Hard Week; Good News

It was a hard week. We knew it would be because it was six years ago on Friday that Pete’s dad died of colon cancer. We miss him in so many ways and this week is always full of memories of our last weeks with him.

In addition to that, on Tuesday, we were really hoping Jack would be able to start his next phase of chemo after a month of being on hold due to low counts. But his counts were still falling. The doctor was concerned that Jack might have relapsed, so he had a bone marrow aspiration Tuesday morning.

Jack is so brave. Unlike a younger child, Jack knows exactly what is going on and what a relapse would mean: radiation, a bone marrow transplant and no college next year, at the least. He pushes forward with courage at each setback, however. (I on the other hand, barely held it together and went home and ate almost a pint of Ben & Jerry’s by the individual spoonful while standing in front of the freezer.) 

The bone marrow is sent to Ann Arbor for testing and unfortunately, we had to wait for 24 hours to get results. On Wednesday afternoon, we learned that half of the test was negative for leukemic cells. Great news but because of a miscommunication at the lab, we had to wait another 24 hours to receive the rest of the test results. Needless to say, that was tough. We are overwhelmingly thankful, though that those test results came back negative, as well, and Jack is still in remission. He will go back next week to see if his counts are finally high enough to start the next phase of chemo. As our friend Charlie and his family say, "Onward!"