Never a dull moment

The last couple of weeks have been filled to the brim.

James has had additional chemo and some additional side effects (nothing like he had during induction, thankfully!). We all kept hoping that he would make the turn upward before he had to go into the hospital. Especially since we (Dr. Keller, Vern and me) to skip his third dose of vincristine this time around.



As I understand it, the vincristine attacks the leukemia cells as they divide. Specifically it attacks a 'string-like thing', whose technical name escapes me, and stops the division and growth process. It so happens that nerve cells have the same string-like thing and so the vincristine also attacks all the nerve cells. So, while it looks like a person on vincristine is loosing muscle tone, they are actually losing nerve control. This seems to affect James the most in his already compromised intestinal tract.



The nerves aren't moving his stomache muscles to empty it's contents and eventually (it doesn't take long) the contents leak out around his g-tube. Then his g-tube site gets irritated. Because he is on steroids, it doesn't heal, it gets worse. And so James has a nasty pressure ulcer around his g-tube site. It seems it came on all of a sudden and it is infected.

Last night, we took him to the emergency center and through a sleepless series of events we are now at Egleston's and James has been admitted. He is getting an antibiotic and IV fluids. Hannah is with me. We aren't on the chemo floor, so we'll have to appeal tomorrow either to move, or for her to stay inspite of her young age. That would be a great thing to pray about!

Please also pray for wisdom for the doctors and that I would be able to effectively communicate my concerns. Pray for quick and complete healing. At this point, it looks like we could be here for a full week.

In other news: The Lord orchestrated the ground-breaking for our new home that we weren't expecting to happen until the middle to end of August. We are grateful for some very generous friends and brothers and sisters in Christ who are greatly easing our load. We appreciate all your prayers for the safety of all working on our house and for all the decisions that need to be made in the process.

Thanks for stopping by. Please comment or e-mail if you can. It means a great deal to know you visited.

Love, Stephanie