Jeremy woke up this morning pretty upset.  He developed a mouth sore yesterday and it was really bothering him last night.  He cried to Alice, “Momma, pray for mouth ouchie.” We had a rough night and didn’t go to bed until late.

At around 10am this morning, Jeremy also got his first fever as a result of the chemotherapy. He was given some tylenol at 10:40am to help with the discomfort. The doctors also ordered blood cultures to be done to see if any bacteria (fungus, yeast) is growing. They also put him on antibiotics which have their own side effects, including kidney damage, so they upped his fluids to make sure his system gets flushed.  This means he’ll get blood drawn more often so that they can monitor his chemistry to be sure he remains stable while on antibiotics.  They also mentioned that this is about peak time for side effects and that he will likely start losing his hair by this weekend or next week.

The doctors and nurses expected fevers, but as his parents, it was frightening.  At first, the fever didn’t seem to bother him.  He was a bit clingier than usual, but was still eating, watching and singing along with his Sesame Street videos, and wanted to ride around in the small red car we borrowed from the hospital. Then at around 2pm, it really started to hit. Right as he was about to nap, he started getting really uncomfortable and started shivering/shaking. We had never seen him shake this way before as a result of any fever he had in the past. We were so scared and worried that he was having some sort of dangerous reaction. The doctors and nurses came in to take a look and assured us that this is expected and they are doing everything to support him through it. Expected or not, it was a side effect of the chemo we were hoping to avoid. We prayed right away through the duration of his shivering and shaking and it eventually subsided. The nurse came in to gave him some Tylenol and he was ready to go to sleep again.

Alice laid down with him and as he was falling asleep, he again got up because of some discomfort. This time, though, he threw up. Some got on Alice and we were immediately reminded that chemotherapy is excreted in the bodily fluids. Jeremy was crying, but we couldn’t go to him right away because we had to put on masks and gloves before we could even clean him off. It’s awful to know that we developed the habit to gear up before doing something as simple as washing our child. Every time we do it we’re reminded of how much we dislike it. After we cleaned him off and he calmed down again, he was finally able to get some sleep.  The fever broke during his nap and he woke up his usual self.

We also had a discussion with one our primary doctors today. She continued to emphasize the importance of Jeremy going into remission after the first block of treatment. This will be the largest factor determining his risk category.  We honestly don’t know what to expect. All we can do is continue praying and continue asking you all to do the same. Our confidence remains in the Lord and we know he will be glorified in this situation.

Quick update: Jeremy’s got another fever as of 10:45pm.  Pray that the fevers would be less frequent and less severe.  Current temperature is at 101.9.

Update: 12:45am.  Current temperature at 102.1.

Update: 2:00am.  Praise God, the fever broke.

This is a repeat prayer request, but I think it’s worth repeating.  Please pray:

• that Jeremy will be in remission after this first block of treatment so that he can be considered low-risk
• that Jeremy would recover quickly, that his bone marrow would produce good, properly structured white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets – that no cell would ever go bad again
• that God would sustain Jeremy through this period of side effects and that we would not encounter anything severe or life-threatening
• that God would manage the fevers we do encounter
• that the antibiotics he is receiving to prevent infections will do more good than harm and that Jeremy will not experience any yeast, fungal, or any other type of bacterial infection
• please click here for more prayer requests