Praise God for another quiet few days.  Jeremy continues to eat well and be fever free.

Fever free is important because it means that Jeremy is infection free.  Infections are a big deal when he’s neutropenic.  We all have bacteria living in our bodies naturally, but God also equips our bodies with the ability to fight it off every day in our immune system.  For Jeremy, and other patients undergoing chemotherapy, the immune system is completely compromised and bacterial, fungal, and yeast infections can be life threatening.  Praise God that the bacterial infection Jeremy had two weeks ago cleared and is under control and that he hasn’t encountered any fungal or yeast infections.

Jeremy’s counts continue to climb upward.   They are trending at the rate where the doctors are comfortable with performing a bone marrow aspirate this coming Wednesday, 9/12, in addition to an LP (lumbar puncture) to inject chemotherapy into the spinal fluid.  They’ll also be taking out his skin biopsy stitches while he’s sedated.  Please pray for a smooth procedure.  Please pray also that the aspirate results would show clinical remission (< 5% blasts) and a negative MRD (minimum residual disease).

As for today, it was nice and quiet.  The most eventful thing was Jeremy getting an echocardiogram.  It’s a simple ultrasound of his chest that is taken once a treatment round to get an assessment of his heart.  He’s been very wary of new faces in different uniforms, but he remained calm and cooperative.

I’m not sure if you can tell in the picture, but baby brother is getting bigger.  Jeremy is often reminded of that when he tries to sit on Alice’s lap and notices that he is getting pushed further and further out.  He lets Alice know that her belly is in the way by trying to pat it away when he’s sitting down.  On the other hand, the belly makes a great headrest and armrest for him when he’s lounging.

I had a scratch on my hand today that started to bleed a bit and Jeremy took notice.  He looked at it and asked me, “Oh, Daddy have ouchie?” I told him, “Yeah, I have an ouchie.” He continued, “Does it sting?” I let him know that, yes, it does sting a bit.  He looked at me, gave me the sweetest smile and said, “It be ok, Daddy.”  I know we gush a lot, but honestly, we just love Jeremy.  It’s hard to describe in words why or how much exactly.  We love him simply because he is God’s gift to us and we thank the Lord for every moment that we have with him.

How do you not love that face?

And we know that as much as we love Jeremy, God loves him even more.  We give our worries and anxieties to the Lord every day, keeping that in mind.  We daily surrender  control of this situation to Him.

“I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2)”

Praise God:

  • Jeremy’s counts are going up
  • Jeremy is eating well, fever free, continues to dance and sing,  and is developing physically and intellectually.  He puts together new words and phrases everyday
  • Baby brother is growing and kicking about
  • We can be together as a family
  • Alice and I are in good health
  • Jeremy’s line infection cleared
  • the skin bumps that Jeremy had are fading

Please continue to pray (new/updated 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 we would fix our eyes on Him
  • 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 on Wednesday 9/12 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 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 God would continue protect Jeremy’s central line and there would be no additional infections as a result of it
  • 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