The Week in Review

Day 36 of 1,278

The grip of the steroids continues to loosen and Carson is slowly returning to his normal boyish behavior. He is smiling and laughing regularly. He is getting picky about his food. He is even wanting to get out and see things...as long as it is either a fire truck, airplane, or monster truck. And you know all is really well in the world when potty humor returns to rule the day.

Carson had a blast on Jennifer's birthday. Watch as he practices for his own birthday by repeatedly blowing out the candles.

Tomorrow we start the beginning of the "consolidation" phase of treatment. Carson will undergo a spinal aspiration with chemo to kill any lurking leukemia cells in his spinal fluid. This will be the first time we have done this procedure in the outpatient clinic. Please pray all goes smoothly!!

Jennifer and I are trying to find our new "routine". Jennifer has stopped teaching piano for the moment. She may start up again in the not too distant future...she is just waiting for things to settle down a bit more and see how Carson fares with this next round of chemo. I am back at work most days. I can't say enough about how grateful I am to have such a wonderful, understanding office. So far I have taken off to be with Carson at all the medical appointments...and that's been a huge help.

This past week was busy, complicated with a trip to the ER late Wednesday night. Carson had a slight fever. And with his risk of infection the doctors sent us to the ER at 10pm that night. Although it was a four and half hour visit (is anything quick in the ER?), there didn't appear to be any infection. We went home after some preventative IV antibiotics, got a few hours sleep, then went to the clinic for more IV antibiotics and tests later in the morning. Are we having fun yet?

With Carson's increased risk of infection...and our desire to avoid the ER...we are unable to go out as much. This, of course, means we have the opportunity to either a) eat more, or b) exercise more.

Although our natural tendency is to go down the path of eating more, we are, in fact, trying to exercise more. And with Jennifer's mom here, we are trying to take advantage of the built-in help. Jennifer and I have done more runs together in the past few weeks than the past year. I even did my first-ever mountain bike race...and survived. Okay, I had one minor crash right at the end of the race, but overall it wasn't too shabby of a debut performance.

On the approach to shock-a-billy hill...which is appropriately marked on trail maps with a skull and crossbones.

Francesca is due back home tomorrow and we can't wait to see her again. Carson has been asking about her and I fully expect he will perk up even more when she gets here.

Go chemo! Go Carson!!

Paul.