Praise God that Jeremy continues to be fever free and still has a good appetite.

Jeremy’s counts remain low.  His neutrophil count is still essentially zero and his white count is really low.  He usually gets transfusions for hemoglobin and platelets, so they never really go below 7 and 10, respectively.

Doctors prescribed a steroid cream yesterday for Jeremy’s rash and we’ve been applying it twice a day.  The rash outside his dressing seems to have gotten better (or it hasn’t gotten worse) and it seems to bother him less.  The rash under the dressing hasn’t gotten worse either and is very slowly looking better.  Still, it’s very itchy and even though Jeremy tries his hardest not to scratch, there are times when it becomes unbearable and he just goes at it when we’re not looking.  Or he’ll be sneaky about it and pretend to play guitar, but really, he’s scratching as he’s strumming.  Today, he scratched hard enough to loosen the dressing and it needed to be changed.  Every time it needs to be changed, we get really nervous because it exposes the site and is a risk for infection.  Still, it was changed without incident and we’re praying that the exposure didn’t put Jeremy at additional risk.

Jeremy’s hair has really started to fall out now.  Anytime he lays his head down or scratches it, hair falls out.  We’re starting to see lots of patchiness.  I’m not sure how to put this eloquently, but it just really bums us out.  He wakes up in the morning or from a nap and we see on his pillow that more hair has fallen out.  We know it’s a very common side effect of the chemotherapy, and it’s a very superficial thing, but it’s hard not to remember that he came into this world with a head full of hair.

Still, despite the circumstances, we praise God that Jeremy is in very high spirits.  We pray daily for God to give Jeremy an extra portion of His strength and it’s very evident.  He’s still pretty much himself (with the addition of some irritability sometimes, but who can blame him?).  He really loves to share his excitement with us.  When he’s discovered a new way to play with a toy or a new movement or dance, he’ll want to show us right away.  “Momma, Momma watch! Daddy, Daddy watch!” And he’ll proceed to show us.  He still loves to do his puzzles, too.

He’s also been more verbal with his affection.  Today, Alice had to step away for a prenatal appointment and when she came back, he told her, “Momma, I miss you so much!”  And before bed he’ll sometimes throw in a few “I love you”‘s to both of us.

Please continue to pray:

• that God would continue to use this situation for His glory
• that we would be obedient to God’s plans for this situation
• that we would continue to cast our worries and fears on the Lord
• that God would provide full and complete healing and total health for Jeremy
• that the regenerating bone marrow would produce only good white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets
• that the bone marrow aspirate at the end of this first block of treatment would show no leukemia cells (that Jeremy would be in remission)
• that we would not see any more fevers for the duration of Jeremy’s recovery
• that Jeremy’s appetite would continue to improve so we can avoid giving him nutrients through the IV
• that the rash under the dressing on his central line site would go away and that it is not a result of infection
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