Praise God for another quiet, fever free day with a good appetite.  Jeremy also slept an hour earlier tonight! Thank you for your prayers.

Our day started out as usual, except I had to leave the room for a bit this morning to get some blood drawn.  I returned with a bandage for my arm, which I showed Jeremy right away so we could be bandage buddies.  Jeremy saw it and we had the following exchange:

Jeremy: “Daddy have bandon?”
Me: “Yeah, I had to get some blood drawn.”
Jeremy: “Daddy have bandon and Jeremy have bandon! On my leg, because poking!”

We had another exchange before his nap today.  We usually ask him if he needs to go potty before he naps and his answer is always no.  Still, we make it a rule to at least try to see if he has to, and if he doesn’t we just leave it be.  Today, though, he found a new way to tell us no.

Me: “Jeremy, do you have to go pee?”
Jeremy: “No.”
Me: “Yeah, let’s try.”
Jeremy: “No! Once upon a time, boy name Jeremy. No go pee pee!”

All of his stories start with “once upon a time.”

In regards to his counts, they dropped a bit, but his neutrophil count stayed the same, so it’s still an upward trend, just a slight bit slower. Hopefully we’ll be able to go home sometime next week.

We were told this morning that they would have to take the stitches on the skin biopsy site out early next week, probably Tuesday. We’ve been trying to prepare Jeremy for it by letting him know that the doctors will have to remove the “spider.” We tell him that it won’t hurt, but it will feel funny. I hope it won’t hurt – that’s what the doctors tell us. Even if it isn’t actual pain, Jeremy’s so traumatized by the skin biopsy that he’s very sensitive around that area, so any sensation – pain or otherwise – will make him very uncomfortable.

Although we usually change the bandage on the skin biopsy site during the day, we ended up changing it again this evening because it had gotten wet while Jeremy was getting his bath. I ended up recording it so Jeremy could see how brave he was during the change. Jeremy’s got a certain way of doing things and if we do it one way once, that’s the way it has to be for all future occurrences. Alice is his designated seat, while I am tasked with the cleaning and changing. Alice told me that as I was removing the bandage and cleaning the area, she could feel him tense up. As I was re-watching the video, I could see it in his facial expressions as well. He doesn’t wince exactly, but he does have this worried look on his face. Here’s the video.

He’s a great helper.  Love our kid.

That’s about it for today.  Quiet is good.

Praise God:

• that the dressing change doesn’t seem to have caused too much irritation and minimal itchiness
• that Jeremy continues to be fever free
• that Jeremy is eating
• that Jeremy’s counts are trending upward
• that Jeremy continues to have the energy to jump around on the bed
• that the skin biopsy site is healing well

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 God would sustain Jeremy through this block of treatment
• that Jeremy’s bone marrow aspirate at the end of this block of treatment would show < 5% blasts (leukemia cells) in his bone marrow and negative MRD (minimum residual disease)
• that God would provide with the whole process of finding a bone marrow match, the risks of transplant, and the anxiety of it achieving long-term remission for Jeremy
• that word would continue to get out about the need for a perfect bone marrow match and that one would be found for Jeremy
• that Jeremy’s little brother would be a match and that there would be a sufficient volume of cells in the cord blood to qualify for a good transplant
• that God would give Jeremy an extra portion of His strength for this block of treatment
• that we would not encounter any side effects that would affect his appetite – nausea, vomiting, mouth sores and that Jeremy would have a good appetite throughout the entire block of treatment
• that Jeremy would not experience any more stomach pains
• that Jeremy would not encounter any life threatening side effects
• that Jeremy would not have any brain, liver, lung, kidney, pancreatic, heart, or any other type of organ damage as a result of the chemo
• that God would protect Jeremy’s heart with the new medication (mitoxantrone)
• that Jeremy would not encounter any more fevers due to bacterial, fungal, or yeast infections, especially in his neutropenic state
• that the antibiotics will be effective and that the line infection Jeremy has will clear up quickly
• that there wouldn’t be any more line infections and that we wouldn’t need to replace it at any point during Jeremy’s treatments
• that God would protect Jeremy’s kidneys and liver as they process the antibiotics coursing through his system
• that fevers Jeremy does encounter would subside quickly
• that God would relieve Jeremy of the traumatic stress of the skin biopsy procedure
• that God would comfort Jeremy when the stitches on the skin biopsy site are taken out next week
• that the skin bumps would not be a result of any additional infections and that they would fade soon
• that God would continue protect Jeremy’s central line and there would be no additional infections as a result of it
• that the recent dressing change would not cause any skin irritations or itchiness
• that Jeremy would sleep better at night
• that we would continue to be reminded of God’s greatness and provision, that we would wait on Him, and that we would not allow fear to creep in
• that Alice and I would not get sick in order to care for Jeremy
• that God would protect Alice and baby brother from all the emotional stress
• that baby brother would be full term before deciding that he wants out
• for our neighbors who are also enduring trials of their own
• for our parents – that they would have rest and place their trust in Jesus