Flashing Back
It is Tuesday evening here in Seattle and, while there are many memories of a year ago that pop in and out of one's mind, the news from today seems pretty good.
We arrived Sunday afternoon after a long flight, checked in and ate a "Bloomin' Onion" at Outback, just as we did on our first evening, the first time around. Monday began, as before, with a long blood draw at 7:30 (10:30 Eastern though). There were PN and Dr visits all morning, and then three hours under sedation for a bone marrow biopsy and two skin biopsies. The nurse came out early and said they had decided to give John his immunizations while he was out. Ten needles all over his body and dozens of pages of paper explaining it all. When you are doing childhood things a second time, time is not something they waste. We relaxed overr pizza and "24's" final episode in the hotel room when the ordeal was over, sucessfully so.
Today was less intrusive, with several sessions of X rays, pulmonary tests, nutrition reviews and such. What we know from these thus far is that his platelets are a "quart low", his tear ducts dry, his nutrition and exercise on the "couchy" side and all that puts him in the 99th percentile. He has mild GVH (grafted immune system rejection of its new host) symptoms, which (ironically) is a good thing, since that also means that stray leukemia cells get rejected too.
The serious news comes in the next two days. It should be basically as good. Also as good is that John has been leading the process here and I have been his caddy. Living through cancer is magical. Living beyond it is a miracle danced with God to a tune no one else should ever hear.
We arrived Sunday afternoon after a long flight, checked in and ate a "Bloomin' Onion" at Outback, just as we did on our first evening, the first time around. Monday began, as before, with a long blood draw at 7:30 (10:30 Eastern though). There were PN and Dr visits all morning, and then three hours under sedation for a bone marrow biopsy and two skin biopsies. The nurse came out early and said they had decided to give John his immunizations while he was out. Ten needles all over his body and dozens of pages of paper explaining it all. When you are doing childhood things a second time, time is not something they waste. We relaxed overr pizza and "24's" final episode in the hotel room when the ordeal was over, sucessfully so.
Today was less intrusive, with several sessions of X rays, pulmonary tests, nutrition reviews and such. What we know from these thus far is that his platelets are a "quart low", his tear ducts dry, his nutrition and exercise on the "couchy" side and all that puts him in the 99th percentile. He has mild GVH (grafted immune system rejection of its new host) symptoms, which (ironically) is a good thing, since that also means that stray leukemia cells get rejected too.
The serious news comes in the next two days. It should be basically as good. Also as good is that John has been leading the process here and I have been his caddy. Living through cancer is magical. Living beyond it is a miracle danced with God to a tune no one else should ever hear.
