Maintenance month 1 - done!

Sorry about the length of time between posts - we have been busy living our normal life!  : ) 

We went to Vancouver on May 18, just for the day, which was so weird; we flew out in the morning and came home on the evening flight!   Noah had a cold, so we couldn't stay overnight at RMH, and when we were at the hospital he was in isolation.

Jasper came to visit and they both had to wear masks to protect Jasper, because he was going to have his brain tumour removed tomorrow, and a cold is the last things he would need!  However, God worked a healing miracle, and Jasper is no longer going to be having surgery tomorrow!  This is what his dad, Stephen wrote on Facebook just a few minutes ago:

Miracle.
Jasper had an MRI scan late this afternoon to help map the surgery tomorrow. The MRI shows the tumour/scar tissue is 5% the size it originally was. It is the same size as the blood vessels around it! Kinda risky to go after something so small which could all be scar tissue anyways.
So no surgery! We are down to a single round of chemotherapy.
Thanks for your prayers everyone.

Isn't that just so awesome??? I am so excited! They are very relieved.  We thank God for this healing!

Anyway, back to Noah... (lol)

He had bloodwork done the week before going to Vancouver because he needed to go to the dentist; we thought he had a cavity since his tooth was really hurting him, and had been for a long time.  Going to the dentist is a rather lengthy ordeal: he first has to have bloodwork to make sure he has enough platelets in case his mouth bleeds, and also that his immunity is high enough to withstand having someone poke around in his mouth and he needs to take a crazy amount of antibiotics one hour before his appointment- he had seven (yes, 7) 250mg capsules of amoxil!  I was surprised how much it was, and so was our family doctor, she called Children's to make sure the dose was correct - she didn't believe it at first : )  Five minutes in, they realized he needed a tooth pulled. He still has a lot of his baby teeth, especially molars, and this one needed pulling.  That really caused a stir - are they ALLOWED to pull teeth during treatment? I mean he isn't even allowed to floss!  I called our nurse and she said if it was a baby tooth and he had the antibiotics, it was ok.  Whew!  He was quite nervous, but it took longer to give the freezing than actually pull the tooth!  His reaction and his relief was really cute.

So we knew when we went to Vancouver that his counts were pretty low.  Actually they were very low, and what they do in Maintenance when a kid's counts are low is take them off of all chemo that would make the counts go down.  So for the next week, instead of taking Methotrexate, and 6MP, he was only on Prednisone, since that is supposed to make his counts go up.  Only they didn`t; when he went for bloodwork this past Friday, they are still too low for any chemo.  He is to go for bloodwork again this Friday and we`ll see if they went up at all so we can start again.  Apparently it is quite common for kids in the first few weeks/ months of Maintenance to be off chemo for up to five weeks.  Hopefully his counts go up soon.  On the other hand, he is feeling really good, except that he STILL has that cold and has since about the second week of April! 

He has also been playing soccer and loving it (here he is, # 9)

but has had a bit of trouble with his knees and ankles being stiff and sore, which can be a side effect of Vincristine, one of his chemo drugs.  We mentioned it to the doctor when we were in Vancouver, and the doctor who was seeing him sent him for x rays right away and booked an MRI on his knees for the next time we are there.  I was quite taken aback at his level of concern and thought he was going a bit over board when our nurse informed me that the steroids that are so awesome at killing cancer cells can also cause Avascular Necrosis, which is bone death, usually at joints.  Great.  Thankfully his xrays didn't show any damage, so if there is any necrosis, it isn't too advanced, but we'll have to see what the MRI shows. 

Not too sure when that will be- could be June 15 or July 13- we are going to try Septra, the antibiotic  that he couldn't take at the beginning.  The pentamidine treatments are getting more and more difficult for him so his doctor thought he might try the oral antibiotic again, that maybe last March his body was just in shock from all the chemo, etc, that he couldn't take the Septra.  As soon as his counts are up he'll try a few days, and see how it goes.  If it goes well, we go in July, if not, we will be there in June. What this also means is that if he can take the Septra, we don't have to go back to Vancouver every month, only the ones where he will have an LP, which will be every three months after a while.  The rest of the treatments can be done here at our hospital in Smithers.  That would be So. Awesome. 

It is getting to be bed time so I will write about the Relay for Life that took place here on Saturday and also the results of the Leukemia/Lymphoma fundraiser in the next post.  Until then... 

Please pray for our other friends who are desperate for the same miraculous healing that Jasper received.

Jordan, age 14, has been diagnosed with a very agressive bone cancer and has only been given months to live by his doctors, but his parents are believing that cancer is not God's will for his people, and have taken him to Texas to a healing room.  Their blog:  www.jordanshealing.blogspot.ca  there is a very helpful section entitled "how to pray".

And also for Lucas, a 15 month old baby with a rare liver cancer.  He has had a lot of chemo and also had his tumour removed, but it has since come back and also spread to his lungs.  His parents are desperate, and seeking any advice, and covet your prayers.  Their website:   http://christiannilvaandluc.wix.com/asfund#!home/mainPage 

These two boys and their families are constantly in my thoughts and prayers....  please remember them in yours.