Last Day of Chemo

Aaron's getting his last dose of chemo as I type. Days -6 through -2 have been largely uneventful, for which we are very thankful. On Saturday he even had all three chemo meds in one day and handled it like a champ. His biggest side effect so far has been tiredness, which comes and goes. Aside from randomly drifting off to sleep, he's been feeling pretty good otherwise. We are so very grateful for all your prayers, support, and encouragement. We really are feeling the effects of being lifted up by all of you.

He even had some energy for Lego building!

We're settling into the daily routine here at the hospital. Aaron has a few things he has to do everyday to help prevent infections and side effects, so we're figuring out our schedule and working to keep up his muscle strength with walks around the unit. He can earn "bucks" for the things on his routine that he completes each day. Both of us are HIGHLY motivated by a reward chart (him for the prize money and me for the satisfaction of checking things off the list) so here's to hoping we can keep up the momentum on that once he starts feeling worse. He has also been testing out all the menu items from the cafeteria (big fan of the cookies) and thankfully, he is still eating normally. So far the doctors seem to be encouraged with how well his body is tolerating all of the conditioning.

Today he has more energy than he's had in the past few days. It seems like his body is rallying - surprisingly (to us at least) his counts went up today after dropping the past few days. His doctor said it's not unusual. The chemo is making space in his bone marrow for the new cells (Jacob's) to engraft and grow, but in the meantime, all the other cells like his red blood cells, white blood cells, and neutrophils are racing into overdrive to figure out what's going on. He compared it to getting rid of an ant hill. The meds have killed the Queen but the workers are still running around like crazy. Based on those numbers, the doctor predicted that his counts will be the lowest around Day +5 to +7 (mid week next week) so we're trying to take advantage of the good days while we have them.

I had a really lovely Mother's Day. I wasn't expecting much because we had already celebrated together as a family last Sunday before Aaron was admitted. But Isaac came to the hospital early Sunday morning so I could have the chance to go home for a few hours - complete with coffee and surprise (delicious) gluten-free donuts waiting in the car for me when I left! I hung out with the kids for awhile, played some games, and ate sushi before coming back again for the night. Probably not the Mother's Day I would have planned in an ideal world but I'm just exceedingly grateful I got to see all the kids and everyone is doing well. This certainly will give some perspective for my expectations in the future. 

Isaac and my mom are doing a great job holding down the fort at home, along with the help of my Aunt Shelley this week. Jacob started his meds today to make extra blood cells, which come in the form of a small injection, so you can pray for Isaac as he administers those over the next few days 😳 IFYKYK. The other kids have super busy schedules for the next few weeks - Sam is in the middle of end school mayhem with baseball games several times a week, band practices/concerts, and field trips. Libby has her preschool graduation on Thursday night and her dance recital this weekend. There are a lot of moving pieces but thankfully we have a lot of people helping to make sure we keep all the plates spinning. Thank you to all of you!! We couldn't do this without you.

Back at the hospital, we have some big things on the horizon as well. Tomorrow is a rest day for Aaron and he will start his anti-rejection meds, but otherwise, he lays pretty low in preparation for Thursday. On Thursday, Jacob and Isaac will arrive early in the morning for Jacob's procedure. The bone marrow harvest itself should take about two hours and then it will be a few hours while they prep the cells for Aaron to receive them. We've been told that once Jacob is done in recovery, he will get to join Aaron in his hospital room for the actual transplant/transfusion. May 18th will be Aaron's "new birthday" so they get to celebrate that together. Afterwards, Jacob and Isaac will head home for the night. Jacob isn't expected to have any side effects, other than some soreness and bruising the next day. And then on Friday, Aaron will likely get his feeding tube placed as we prepare for some of the more uncomfortable days while his own cells continue to die off and the new cells (hopefully!) begin to take root.

Here are some specific ways you can pray over the next few days:

• For continued mild side effects from the medicines. We've been so grateful that has been Aaron's experience so far and we're hoping for it to continue.
• For the medicines to be effective in preparing his body to receive the new cells. 
• For Jacob and the bone marrow harvest to go smoothly without complication.
• For the new cells to engraft and grow quickly, without rejection or complications.
• For Aaron to tolerate the feeding tube well. This is the part that he is the most anxious about since it's unknown to him.
• For all the moving pieces and that Sam and Libby would feel loved and cared for, even when we are missing important milestones for them in the midst of everything. 

We know this is only the beginning, but we've experienced such grace and peace already. Thank you for checking in and keeping us in your thoughts and prayers!