Home sweet home

Brian was released again this afternoon after another 5 day stay in the hospital. He is feeling a lot better and no longer has a fever or infection. His white blood cell count is back up considerably so his immune system is almost normal again. The doctors decided to forgo the day 11 chemo that we originally went in for and he will just start again next Wednesday with round 2. We had the option of staying in the hospital for another 2 days so Brian could have the blood patch done on his spine tomorrow, but his headaches have improved and are able to be controlled by medicine, so he elected not to have it done this time. The lumbar puncture is supposed to heal itself after 2 weeks, and it is getting close to that time, so if he isn't completely healed by the time we go in for his appt next week we may reconsider. When given the option of going home or staying in the hospital for another 2 days, you have to be feeling really bad to elect to stay at the hospital. We go back again tomorrow for another blood test and follow up just to make sure everything is fine and his counts have remained normal. Hopefully this really will be a quick visit and it won't be like our last appointment when he had to be admitted. By the way Brian is feeling, I think the blood and antibiotics really helped and now we will know what to look for next time he is feeling bad. All of this is new to us, so we don't really know what to expect, some of what we think is "normal" for chemo isn't, so we will learn over time how Brian's body will react and how well he will be able to tolerate the treatments and what his "good" and "bad" days will be like. So far the only consistent side effects have been the headaches and fatigue and we have gone to classes on how to try to manage these side effects.

We have had a great night at home, it has almost been like normal. We ate dinner on the couch, and even though I just cooked a simple meal, it beat anything we could have had at the hospital. The hospital food really isn't that bad, there just isn't much variety when you have been eating off the same menu for a month. Then we watched Survivor and CSI and now I'm on the laptop while Brian's playing XBox. It's good to have some normalcy back. Hopefully Brian will feel like this the remainder of the time before the next chemo treatment.

We are so grateful to God for everything He has done for us and is continuing to do for us. It's really easy to lose focus and to get mad, irritable, or disappointed, but we know that God is watching out for us and has His plan already laid out. This is only a small trial in our lives and we know God has given us the courage, determination, and faith to get through this. We have to remain positive and remember that trials in life are preparing you for the greater journey ahead.