Monday, November 12th

Wow…hard to believe a month has passed since I’ve written.  I was having problems with getting on the website, so I’ll try to start where I left off last……..

The first round of chemo ended up going very well.  Jacob didn’t have any nausea.  Praise God!  So crazy.  He was so sick before and Children’s of Wisconsin is doing a fantastic job with him.  We are so impressed.  We are just so happy with their treatment for Jacob.  They sure know what they’re doing!   It’s maddening that the hospital in GR was such a joke and that Jacob had to go through what he did, but we’re trying to look forward and be thankful that he’s in good hands now. 

Anyway, we enjoyed 2 weeks at home after the first round.  Jacob started physical therapy that he does about 3 times a week, although they have him do it everyday when we’re at the hospital.  He did end up getting a fever of 102 a week after we got home.  They don’t like anything over 101, so we had to bring him in to the ER in Marquette.  Marquette did what Children’s told them to and admitted Jacob until his counts went back up and his fever went away.  He ended up being in the hospital from Saturday the 20th until Tuesday the 23rd.  Not how we wanted to spend our time at home, but at least we were in the U.P. and I was able to go home and get Caleb off to school in the morning and off the bus at the end of the day.  Unfortunately on the way back to the hospital Monday evening, I hit a deer and wrecked our van.  20 years of driving and I’ve never hit a deer.  Yes, I just aged myself.  🙂  At least I was okay, but you think “what else”?  Off it went to the shop and at least we have an extra vehicle. 

We headed back down to Milwaukee the following Monday on the 29th for Jacob’s second round of chemo.  It’s five full days of Etoposide (very hard on the bladder) and Ifosphamide (also a mustard gas).  The week went by well.  Jacob was sad that he had to spend Halloween in the hospital, but they made sure the kids had fun by having food, games and crafts.  The kids even went trick-or-treating around the hospital.  He refused to dress up since he was bummed, but wore a cleaver head band to make it a little festive.  Wish I had a picture to share.  🙂   We were able to come home on Friday, Nov. 2nd.  They sent him home on fluids since they like him to have 24 hours of fluids after chemo to make sure his bladder is fully flushed out.  He did well all week, but ended up throwing up about 2 miles after we left the hospital.  I actually had a feeling that would happen.  Since the van was out of commission, we had Ken’s truck.  It has knobby tires and can be a little bouncy on these Wisconsin roads.  After so much jiggling, I didn’t feel so well either.   After that, he felt good and never had another problem again. 

We had another great week at home.  It went by too fast of course.  We had friends – Tim and Ryan Taylor come up for the week.  Had a great time, but missed Carisa and Lindsay.  🙁  Ryan, Jacob and Caleb had nerf gun wars almost every night and had a blast!  I will add that Ryan is in his 20’s and probably had just as much, if not more fun than the boys.   🙂  Thanks for playing with them Ryan!  I will also add that the Sunday after we got home, Caleb shot his first deer.  He was so excited!  We are so happy for him.  🙂

And now we’re at today.  Jacob and I are in Milwaukee again.  We arrived around 4:30 cheese time (central time).  We’re at the Ronald McDonald House and will be here for a couple of nights.  Jacob has an appointment tomorrow morning to get his counts checked.  Then on Wednesday morning at 8:00, Jacob will be admitted and he will have surgery to have a central line put in (just temporary) to have stem cells removed.  Not sure if they will ever be needed.  Hoping not, but we’ll have them here frozen “just in case”.   That could take 1-3 days depending on how long it takes to get the amount they need.   I think the number is around 50 billion if I remember correctly.  It’ll take 2-3 hours each day.  Once they’re done, they’ll do his 2 day chemo round and then we can head home once again for 2 weeks.  So we’ll be home for Thanksgiving.  Yeah!!!

At least we got our van back last week.  It looks beautiful!  Good job Goodwins!  🙂  Jacob is happy too since we had a nice smooth ride down here.  Hopefully the deer stay out of our way from now on.  At least when I have the kids in the vehicle.  Well, that’s all for tonight.  I will try to keep up on this now that I have the website figured out.  I will let you all now how Jacob’s surgery goes.  Please be praying for him!  Thanks everyone!!!