Jack is in Remission!

"Not a good way to start the day." Those were Jack's words as we prepared to head out the door. He had been awakened in the middle of the night with severe back pain. It had kept him up for much of the night and it wasn't getting any better. We headed to the hospital, Jack wincing with every bump the car hit.

But Jack's aching back wasn't the reason we were returning to Hurley. Today was the day Jack finished the "induction" (first) phase of chemotherapy, and hopefully the day we received word that he was in remission (signifying that less than 5% of his blood cells were cancerous).

We had been very tentative about getting our hopes up. At an appointment on Monday, Jack's levels were lower than the doctors wanted, and his chemo nurse was clearly concerned and tempering our expectations. And now, Jack was having serious and mysterious back pains. On top of that, this morning he was getting a spinal tap (which caused a week-long debilitating headache the last time he got one) along with the bone marrow test that would be used to determine if he was in remission. Though praying for the best, we were far from optimistic.

Suffice to say, we were thrilled when Dr. Onwuzurike walked into the room this afternoon—exactly one month to the day after informing us that Jack had cancer—and told us, "I only have good news for you." She went on to explain that we were going to have to wait a day for the official lab results to come back, but from looking at the slides under a microscope, she said she was very confident that Jack is in remission! Beyond that, she was very pleased with a number of indicators that suggest that he is progressing well.

He still has a long road ahead with a lot more chemotherapy, and we won't know the exact course of treatment going forward for another ten days, but the news today was as good as it could have been! Thank you once again to all who have been praying for Jack, and thank you to the doctors and nurses who have done such a wonderful job of taking care of him!