big week ahead

We have been enjoying over a week now of being HOME! For real, it has been great.

Most of our time has been very low key. Ethan's home nurse came on Thursday to check vitals and draw blood and his counts came back lower than Tuesday's numbers (which is normal since he had chemo on Tuesday) but still way above neutropenic levels. A big praise!

Ethan has really been enjoying spending time in his room, watching movies on the laptop and getting snacks on a tray (who wouldn't?) on his new full-size bed (that makes it much easier for mom and dad to snuggle without falling to the floor). So this has been the scene a lot.

The last couple days we have been enjoying time getting some fresh air at the Botanical Gardens.

Oh, and the boys got hair cuts. And are looking pretty cute. :)

The week ahead is a big one. There are many specific ways that you can pray:

Day 29 / Tuesday (2/25): As we've shared, this is the last day of induction and a big day filled with procedures (surgery for his port, chemo in his spine, and a bone marrow biopsy). Please pray that all of these procedures and his sedation would go smoothly and that God would protect Ethan throughout the entire process.

Healing from colds. We are all pretty much in the midst of some cold symptoms, Ethan included. Please pray that God would bring healing to all of us. Any kind of congestion always increases the risk level for sedation and so I am praying that Ethan's symptoms would heal quickly.

Results and next steps. This is a big one that has been on my heart and mind lately. When we first began Ethan's treatment, we decided to be a part of a couple of studies, also called clinical trials. Clinical trials are conducted by organizations like the Children's Oncology Group as a way to determine the best treatment protocol for different types of cancer. Here's what that means for us: Right now there is a standard protocol of treatment for T-Cell ALL but there is research being done to determine if the treatment protocol should be changed to better prevent relapse in the future.

If you decide to join the clinical trial that we did, you start off in induction and the treatment protocol is the same for all kids who have T-Cell ALL. At the end of Induction (Tuesday for us), his bone marrow is studied under the microscope and sent off for special testing to determine if his leukemia is in remission or if there are any blasts or minimal residual disease (cancer not seen by the human eye) left. These results are put together with earlier results from previous bone marrow biopsies and his initial prognostic factors at diagnosis and he is placed in a risk category (Risk meaning likelihood of relapse in the future). In his study there is low-risk (which basically means, you stay on the standard protocol of treatment); intermediate risk, high risk and high-high risk.

We already are fairly certain that Ethan will be in the intermediate to high risk category.  Which sounds scary but in terms of the study it basically means there are 4 different treatment paths (called "arms") that he could be given. How this is determined is on the computer. Randomization. In other words, it's random.

Which is a long way of me getting to my prayer at this step. I know based on the risk category the computer is going to "randomly" place Ethan on one of the treatment arms. But I also believe that God is in control. And so my prayer is that God would specifically place Ethan on the treatment arm that will best treat his cancer - whether that means the standard protocol or an arm that includes a different drug. At times the clinical trial thing feels scary to me and at other times I'm thankful that there is research being done to best treat the type of leukemia that Ethan has. Please join me/us in this prayer. The randomization will determine the course of the rest of his 3 year treatment.

So, as you can see, it's a big week ahead. Please pray for a clear mind to digest all the information to come, for discernment in the right questions to ask, and for boldness to ask questions again when we don't understand.

And please keep praying for Ethan. :)