Thank you all for your prayers during this last phase. It has been very busy, but thankfully everyone in our family has remained healthy so the only hospital visits have been for Elliot’s scheduled chemotherapy.
The last 2 months have had 4 four-day hospital admissions for infusion of high-dose Methotrexate, 2 lumbar punctures in the clinic for Methotrexate (this is put directly into the spinal fluid in order to get to the brain), and 4 IV pushes of Vincristine.
For the hospital admissions, we would arrive at the hospital early Tuesday morning and stay until Friday evening. The picture is him hanging out in the playroom at the hospital. Then, we would be home for a week and a half and do it all again the following Tuesday. I felt like I just had time to finish unpacking in order to get repacked again! The first time Elliot received the high-dose Methotrexate in the hospital, he was VERY grouchy and miserable the week following. He also got some mouth sores. We were concerned that this was going to be the case each time he received it. But thankfully, that was the worst time. The other 3 times, he handled it great. The type of chemotherapy he received during this last phase did not wipe out his blood counts (and was not expected to).
It has been wonderful having a bit of “normalcy” in our lives with Elliot’s counts being up the last couple of months. We were able to go to the beach for a couple days, the zoo, the park, the pool, etc. (live like a normal family!). We have a new appreciation for little things like all four of us eating together at Chick-Fil-A (but definitely no play areas for us)!
Elliot’s next phase of chemotherapy will begin on October 4. It has more intense chemotherapy and is expected to wipe his blood counts out again. It kicks off with steroids as well, which we are not looking forward to. In addition, there are several new kinds of chemotherapy that he will be receiving. Please pray that he will not have any adverse reactions to these! We are especially concerned because a little boy just ahead of Elliot in the treatment just went into liver failure from one of the chemotherapy drugs.
"In God I trust; I shall not be afraid." - Psalm 56:11
