Here we go...

We will be sitting by the phone today waiting for the call from Duke to take Cam over for the first round of his Chemo treatments. At least we get to wait here at home for a bed to open up as opposed to sitting at Duke all day, so Praise God for that small, actually BIG blessing. I think we’re all as mentally prepared as we can possibly be…or we will ever be. It’s not that we’re ready to get started, but more that we’re ready to get it over with and the only way to do that is to get started. They will hook him up to the IV pump with just fluids tomorrow as the actual Chemo med’s won’t start until Monday morning. Here’s the schedule for the week:

Monday

They will give him three different med’s through the day with two being Chemo drugs and the other being a drug to counter the side-effect of one of the Chemo drugs. What’s even worse…the “good” drug can cause his blood pressure to drop and would result in a stay in the PICU, so please pray he can tolerate this as it will help lessen the known side-effect.

Tuesday

They will only give him one med on this day.

Wednesday

They will repeat the same med as Tuesday.

Thursday

He will get a break and only have IV fluids…his “day of rest”.

Friday

They will reinfuse the stem cells they harvested back in March to help his body speed up the recovery process. From what they tell us, the preservative used to keep the stem cells viable will literally make him smell bad…his skin, his breath, everything. They will also be very aggressive on the IV fluids through the entire week as some of the other side effects of the med’s can be somewhat lessened if they flush him with the fluids, so we’ll have to use Pull Up’s at night to keep accidents from happening. Please pray the effects of both will be minimal and that Cam won’t be self-conscious about either.

Saturday

If he’s doing well…we come home.

Cam is in extremely good spirits over the past few days as LeAnn has become the master of dressing changes, so there’s no real trauma going on with “sticky changes” and central line flushes. Cam has named his two central line “tubies” James and Henry (from Thomas the Tank Engine) since one has a red cap and the other has a white cap…if you don’t know what I’m talking about…ask your kids. ;-)

We all want to say yet another heartfelt THANK YOU for all the prayers this past Tuesday night. To everyone who attended at Salem Baptist Church, at Hazel Creek Baptist Church, at the homes of members of Level Grove Baptist Church, and the Pastor, Deacons, and members of our Sunday School class at Salem Baptist who came to our home…we love you all and could never fully express the gratitude for lifting our son up in the name of THE Son. I’m not as eloquent as LeAnn in quoting scripture, but as I shared with the men and women who came to our home, the verse that has carried me through all of this so far is from Matthew 11:28-30

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

These were words from Jesus to the multitudes as an invitation to come to know Him, but they also give me comfort that even as a Christian…He is there…just waiting for us to come to Him. I pray for that rest for Cam during these next four months.

One other piece of great news...Cam's Lumbar Puncture results finally came back and they were completely clean, so everything is looking great going into the final phase of the treatment protocol. We’ll give updates through the week as things progress.