Noah’s methotrexate treatment this weekend went much better than the last time. So well, in fact, that we’re heading back to Jackson today and won’t have to be back at St. Jude until Friday for a clinic visit. We’re thrilled with this news, as it seems to be an indication that life will return to somewhat of a normal pace for the next few weeks. Thank you for your prayers.

While we are happy, there’s a bit of a bittersweet element to it as well. We’ll take all of our belongings with us from the Habitat for Hope house today, which means that we’re likely moving out of there for good. Living there for the past two months has been such a blessing, and we’ll miss the new friends we’ve made. We can’t thank Mark and Mylissa Horrocks and Charlie and Jennifer Dover enough for their kindness to us since January. They were truly the Lord’s agents of help to us at a time of great need, and we will never forget their generosity.

We had a great weekend at home together as a family. Sarah took Noah back to St. Jude today, and his methotrexate level is finally undetectable, so that’s good news.

We thought they might admit him today and start his next methotrexate dose tomorrow, but they decided to send Noah back home. He’ll be admitted on Thursday and have his next treatment starting on Friday, so we’ll have some more time in Jackson before he goes back into the hospital for a couple of days.

Thank you for your continued prayers. The Lord has been kind.

I wanted to post an update about Noah and a prayer request for him. I apologize that I haven’t been posting updates in quite some time. Honestly, I just seem overwhelmed most of the time and haven’t felt like it. On top of this situation we’ve had with Noah’s health, I’ve had arguably the most stressful semester during my 9+ years at Union, with incredible challenges that only compound the weight we’re carrying.

Noah has been feeling great. That’s the good news. The frustrating part is how slow he’s been to clear the methotrexate dose he got almost two weeks ago. That chemo dose was the first part of this second phase of his treatment. He got it on Feb. 28-March 1, and we were told that it typically takes two or three days for it to clear out of his system afterwards. We were hoping that we’d be home on March 3, with several days before his next scheduled dose on March 14.

Unfortunately, that’s not the way it worked out. The methotrexate has continued to linger in his body for far longer than we expected. The levels have been declining, which is good, albeit at a slow pace, which is not so good. At his last appointment yesterday, the pharmacist said we could still expect it to take several more days to clear given the rate that he was purging it.

So, that means the dose that he was supposed to get tomorrow will be delayed. We don’t know how long yet and hope to get some clarity on that tomorrow at his next appointment. We’re hoping tomorrow that the doctors will say that while the methotrexate still hasn’t cleared, it’s OK for him to come home over the weekend, and they’ll check him again on Monday. That’s what we’re praying for, and that’s what we’d ask you to pray for. Noah hasn’t been home since Jan. 10. He’s homesick, and we’re ready to have at least a couple of days of normal life.

Of course, if you want to pray that the methotrexate will be completely gone tomorrow, we’d be fine with that as well.

Thank you so much for you continued prayers for us.

As I walked around St. Jude today, I realized how familiar these walls are becoming to us. Two months ago when we arrived, this place seemed so overwhelming to us, much like a maze. Since we have been at the hospital everyday for most of the last two months, we are now walking the halls like we know the place, even Noah. Just ask him what is in C Clinic, he will tell you.

Every day when I walk around St. Jude, passing by other patients, God gently reminds me of how blessed we are. Would I have ever thought I would have said we were blessed to have a child with ALL Leukemia? No way. But He has continually showed me how fortunate we are. There are so many others that have worse things then we do. If you don’t know how blessed you are, just take a minute to walk the halls of St. Jude. You won’t have to go far. Not only are we going through this Leukemia journey with the Hope of Christ, but we are going through this with hope of Noah being cured. Many people don’t have that hope and for that we are extremely grateful.

Prayer requests – Please pray that Noah’s Methotrexate level will come down a lot. For some reason it had increased today. This is discouraging to us. We are thankful that he seems to be doing well, but wish that he had a little break before his next inpatient dose of Methotrexate.

Phase 2 is officially here. Noah started his inpatient stay for the Methotrexate last Friday. He did well Friday, but Saturday he woke up with a fever. We aren’t sure where the fever came from. It could have been another virus that caused the fever, or possibly from the chemo. Regardless, it seems like the fever set his levels to rise. Levels that had been reacting so well to the drug, started increasing. And we still continue to watch these levels.  He will probably be hooked up to a bag of fluids through the weekend, or until the levels come down. I am so thankful that St. Jude is willing to send kids home with fluids. It is a hassle, carrying the bag around and being careful not to trip on the IV cord, but it is much more relaxing to have fluids at home, rather than staying in a hospital room. And he doesn’t seem to let it get him down, he has had 3 good days!

I am a little nervous for the next round of Methotrexate next weekend. We pray that his kidneys recover quickly from all the stress from this round before receiving the next dose. And we pray next time that the drug will do what it needs to do and no more. Phase 2 consists of 4 rounds of this drug-  1 down, 3 to go.