Last Round Started

On Monday Josh started the last round of chemo in Amarillo. He got 4 high doses of one of the chemo's and an injection in his leg of another. The high doses over a short period of time cause headaches and fever. He also gets very tired as his blood counts get wiped out. e were able to leave the hospital by Wednesday afternoon and got him home and settled in to rest. Although he is running a fever, the doctor is not to concerned about it as it is from the chemo. We will finish up this round next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as they redo the same treatment.

The doctor again reaffirmed that he is doing well. The bone marrow biopsy results showed that there were no leukemia blasts seem in his bone marrow. They are very pleased with his weight gain as he gained 13 pounds over the holiday.

We anticipate him running a fever and needing to go back into the hospital after his treatment next week, but then he should start to recover by the middle of January. At this point they say he will get blood tests every week for about a month after chemo and then once a month for the next year.

Thank you for your continued prayers.

White Christmas

We had a beautiful white Christmas at home. The snow from the other day stuck around, and we even had a few flurry's throughout the day. Last night we had a candlelight Christmas Eve service at church, that was very well attended and then this morning we got up early, fixed the traditional breakfast of bacon, eggs, cinnamon rolls and potatoes.

We sat around the tree and opened presents. Josh and Sarah helped pick out most of their presents as we weren't sure if we would be home, or have a tree. Ilene and I were able to surprise them both with a gift that they didn't expect, but the best gift was being home as a family with Josh feeling better.

We stuck lunch in the oven and went to church. It was the first time in almost 6 months that Josh was at church with us. His counts are a little low still, but we took the risk because it was Christmas. We will check his counts in the morning and then head for Amarillo if his ANC's are over 1000.

Josh has a friend over playing video games (Drew) and they are having a great time. Drew's dad is the pastor of one of the other churches in town and he has his foot in a cast from a motorcycle accident a few weeks ago.

Sarah has one of her friends over, they watched a christmas movie and are listening to music. Life almost seems normal, with the music playing and the christmas lights on. We are ready to be done with chemo.

Thank you all for your continued prayers. We received many cards and letters this year from those of you who have been following our journey. Our best gift this year has been God's faithfulness in our lives when life was out of our control. We pray that the new year will bring you all closer to God.

Waiting Again - Under Blizzard Warning

We had Josh's blood drawn again this afternoon, confident that we would need to head for the hospital in the morning. To add to the excitement, there is a blizzard heading our way with expected snow accumulation of 12-16 inches with 30 mile an hour winds.

We really were not ready to leave tonight, but the county judge called up the National Guard to assist with people getting stranded in the snow, so we started thinking about leaving tonight. The problem was, we had a lunch meeting after church and then the staff was hosting a reception for the church body in the evening. We didn't expect to get done until 8 PM, which would mean spending 2 hours packing and then 1 1/2 hours driving.

Before we had to make the decision, we heard back that his ANC's are still not high enough and the doctor said to wait until after Christmas to come in. Josh is unhappy with that as he is concerned that it may allow the leukemia to come back and he is ready to get this all over with. We are glad that he will be healthy on Christmas day, and although we would prefer to get things started so that we can be finished, we know that God has a plan and we trust Him, especially when things like blood counts are out of our control.

Pray for protection on our community as this storm blows in tomorrow. Many of the people who are headed to the mountains to ski or to Colorado for Christmas travel though our small town. When we get these blizzards, the hotels get filled up, and then the roads get closed so we end up opening up the church to house stranded people.

The Puppies Are Ready for Your Christmas Stockings

In the middle of this journey, our dogs (we have 3  Dachshunds  ) decided that it was time to have puppies. So on one of our trips to the hospital, both of the females had puppies within a few days of each other. The puppies are now 7 weeks old (born between October 31st and November 2nd); they are weened and as cute as can be. Both Josh and Sarah would love to keep them all, but we can't imagine having 8 dogs (I think there is a law against it).


Here are the pictures of the puppies. We are selling them for $200 a piece, so call Ilene if you would like one at (806) 884-9964.

Thursday December 15

Josh will have his blood tests today to see if his counts are high enough to start chemo. His spirits have been better and he seems to have more energy than he has had in a while. We are all looking forward to this part of the journey being done.

We should know the results of the blood test by 10 AM CST. If they are high enough we will head to the hospital.

Thanks for your prayers.