Monday, December 3rd

I’ll try to start where I left off.  Let’s see……….

The rest of Jacob’s chemo went great.  No problems and he felt good.  We didn’t end up getting home until almost midnight, but at least we got to go home.  It was nice having a full 2 weeks off.  We went bowling with some families from our church the first Sunday we were home.  That was a lot of fun!  Bloodwork was on Tuesday.  His counts were still decent from all the Neupogen shots from the week before.  They also gave him a transfusion before we left since his hemoglobin was borderline and they wanted us to make it through Thanksgiving without having to go to Green Bay for a transfusion since Marquette General said they wouldn’t do it.  He also had physical therapy that day.  They ran him through a bunch of exercises and decided to discharge him from the program since he was doing so well.  They said he improved so much from when they first saw him that now it would just take time for the rest to happen.  He really is improving tremendously!  Thursday was Thanksgiving.  It was quiet with just the four of us, but very nice.  We stuffed ourselves as I’m sure most of you did.  We were just so thankful to be home and all together.    Thank you Dr. Folker for the turkey.  It was delicious!  We appreciate you thinking of us!!!  Friday was bloodwork again.  Yes, we had to go out on Black Friday, but we made it home alive!  Jacob’s counts were BAD!  Although he felt good, we kept him sheltered from the outside world.  🙂   We made him stay home from church on Sunday.  He was not happy about that!  Monday was bloodwork again.  His white blood cell count was decent, but his hemoglobin and platelets were borderline.  I prayed like crazy that they would jump up by Thursday when he had bloodwork again so that we wouldn’t have to head down to Green Bay for the day just for a transfusion.  The nurse warned me that they would probably go down even lower.   Thursday came and guess what?  His hemoglobin had jumped from 8.2 to 9.2 and his platelets jumped from 66,000 to 208,000!!!  Also, his wbc went from 1.4 to 5.8!  Praise God!!!!  So all was well!  🙂  Friday night we went to the big craft show at the dome in Marquette.  I always enjoy walking around checkin out all of the talented peoples work.  Jacob loves looking at all the woodwork and photography.  Saturday, the boys and I went outside and had a crazy snowball fight.  The snow was melting, so it was more of a slush fight.  We had a lot of fun!  There was certainly a lot of giggling going on.  🙂   I’m pretty sure I lost.  It really wasn’t fair.  Caleb caught all the snowballs I threw at him.  I guess making Ken play catch with the football all summer and fall paid off.  🙂   Ken was busy cleaning his deer that he had shot the weekend before.  Good job honey! Sunday we got our Christmas tree after church as I had promised Caleb that we would decorate and put the tree up before Jacob and I left again.  After we were done decorating the tree, we watched a Christmas movie and ate popcorn.  We watched a Christmas movie several nights this past week as we have many and we want to make sure that we get through all of them before Christmas is here.  🙂

Now we’re at today……This morning I dropped Caleb off at school and Jacob and I left right from there to Green Bay.  It was so foggy!  We got a little lost, but nothing major!  At least we got here before his appointment with about 20 minutes to spare.  We are now at St. Vincent hospital and will be doing treatment here for the next 3 rounds at least.  Jacob is getting round 4 this week with only 10 to go.  So happy it’s going by faster this time.  Anyway, this round will be the 5 day treatment with the Etoposide and Ifosfamide.  Etoposide is the drug that Jacob had an allergic reaction to last month.  Please pray that all goes well and that God will protect him.  We are happy with everything here so far.  I admit, I was feeling a little anxious about coming here.  Everything has gone so well in Milwaukee, I was afraid to mess with that, but they thought we might like to be closer to home – especially during the winter months for the driving part.  Children’s in Milwaukee is still calling the shots though.  Hopefully we’ll survive Packer country during football season.  🙂

Well, chemo has begun and no problems yet.  Praise God!  Actually, what’s really neat is that the doctor just came in – walked 2 blocks from home just to check on Jacob and make sure he was doing okay with the Etoposide.  He sat and talked with us about hunting and the U.P. for over a half hour.  I have to say, I’ve been impressed so far with all of the people we’ve met in WI since September.  All these cheeseheads are really truly nice!  🙂

Well, that’s all for tonight!  Sleep tight everyone!!



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