Consolidation - Day 1

Yesterday we had Home Health come out and draw some labs from JP to make sure he was healthy enough to start the next phase of treatment which they call Consolidation. His numbers all looked good so they had us go to clinic today. Before we went into clinic, there was a photographer at PCMC taking pictures of the cancer kiddos to get some shots for advertising for the CureSearch walk in September. I don't think they will use any of JP, the little stink would not smile! It's not really like him to not smile - the kid is such a ham when a camera comes out! Obviously, just browse through our blog! Even when he's not been feeling well he almost always has time to cheese it. Oh well, we still got a bunch of great scowl shots for free.

At clinic they did the usual lab work and check-up and followed that with the chemotherapy Vincristine - the same chemo we had each week in Induction. We were then sent down to the RTU for his lumbar puncture where they put more chemotherapy into his spinal fluid. We will do this same routine for two more weeks on days 8 and 15. After getting the LP, we were sent home with our first prescription chemotherapy drug called Mercaptopurine. It's a little bit scary - the medicine came in a sealed bag with a bunch of warnings and a whole page of instructions like "the one prescribed this medicine should be the only one handling the medicine if at all possible" and "wear gloves when handling medication and wash your hands after taking gloves off" and "if any of this medication gets on your skin, flush with soap and large amounts of water and if skin is still red after one hour go to the emergency room" and "while using the medication, and for 48 hours after, take extra care when handling bodily fluids" and "change diapers often to reduce the time fluids are in contact with skin" and "pregnant or breastfeeding women should NOT handle medication." Oops, read that one after giving JP his medicine tonight. We get to be on this medicine daily for 4 weeks and then hopefully will move into the next phase, assuming his numbers continue to look good.

We came home expecting JP to be wiped out - he usually is on chemo days - but he was all sorts of silly! Running around, giggling, chasing his dogs, playing games, dancing, you name it! He really is such a fun child, and I love that he is so oblivious to the serious nature of his medical situation. He definitely cheers us up way more than we need to cheer him up.

Speaking of cheering up, did you get a chance to hear some of the talks from General Conference last weekend?? Elders Nelson and Rasband wrote their talks just for us. Elder Nelson talked about the body and how it has this incredible ability to heal itself and Elder Rasband - my gosh he just spoke like he knew we were just diagnosed and knew that we were relying heavily on trusting in the Lord and our faith in His knowledge of us and our situation. He said something about there being many questions and few answers and we simply rely on our Savior's atonement to hold us up. He said President Faust had said, "I have a great appreciation for those loving parents who stoically bear and overcome their anguish and heartbreak for a child who was born with or who has developed a serious mental or physical infirmity. This anguish often continues every day, without relief, during the lifetime of the parent or the child.” Ok, seriously? Who wrote Elder Rasband and told him about us?? I had recorded conference and I had to keep pausing it to wipe my eyes before moving forward so I could see straight. I know that our Heavenly Father is aware of us and I know that our Savior knows the pain we feel because of JP's cancer and our inability to take it away from him. He will not leave us comfortless - we know this firsthand. It really is amazing that we do not know the outcome, but we feel at peace because of a loving Father in Heaven and our faith in His plan.