The end of Round One

Today is Monday, a mundane enough affair by most people's standards. In Aberdeen it's cold, grey and a wee bit rainy, also pretty mundane for the people who live here. For us, however, it's a fairly momentous day: it marks the last day of Adam's first round of chemotherapy and a rest day.

Yes, you read me right...it's been a rest day. A fairly restful day too, for that matter, especially since the aforementioned weather has limited our choice of activities. To be honest, I've struggled to know what to do with ourselves, as each and almost every day for the last 5 weeks has been oriented around a trip to the hospital for something or other. Not to have to make that trip has left me a bit, well...disoriented. Not that I haven't enjoyed it, and not that I haven't caught up on laundry and cleaning in the free time. Adam watched a bit of his favourite movie Cars, and Caleb had a go at another day of football camp. Agnes...well, she ate, slept and squealed! :)

Tomorrow begins Round Two of chemo, complete with all new drugs, an all new routine and the same old bone marrow aspiration and lumbar puncture to kick it all off. The docs will be doing much the same for the next four weeks as the last five: pounding Adam's body with toxic drugs hoping to kill off even more of the leukaemia cells, watching his blood counts rise and fall, and measuring it all at increments with needles and blood samples.

What has to happen now is up to Adam's body really, and up to the Lord ultimately. The drugs need to kill off as much leukaemia as possible and bring Adam closer to remission, if not all the way. But his body also has to hold up under the strain and this is the slightly more worrying part of the equation. The first round took a toll, evident in the constant slight tremor of his hands, his pasty face, his inability to walk pretty much at all, and his hair that is falling out fast now. We hope and pray that the second round doesn't do worse, though at this point I suspect that's a futile hope. It's all a guessing and waiting game, not exactly my forte but it seems one that I'm destined to practice a lot for the foreseeable future.

We'll keep you posted how the numbers look tomorrow, and if there are any new developments. Adam had a fainting spell over the weekend that we hope not to repeat, though on the plus side he's off the steroids and is finally sleeping better. Now if only I could say the same about his sister....