Praise God, we received some great news today! Jeremy’s neutrophil count made a huge leap forward and we were told we could go home for the rest of recovery for this block of treatment!  Thank you all for your continued prayers for Jeremy!  We are in awe of God’s response to prayer!

The doctors came in this morning and told us that they didn’t expect Jeremy to rebound this quickly and were originally thinking of discharging us on Monday.  But because his counts were high enough, we were given the option of leaving whenever we like – tonight, tomorrow, whenever.  We got super excited about the idea of being at home, so we decided to leave tonight.  The nurses gave us an education on flushing and hep-locking Jeremy’s line and we packed everything up and went home.

At first, we couldn’t tell if Jeremy was excited or not to hear that we were going home for a bit.  When we finally left that room, though, it became real to him.  He was observing everything as we were walking down the hall to the elevator, down the elevator to the lobby, and walking from the lobby to the car.  When we got into the car and started driving, he was just looking out the window taking note of buses and trees (until he got his Buzz toy).  When we got home, though, it really hit him.  He went to his toys and other playthings and kept asking us, “Remember that, Momma? Remember that, Daddy?”  He spent a good 10 minutes just running around – no real destination, just running with a huge grin on his face.  It was awesome to see.

For us, it’s weird to be home.  Everything looked familiar but unfamiliar at the same time.  It was emotional, too.  We were overjoyed to see Jeremy so happy to be home and running around, playing with toys he hadn’t seen in six weeks.  At the same time, we were sad that our stay at home will be brief and we will have to return to the hospital for more chemotherapy for Jeremy.  Still, 9 days is 9 days and we praise God that it’s going to be the best 9 days we’ve had in a while.

Before we left, we also made a few appointments in the clinic.  Wednesday, August 8th will be a blood draw.  Thursday, August 9th will be the bone marrow aspirate we’ve been praying will show no signs of disease in Jeremy’s system so that Jeremy will be in the low risk category.  Monday, August 13th, we will be getting the results of the bone marrow aspirate and readmitted into the hospital.

I also wanted to note that the rash under his dressing is less irritated today and looks like it’s starting to heal slowly.  He also didn’t complain about it too much today, especially when we got home.

Praise God (there are many, here are a few):

• that Jeremy’s counts jumped significantly and we were able to go home for the rest of recovery
• that Jeremy has more freedom and is able to get the feel of running around again
• that the fevers we’ve encountered so far have not been a result of any bacterial, yeast, or fungal infection
• that Jeremy has been fever free for 5 days
• that the rash under Jeremy’s dressing is slowly healing and seems to be irritating him less
• that Jeremy is eating well
• that we have not gotten sick and have been able to care for Jeremy throughout the entire first block of treatment

Please continue to pray (new items in bold):

• 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 on August 9th would show no leukemia cells (that Jeremy would be in remission)
• that we would be diligent in Jeremy’s line care
• that we would not see any more fevers for the duration of Jeremy’s recovery, especially since we are at home and would like to avoid going back to the hospital
• that the additional antibiotics for the fevers would not cause any kidney damage
• that the rash under the dressing on his central line site would go away and that it is not a result of infection
• that the brief exposure of the central line site when Jeremy scratched it off in his sleep would not cause any infection
• that the irritation from the previous dressing would continue to subside
• that the current dressing would not cause any allergic reaction
• that God would continue to give Jeremy an extra portion of His strength, so Jeremy would continue being his playful, energetic self.
• for safety and protection for Jeremy, since we are now at home without immediate access to medical assistance
• for wisdom for us in being careful about where we can take him to prevent any of us from getting sick
• that we would continue to be in good health so we can care for Jeremy during the subsequent blocks of treatment