Home Sweet Home....

We are home for a week! On Friday we received the news that Noah's blast cells were indeed below 5% - Praise God! We went to the clinic for his final bone marrow biopsy and for a lumbar puncture, thinking he would also have chemo, but he didn't; instead, he had a blood transfusion. He had been very tired, unable to hurry, or walk up the stairs, so they decided that he needed a "top up", as my Aunty Helene put it. : ) So as of Friday at about 4:30 we were free to go home! We were able to drive all together, and arrived home on Saturday night.
It is so good to sleep in my own bed- I forgot how much I love it, lol. Noah has really perked up as well; he is very happy to go to school for a few minutes each day before the bell rings to see his friends. They were very surprised to see him with a puffy face, but most of them have gotten used to it by now and have realized he is still Noah inside....

While we were at the clinic we met with Dr. Davis, (Noah's oncologist) and he gave us our map of the next three years. (!) As much as I wanted to know what April looks like, finding out what the next three years look like was pretty overwhelming! For instance, the next phase is called Consolidation, and it is 50 days long, which means we need to be in Vancouver until May 30. There is a break between days 22 and 29, which is May 2-8, so we may be able to come home for that week. Then at the end of the 50 days, he can come home until his white blood cell counts are up and if they are up again, he needs to go back on day 57 for the next phase (Interim Maintenance) . That one looks like we need to go to Vancouver every two weeks for 2-3 days for another 56 days. I haven't figured out what days, etc for this phase, but I do know it is June and July. On day 64 if his counts are up, we begin Delayed Intensification where it looks like we need to be in Vancouver for day 1, 4-6, 8, 15, 29-32, 36-39, 43 and 50. I am not sure about one of the chemo drugs, how it is administered, etc, so we may be there more often than that. That should take us into October. Then we begin Interim Maintenance II where we need to be there every 10 days for 2 days over 57 days. In December it is Delayed Intensification II which is 57 days where the first week and the third week are in Vancouver, then days 29-32 and 36-39 and 43 and 50 as well. On Day 57 (in February) we begin Maintenance. This will last for the remainder of the treatment, until June 2014. This entails going to Vancouver once a month or so until he is finished. Of course all of this is count-dependent; if at the beginning of any phase of treatment his counts are too low, we need to wait until they are up before treatment can begin. This is also barring any illnesses or anything that might come up to push the dates back.

See what I mean????
Doesn't that feel overwhelming? I guess it was the answer to my next question that really got me -I asked what that means for school, and was told that he likely won't be able to go to school again until February. If he is at home for a length of time and no one is sick at school (when does that happen?) he can go, but I am thinking there is no point in that unless we can really keep up with what his class will be doing so he can participate. We'll have to see. He and I are going to check out the school at the hospital where the teacher there has already been in contact with his teacher and where he can work from 9-12 every weekday. I think we'll have to make it a habit to go to school every day. Of course I have no idea if he will be up to it yet, but it is good to have a bit of structure to your day/ week.
Anyway, I received some good advice to stop looking at the entire map and only look at each phase (or even each day) and get through that one THEN look at the next one. I am trying to do that, and also to look at how much we will actually be home, not how much we will be away. I am reminded of Jesus' words, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? ... Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of it's own." There is no point in being anxious about any of this, and it is actually counter-productive!
Please pray that the peace we have been feeling would continue.
There is also something fun to look forward to this summer: CampGoodTimes. It is a camp for kids with cancer and their siblings and also they have a family camp. So far it seems that there is a break in the treatment right at the time we can go to family camp! We LOVE camp and had to make the difficult decision not to go to Rough Acres this summer- I guess that is because God knew we were going to this camp, not Rough Acres! Emily is very excited about the possibility of getting a t-shirt. (?) Funny girl. It is all free and I've heard they may even pay for us to get down there! Crazy.
Noah is feeling ok and has been doing some fun things like hanging out with friends, going to a woodshop to build his Cadet Derby car and he is looking forward to Friday night's races. We have been doing a bit of his homework everyday, trying to get into the habit.
The other thing we are looking forward to is Miranda's birthday party. Her birthday was on April 3 and so on Saturday afternoon, we plan to head to the pool and swim with her friends. Should be a lot of fun!
Another thing that has been going on here is that a few of our friends have put together a Relay For Life team called "Noah's Ark of Hope" The Relay is to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society. Isn't that just so cool?
From their website: "Canadian Cancer Society Relay For Life gives you and your community the opportunity to celebrate cancer survivors, remember and honour loved ones lost to cancer and fight back against all cancers." If you want to check it out, or donate to the team, please visit this site Relay For Life 2011 Smithers - Team Statistics Noah can't believe all these people are supporting him.... he just shakes his head, speechless.
My apologies for not writing this week, I have been doing some pretty major spring cleaning this week, and it has been busy! Thank you for reading and following our journey and please leave us a message - we love to read your notes of encouragement!