A Little Delay

Jack went in today to have his bone marrow test done, but had a slight setback. Unfortunately, his white blood cell count was not quite high enough to guarantee accurate testing results, so the test has been put off until next Tuesday. 

As discouraged as we are by the delay, it does mean an extra week without chemo for Jack, so hopefully he can enjoy it.

Home Again, Again

Stay number six at Hotel Hurley is over and we are thankful Jack is home again, again. The last two rounds of chemo were especially tough on Jack and have landed him in the hospital two weeks in a row. Ugh! His headaches do seem to be under control now and we think we have a better idea of what was causing the extreme nausea, as well. Hopefully with some extra precautions before he receives chemotherapy, his nausea will not be as bad in the future. 

We are learning through this journey that medicine is certainly not an exact science. Everyone responds to treatment differently and from the beginning Jack has been pretty unique in how his body reacts to leukemia, chemo and low hemoglobin and platelet counts. His doctors and nurses are constantly shaking their heads at Jack’s newest reaction. Consequently, we are especially grateful for the time and thought his doctors put into his treatment. Both his doctors and nurses seem genuinely grieved when Jack is suffering and are both compassionate and wise in their care of him. We thank God for them daily.

Jack finished the consolidation phase of his treatment this week and will have a bone marrow test on Tuesday to assess his risk level for the next phase. Please pray with us that his bone marrow test results show less than .01% of leukemic cells so that he can continue treatment without radiation and without moving to a very high risk assessment. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement!

Consolodation Coming to a Close

After his three day "bonus stay" at Hotel Hurley last week, we're glad to have Jack home. Jack will be going back in to the clinic Tuesday for his final treatment in the "consolidation" phase of chemotherapy. After that, the next step is to check where he is in terms of his minimal residual disease (MRD). Please join us in praying that the MRD would be less than 0.01%. As we have mentioned before, this would allow him to continue further phases of chemotherapy with his current "intermediate risk" assessment. They will test his bone marrow next week, and the results should be back to us at the beginning of October.

The Best Laid Plans...

Well...this week was supposed to be a little easier. After having to come to the hospital for four days worth of chemo each of the last two weeks, the protocol called for Jack to only need to come in once this week.

When Jack came in for his chemo on Tuesday, they checked his blood, and found out that his platelets and hemoglobin were extremely low. So the plan was for him to come in again on Wednesday to get a transfusion. Unfortunately, when he came in, he was neither feeling good nor looking good. That, combined with the fact that his ANC was very low (meaning his immune system was especially compromised) led the doctors to admit him to the hospital.

Please pray that...

• he would respond well to the care he is receiving and get home from the hospital quickly
• while he is in, they can get to the bottom of what’s causing his ongoing headaches, and do something to fix that.
• (most importantly) as he finishes up the consolidation phase of chemo next week, his minimal residual disease would be low enough to allow him to remain in the “intermediate risk” category as he continues treatment.

Fun at the Old Ballgame

The Cardinals only visit Detroit every sixth year in the normal schedule rotation, so it's not often that Jack gets to see his favorite team. Thanks to some very thoughtful friends though, he got a really special experience during the Redbirds' most recent visit.

With the Cardinals coming to town, fellow baseball-crazed pastor, Paul Edwards gave us two tickets to Saturday's game. From there, Mike Smith took over. Mike is one of the official scorers at Busch Stadium, and is a friend of our family. He made a couple calls and arranged for a special experience at the game, but told us he would just let us be surprised. As it turned out, we got to meet Cardinals manager Mike Shildt and pitcher Adam Wainwright. Both were incredibly kind to Jack, showing genuine concern for his well-being as they interacted with him.

The time spent with them was cool enough, but Wainwright also signed a ball and a card, and Shildt gave Jack some really sharp Cardinals gear! We can't say enough about the kindness they showed in taking time to meet with us. Thanks so much to everyone involved!

While at the Cards/Tigers game, we also got to chat with Cardinals broadcaster (and former pitcher) Rick Horton. We reached out to him, and he graciously agreed to  meet up with the two of us before the game. Rick is a great guy and we had a real nice conversation with him, in addition to him also signing a card for Jack. Thanks, Rick!

In the midst of all this, we also got an unplanned bonus when we chatted with 1968 World Series MVP Mickey Lolich. He was there for the 50th anniversary celebration of that team, and we were waiting for an elevator in the Tigers administrative offices. He gave us a little good-natured ribbing seeing we were Cardinals fans (since the Cardinals were the team the Tigers beat in the '68 Series), but he seemed to be a really nice guy too.

All in all, it was definitely an experience to remember!