No Mo Chemo - August 15, 2014

Annalisa said I should title this, "No Mo Chemo!"  Sounds pretty good.  We were finally let out today and after a miraculous six months, driving away from the hospital this afternoon, it felt like God was setting us free from a longtime burden.  I had debated if the last day of chemo should be Asa's last daily post.  After all, it appears so much of the struggle is past and as we talked with docs and nurses today, so many of whom played huge roles, we thanked them for their part in that miracle.  I'm not sure where miracles begin or if they truly ever end. We just know we've seen the hand of God.  Not quite sure why we got to spend the last five days inpatient and have Asa do his last minor chemo inpatient, but perhaps it was just to realize that we really do need to walk away and ask what's next.  We left too many behind in the deep trenches who need hope.  Asa is home, feeling "vincristine grumpy."  His little ray of sunlight for today, minor miracle, is that he walked up and down the oncology floor and came home and took lots of independent steps.  He was almost developmentally there 6 months ago and instead of walking, ended up on a ventilator.  What a joy to all to see him accomplish that milestone!  

And how were we let out of the funny farm today?  Your prayers!  Bloodwork this morning showed an increase of 300 points in his neutrophil count to 350.  Docs shocked to the point of questioning the number, but Asa walking the halls sealed the accuracy of it.  Still low, but on way up and they sprung the gate for him.  Thank you for praying!  Even though we are finished technically, we have hearing testing and final imaging the next few weeks and literally years of follow-ups.  Cancer is still quite the monkey on the back, even when they say it's gone.  Please pray as our family continues on that path.  Kids are excited because lockdown is about to be lifted, the day they've waited so long for.

Thanks today obviously for all of the above.  Grateful to be in our own bed, eat real food.  Asa so thankful to be home with his siblings and shoveled down a lot at dinner.  We are thankful to see that appetite return.  We are very thankful especially for all of you who prayed and stood by us.  Please do pray as we adjust back to some normalcy.  I think cancer has some of its own version of PTSD and others having been in our shoes concur.  Recovery takes a lot of downtime!  Thank you for being so faithful!