The adolescence of chemotherapy

We have now officially entered "Delayed Intensification", the last (hopefully) stage of Adam's intensive treatment before the maintenance phase of the protocol begins, IF all goes well.

This was always heralded as a heavy block, with several "big guns" being used in combination with other chemo drugs, eight different drugs in total over the next 8 weeks. Adam had another lumbar puncture on Thursday, and the initial results from that were good: no Leukaemia cells in his spinal fluid, no cells apparent in his bone marrow. We are still waiting for the results from the MRD test that they send to Glasgow, they should be back next week. Those will reveal a little bit about the progress that Adam has been making, but they are not "decision material"--the biggest decisions will come at the end of this block of chemo (end of Jan).

On Friday I took all three kids up to the hospital for Adam's infusions. The whole process lasted more than three hours--which you would think with three kids in the same small room would be a nightmare. It wasn't--it was actually sweet time together: Agnes crawling around playing with various toys and using the bed rails to pull up to stand, Caleb and Adam watching TV and tucking in to corned beef hash provided by the hospital tea trolley. Caleb played hide and seek with Adam's consultant, another doctor held Agnes while I helped Adam's nurse get the infusion started. We ate, played, sang, talked and, hopefully, remembered this time. The memories of this time is the one thing that I don't want to lose--come what may this is our life right now and I want to embrace it fully.

Three hours and ten minutes later we had embraced it and were ready for BED! :)

Adam has also restarted his Dexamethasone, a high-powered steroid and building block of the chemo protocol, at nearly double the dose of before. So far, and this is still very early days, it has made him like the stereotypical teenager: moody, emotional, hungry and sleepy! Bless his heart, he is 8 going on 15 right now, but we are hopeful to make it through the week as smoothly as possible. It won't be too hard if he continues to sleep 12 hours a night!

We are well, for now. Thank you all for your support and prayers--I will update again as soon as I have anything useful to say.