Monday, June 20th

Wow!  So many days have passed.  Where does time go?  Unfortunately when we’re at home, it goes by way too fast!  Let’s see……

Thursday, nothing too exciting!  But when we’re home, that’s ok with me.  The boys friends left after spending the night, so it was just kind of a mellow day.  Ken had to work, so I just got some projects done around the house while the boys lounged.   We had a heated game of Monopoly (the boys favorite game at the moment) and then off to bed.  When I put Jacob to bed, I noticed his forehead was warm.  I took his temp and he had a fever of 100.3.  That had me nervous, because it’s a very big deal to watch the temp while on chemo.  We’re supposed to call if it’s 101 or higher.  Unfortunately I didn’t sleep that well that night – worrying if he was ok, but got up a few hours later and he was back to normal. 

Friday, Jacob had to go in AGAIN to get his blood counts checked.  Ugh!  They must think we have nothing better to do than to run to Marquette every other day.  Believe me, when we finally make it home, that’s the last thing I want to do – to hop in the car again.  Anyway, we did that in the morning.  Got the phone call in the afternoon about his counts – they were in the hole!  Horrible!  But, as we’ve learned in the past, nothing is impossible with God!  They wanted us to go back in Sunday morning before we headed back down or stop at a clinic on the way.  Ummm…..I don’t think so!  They wanted Jacob back in on Monday morning no matter what, so what was the point?  I declined!  Anyway, they did insist on light activity and to stay away from big crowds.  Well, I have a wonderful friend Michelle, who offered to watch the boys so Ken and I could go out on a date.  I was hesitant at first with his counts being so low, but decided that we really could use that time alone.  So, we dropped the boys off and headed out to dinner.  It wasn’t anything fancy or a late evening, but a very nice one at that.  So nice to have good conversation without being interrupted.   We needed that!!!

Saturday was just a wonderful morning to sleep in!   Just a lazy day – loved it!!!  We celebrated Father’s Day early since we had to leave Sunday.  🙁  We then talked Jacob into going for a short bike ride.  He was so nervous.  That was the first time he’s been on a bike since last fall.   He was so nervous that he would get hurt since his balance is a little off.  I knew that riding a bike for him would be much easier than walking.  Sure enough, he did great!  And he had fun too.  We all did.  When we got back, we played a few games of basketball and then switched to baseball.  Jacob was starting to get tired by then, so he did all the batting and I ran the bases.  We were on a team and Ken and Caleb on a team.  And might I add, we won!  🙂  Boy, was I pooped at the end.  After all this sitting around in the hospital for the past few months, that tired me right out! 

Well, Sunday finally came.  The dreaded day!  How does 10 days go by so fast?  We left close to noon.  It’s always such a horrible time – so emotional!  Everyone’s upset and it just keeps getting harder every time we have to leave Ken.  What a Father’s Day for Ken!  At least we celebrated it a day early and at least we didn’t have to leave first thing in the morning.  (I had to find the positive in there somewhere!).  I prayed that we would have a quick trip.  It is so long and I’m sick of driving it already, but always worth it.  Anyways, it did go by pretty fast.  The boys did good.  Caleb did ask several times how much further.  I think he asked me 3 times in like 10 or 15 minutes.  Seriously???  God answered my prayer!  Somehow we made it in 7 hours.  We even made a couple stops and had to drive behind several drivers going WAY below the speed limit for the last hour of the trip.  Not to mention all the people creepin along US-2.  When we got to my sister Rachel’s house, my Mom and Dad were there along with my sister Liz and her family and my brother Neil and his family.   It was so nice visiting with everyone and especially seeing my Daddy on Father’s Day.  🙂  It took some of the sting out of having to leave Ken. 

Well, Monday came and Jacob and I were off first thing this morning to come back to the hospital.  They checked his counts and they were good.  His hemoglobin was still low, so they got us in a room fairly quick and gave him a transfusion.  They had to wait until he was fully hydrated before they could start chemo tonight which was about 9:00.  We’re in for 5 days this week for Ifosfamide and Etoposide.  He does fairly well with this round until later in the week when it’ll finally hit him.  Thank goodness he’s in good spirits so far!  Hopefully that doesn’t change.  By the way, his weight has held study over the last couple of weeks, so I’m very thankful for that. 

Please continue to pray that his appetite comes back and he gains some weight.   Please pray for his healing and that we will have the wisdom we need to make some decisions that are coming up soon.   I know God has big plans for Jacob.  We want to make sure we’re doing what God wants and what’s best for Jacob.  Thank you so much for all of your continued thoughts and prayers!  They’re working, so please don’t stop!  🙂