Day 10

Ian had a bright and early chemo treatment this morning. We had to be at the hospital by 6:45 am. The procedure they were doing today was chemo through the port in his chest, chemo into his spine (LP), and then another bone marrow test. Since he started the steroid he has had a major increase in appetite, so they try to get the A.L.L. kids in as early as they can since they have to be fasting until the procedure is done. Ian was so terrified. He pretty much knows that if he is in the car, he is on his way to the hospital so he was trembling by the time we got into the parking garage. To make a long story short, it was NOT fun. It was extremely exhausting for all of us both physically and mentally.

But.. here's the good news. We got the results back from Ian's tests. He is considered a "rapid early responder" and has responded amazingly fast to the treatment. When we left the hospital the first time, the leukemia counts (blast cells) inside his bone marrow were at 73%. They were hoping the results would come in today at 5%. Well, he was even lower than that at 1%. So he is considered to be in remission. He still has to get chemo, and we still have a journey ahead, but we don't have to go so early next week and he'll only have to get the chemo injection through his port (which is the easiest part of everything) and not the other stuff. It is such wonderful news!!! I am so thankful to all of your thoughts and prayers for I truly do not know if things would be going so quickly without them.

Now if those tornado sirens would stop going off so we could go to bed... it's been a long day.