AIM 38 & 39

Wednesday was a good day. We went to the clinic early as Nathan had to get plasma and his leg needles. It was a little easier as we told Nathan that it was his last time getting leg needles for 20 days. He still had to control the process, and that control lets him handle it pretty well. He usually manages to get through the first needle well but by the end of the second needles he is crying and this day was no exception. The nurses (and Shelley and I) are amazed at how well Nathan has taken to getting these needles.

We were talking with Susan (research trials manager) while waiting for Nathan's plasma to drip in and we got a couple pieces of better news. First, we thought it was 20 days without leg needles but it is actually 31 - yay! Second, our three years of maintenance started on March 9 with our Augmented Interim Maintenance. What we originally thought was that in October, after his last phase ended, that we then started three years of maintenance so that we would be done in October of 2012. That is why we were never that happy about all these delays in his treatment as it kept pushing our date back. However, the three years of maintenance has already started but it has some more intensive phases at the beginning of it. Now, if all goes well, we will be done in March of 2012. It's still a long ways away but I'll take 7 months less.

The other piece of interesting information was that Nathan is there only kid undergoing treatment that is considered high risk. All the protocols have changed since their last high risk kid and so that's why they have had a little more uncertainty to process as compared to their regular treatments. It was reassuring though that Nathan was only high risk because he was a slow early responder. The other three tests that can put you into high risk were negative for him. I've talked about those before with the chromosomal analysis (cytogenic testing), the minimal residual disease test and another that I am blanking on this moment. That said, he is still high risk, and he is still getting more intensive (augmented) treatments than other ALL kids and that can lead to more future complications. I guess we pray for one thing at a time.....

We have 10 days off between treatments now and, as some may know, we have just moved into a new house (almost). I guess we just weren't busy or stressed enough already that we thought we could add a house move into the mix. Anyway, it will be a week before we post again. We would sincerely like to thank everyone who has been praying for Nathan and our whole family and we really need to thank the family and friends who have been helping us with our move. Your assistance has been invaluable and you are greatly appreciated. God bless you all!