. I could put up to 8 small pills on a spoon and he would chew and swallow without batting an eye.

Recently, this has changed. Our process stayed the same for the most part, changing only the flavors from chocolate to jelly or whipped cream, whatever his preference. Two weeks ago after his last round of intravenous chemo, Joshua began to argue and try to put off taking his medicines. This was new territory for us. As I began to ask him why, he first talked about the taste. Thus, introducing the new flavors. After that, he didn't have a reason.

My overactive mind began to work. Is he rebelling against everything he has been through in the past year and a half? Is he aware of the effects that the drugs have on his mood, his stamina, his level of pain?

For now, Joshua is back on the medicine bandwagon. We are exactly 2 weeks since treatment and 2 weeks from the next treatment, which helps the mood, stamina, and pain. Please pray that Joshua will not grow weary in his obedience about medicine. Also, please pray that we will know how to balance his growing understanding about what is happening to his little body and what we have all grown accustom to about leukemia.