Tuesday, June 7th
Yesterday was a decent day. Very hot and humid here. Not my favorite kind of weather, but I’ve been complaining about the cold for so long, I guess I should just keep my mouth shut! Jacob and I had to leave my Mom and Dad’s up in Pentwater to come to the hospital to get his blood counts checked. We got here at 11:30. I will remind you that on Friday, his neutrophil count was only like 170. It needs to be at least 1,000 for them to do chemo, so they didn’t want to start chemo on Monday like they always do. But we had to come so they could check it anyways to see if it had changed from Friday. It was over 26,000!!! Can you believe it? I know all of your prayers helped. I was so happy! God is so good! So, we were off and headed back to Hastings.
This morning we had to be back at the hospital at 11:30 again. They already knew he was ready for chemo, so it was just a matter of getting him hydrated and wait for a room. We got in a room at 2:30. That was a record! Usually it’s not till late afternoon. They started chemo at about 5:30. This stay is only a 2 day stay, so today he had Vincristine, Cytoxan and Doxorubicin. Tomorrow will only be the Doxorubicin. We’ve come to the conclusion that it’s the Doxorubicin that his body really does not like. We thought it was just a coincidence the other times he’s gotten it, but since it happened again…..he throws up within minutes of them starting to administer it. None of the other ones effect him that way – not that quick, just that one. Poor little guy! And that will be the one that he has to have tomorrow too. 🙁 Other than that, he’s doing okay. He took a nap for over an hour, but just doesn’t feel the best. So, if all goes well tomorrow, we’ll be out of here late afternoon and if he feels okay, we can head home Thursday. Yippee! I can’t even describe to you how excited we are! I’ve certainly been a lot more homesick this time around, even though it’s been less than 3 weeks compared to the first 2 months. I think that’s because we’ve had a lot more down time in-between. A lot more time to think about Ken and home. We’re very very excited!
Tonight I was able to see my good friend Anissa again. She stopped by for a visit. Although the visits from her are never long enough. She is so funny and just enjoyable to be around! Having visitors helps make the hospital a bit more bearable. In the meantime, we got a visit from a new friend, Missy Luckey from Munising and her daughter Monica. Ken had met her while he was working in Munising and found out that they would be coming down here to DeVos for her daughter to have surgery. Missy found me on Facebook and we’ve been chatting back and forth for the past couple weeks. Her daughter Monica is 9 years old and will be having surgery tomorrow to have a tumor removed from her spine. She told me that she was nervous, so please keep her in your prayers also that everything will go good tomorrow. They were both so nice and Monica seems like a sweet girl!
Please continue to pray for Jacob for his healing. Please pray that the nausea won’t overwhelm him. Especially tomorrow, the ride back to Hastings and the ride home Thursday. The nausea usually hangs on for a few days. Even though that is the norm for these chemo drugs, it doesn’t need to be. Our God is bigger than all of this and He is THE Healer and THE Great Physician. We’re putting our trust in Him! Thank you Jesus!