Noah’s counts were too low today for him to get his port tomorrow or to get his methotrexate treatment. We’re disappointed about this, and he is, too. He’s getting a blood transfusion this afternoon and then coming home for the weekend. We’ll take him back on Monday to see what his counts are then.

Please pray over the weekend that his counts on Monday will be high enough both to get the port and the methotrexate treatment. We need an ANC of more than 300 for the methotrexate and more than 500 for the port.

Tomorrow Noah will head back to St. Jude for the weekend for a couple of different things:

1. His final high-dose methotrexate treatment. After a rough start with the first one, the last two treatments have gone perfectly. Please pray that this one will go smoothly as well, that he’ll clear the chemo quickly and that he’ll get to come home on Sunday.

2. His port installation. Upon Noah’s leukemia diagnosis in January, he underwent surgery to install a central line in his chest. That line is how the chemo has been administered since then. It’s high maintenance, requiring a dressing change three times a week and a daily flushing. He also can’t get the dressing wet, which makes baths difficult. On Friday morning, Noah will undergo a procedure to remove the central line and add a port instead. The port will go under his skin, and the remainder of his chemo treatments will be administered by accessing the port with a needle. It will be much easier to care for and should be much more comfortable for Noah going forward.

However, it’s a significant change for him, and he’s understandably nervous about it. For a long time he insisted that he wanted to keep his line and not get a port, but that’s just not a viable option for the next two years. So, we bribed him by offering him a new bike. That did the trick. He has a much better attitude now about getting the port, even if he is still concerned about it. His bike came yesterday, and I’ll have it assembled and ready for him when he gets home from the hospital. Please pray that Noah won’t be scared about the port and that he’ll get used to it quickly.

Noah will spend Thursday at the hospital doing routine stuff in advance of his surgery on Friday. He’ll go in first-thing on Friday morning for his procedure and then should be admitted later in the day for the rest of the weekend.

Thankfully, this is the last time during his entire treatment regimen that Noah is schedule to be inpatient at the hospital. If he gets a fever sometime we’ll have to take him in, so we expect that there will most likely be some short inpatient stays still to come, but it’s encouraging to know that this is the last one that is scheduled. From here on out,  assuming that all goes as expected, everything will be done on an outpatient basis.

If you’d keep Noah’s health in your prayers going forward, we’d appreciate it. We take for granted things like fevers in our kids. Kids get sick. They get fevers. They’re typically over them in a couple of days, and we move on with life. It won’t be that simple for us if Noah gets sick. If he gets a fever, we’re most likely looking at a hospital stay of at least a couple of days, which is a major pain. So please pray regularly that Noah will stay fever-free.

Last night I was reading back over some of the tweets that had been sent to me in mid-January when we took Noah to St. Jude and when his diagnosis was confirmed. In a lot of ways, that seems like a lifetime ago. I was greatly moved to read how many people were praying for us at that time, and I was reminded of how many people have been so faithful in praying for us since then. Thank you. Our journey with Noah is far from over. We’ve still got another two years to go. The Lord has been faithful thus far, and we know his faithfulness will continue.