much quieter day

Today was a much, much quieter and more relaxed day. Ethan's fever was gone and so he was in much better spirits. It was a 360 degree turnaround from yesterday, which was a huge praise! Being the new cancer mom that I am, I have asked many of the nurses and doctors we've seen today to summarize what happened yesterday and why things went downhill so quickly. The short answer is that we will never really know for sure but it seems like most of the talk is that he likely was experiencing septic shock from an infection and that's why the team acted quickly in getting him to the ICU so that he could be closely monitored. He also tested positive for a cold virus and so perhaps that caused some of what happened too but it's likely an infection was also occurring in his blood. If you know (or google) anything about sepsis or septic shock, it is incredibly serious, so we are so very thankful that God protected him from severe damage and that he is on the mend.

His turnaround happened so quickly that we were actually able to take a midnight ride up the elevator to our regular HemOnc floor. Ethan was a trooper as usual; my favorite line on our trip upstairs was when he asked the nurse to "please hit number 9 for me" (when we got in the elevator) "because I can't reach it" (he was being rolled up in his bed).

He was also doing so well that his team felt comfortable having him still be sedated for his Day 29 bone marrow biopsy and interthecal (spinal) chemo. He didn't get his port today but he's not due for any other kind of chemo until next week and so he doesn't need a central line until then. His sedation and procedures went well and we enjoyed a fairly lazy day in our room watching movies and hanging out.

We are hoping to be discharged tomorrow possibly, but will have to see in the morning what his doctors decide. We are still waiting on final culture results on some of the tests from yesterday's blood work, but other than that his blood counts all look good and he is not neutropenic.

A few specific prayer requests:
-Health for our family. My mom is the latest to start feeling a little under the weather. Please pray that she heals quickly and for the rest of us to STAY HEALTHY!
-Results. Since we were able to get his bone marrow biopsy done today we should get results sometime this week. It will be a lot of information to digest, as I've shared before. Please pray for clear minds to understand the next steps and for boldness to ask good questions.

Thank you so much for praying for Ethan and for all of us!