transfusions

I can tell I'm tired. It's been nice not to have a particular "reason" to blog since we've been enjoying the blessing of being home and staying on schedule with Ethan's treatment. So the increased space between blog updates is partly due to that, but also due to the fact that really, I'm just tired. So when I sit down to blog, it's a lot easier to plunk out the facts and medical updates rather than spend time reflecting on all the other stuff that goes along with this whole cancer thing.

I've been camping out in 1 Peter a lot this week - trying to live in Scripture that talks about suffering and have been finding much comfort in 1 Peter 4:19:

Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. (ESV)

And remember, I'm tired; so I don't have anything really profound or thoughtful to flesh out here. Only that even amidst this season of suffering for our family there is comfort in knowing that God is faithful. And that I can entrust my weary soul to Him. Hallelujah. 

So this week has been busy. On Monday Ethan had to get a platelet transfusion because his platelets were low. And then today (Wednesday) he had a scheduled outpatient visit to the clinic to have 2 different IV chemos. One of the chemos (that he has had a few times before) has a high risk of an allergic reaction that he has thankfully not had thus far. Today, however, he started to have a mild reaction to the chemo about halfway through the infusion and so they paused the infusion and gave him some benedryl. They resumed the chemo infusion and monitored him closely to see if he would continue to react or have worsening symptoms (aka his nurse had an epipen in her back pocket) but thankfully, he was able to have the rest of his chemo without any more symptoms. 

His hemoglobin was also low today and so he had to receive a blood transfusion as well. As you can imagine - this all made for a fairly long day at the hospital, but thankfully at the end of it all, we got to go home and then enjoy Chili's for dinner - which is apparently Ethan's favorite restaurant, as he shared with us today. :)

Thank you for continuing to pray for Ethan and our family. Please pray that Ethan's blood counts continue to recover and that our house remains infection-free. Pete is the latest one to start a cold here, and so we are praying that the rest of us don't get it, especially Ethan of course. 

We are thankful for all of you, our precious Team Ethan!