Highlight: Results from Joseph’s blood test today show improvement in all areas but one.   He needs his neutrophil count to come up to provide more infection protection. (Neutrophils are a blood cell type that attacks infections.) The doctors tell us that he is on track to improve in this area. It just takes time.

Highlight: Joseph had his inter-muscular chemo shot today and did not have an adverse reaction.

Highlight: We are working hard to prepare our home and ourselves for Joseph’s homecoming. There will be many adjustments to be made as a family.

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Today Joseph continues to have a hard time finding food that appeals to him. We are working through a wide variety of options. The big winner of the day – tomato juice!

In talking to an adult friend who had to go through chemo for another type of cancer, they told us that while on chemo everything tasted rotten and smelled awful. Joseph does not have words to express this but he does point to his nose and ask me to clean it several times a day. I now suspect he is having this “everything smells awful” experience and is hoping that I can clean the bad smell out of his nose. It also helps us understand the frustration he expresses when a meal is brought in and he says that he is hungry but when he brings the food to his mouth he just shakes his head and pushes it away.  So far we keep finding little things that he can enjoy at various times in the day but  there is nothing that consistently works.

Prayer Request: That we will continue to find things that Joseph can eat and that we can find some things that he can actually enjoy.

We are finding that there will be some major adjustments for our home. Normally, we enjoy having people over for meals but we will now have to give that up for at least the next six months. I often travel with my work but that will need to change, at least during the term of Joseph’s treatment. Joseph will also not be able to attend church for at least six months, so one of us will have to stay home with him. Trips to shops with Joseph will be very restricted if not totally eliminated. Family Christmas time will not include Joseph and at least one parent. The number of children that can come play will also be greatly reduced and we will all have to learn to wash our hands very thoroughly multiple times a day. There are many other changes and restrictions but it is all about the main theme of reducing exposure to potential infection.

While the range of things that will change will be a challenge to us as a family, we are expecting the Lord to show us new things as a family that we would never have learned otherwise. It was when the Apostle Paul was locked up in custody that so much of the New Testament was written and it was for Noah’s protection that the Lord “shut him in” the ark. We know there will be challenges but we hope to find much that is good in this coming “intense” family time over the coming months.