November 6 - Thursday

Well it was Debbie's birthday yesterday and we had a nice breakfast and she opened up a couple presents from me and the kids. Karly got her braces off today so she and Debbie spent much of the day at the orthodontist officeand was she ever smiling! Actually she never stopped smiling.

Lucy seems to be all better from whatever was making her feel lousy and we were all glad about that. Sam had his blood work done yesterday and his counts are all quite good - ANC 1.1 / Hbg 101 / Platelets 210 which means the flu shot was a good thing for him to get last week. We all went in to get the flu shot and are hoping that it does some good for us this winter. Sam can't afford to get sick, that's for sure.

Sam was feeling pretty tired in PE the other day and couldn't keep up with all the other kids in the handball game they were playing. He tries so hard and he is very competetive but after we got his blood work numbers we were amazed that he could do any running at all. Healthy numbers for hemoglobin would be twice what he has right now. At 80 you feel really lousy and 70 people pass out. So, the fact that Sam can do PE at all is really a miracle. Going to school this fall has been such a blessing for him.

We watched him play volleyball on his school team the other day. There were several 3 hit plays between Landon, Rylan and Sam and it was so much fun to watch them all play. Kate and Karly's volleyball team is going to the zone tournament next weekend and if they don't place first, their season will be done. If they win the tournament, they will be going on to Provincials. They have been working hard at getting better as a team and are hoping for success at the zone tournament. They have an excellent coach.

Sam will be going to BCCH next week to start another phase of treatment called Delayed Intensification. It could be a pretty rough phase with some new drugs that we haven't seen yet in his treatment. It begins with a Spinal Injection of Methotrexate and then runs for 8 weeks. When he finishes this stage, there is just one more to go - Maintenance. Maintenance runs for 2 years, 5 months with daily chemotherapy and monthly spinal injections with breaks here and there. Maintenance has an 84 day cycle and he will do the cycle 12 times. Its a long haul.


My dad is doing well and seems to be feeling better and better every day. He can't believe how much energy and clear-headedness he has since his operation. We are all glad that God healed him through this surgery last week and we're praying that he stays healthy.

Thanks again for your prayers and thoughts.

Gerry