Count Dependent

Our third cycle of chemotherapy starts Monday at Primary Children’s Hospital. The next 42 days are “Count Dependent.” This means tomorrow Jace will have blood drawn, and his numbers will be checked. If they are high enough for him to withstand treatment—we will proceed to Salt Lake Monday morning, and Jace will be given Vincristine, a chemotherapy drug. This process will repeat every 10 days. If Jace’s numbers are not high enough, he will wait three days and have his blood checked again. Originally I thought this treatment would last one month, but unfortunately, I misunderstood, and this difficult cycle will actually last (best case scenario) until December 28th.

On the up side, Jace has had a fantastic couple of days. He actually ate breakfast two days in a row, and he has played with his brother and friends like he wasn’t sick. We ventured out last night, and Jace (wearing his mask) actually felt well enough to go into Cold Stone Ice Cream to pick his own treat. Mom even said after visiting him Friday night that she saw “our old spunky Jace” again. He was trying to wrestle his brother, box his cousins, and he even asked permission to slide down the stairs on a pillow. I reminded him that we NEVER allow him to do that, and smiling he put his hands out and replied, “Oh, come on!” Today he has playfully followed Hayden, Kyler and Alisha around wanting to play basketball and just "hang out."

He’s READY to start another cycle-- so that he can finish it—and Matt and I are nervous for what the new treatment will bring. The other day in a moment of sadness I said to Matt, “I wish we could just go back to July—when Jace was swinging off the rope at Pack Saddle Lake, and riding the horse into Moody. I wish so much we could go back.”

He gently reminded me that if we went back, we’d have to do it all over again—and as you ALL can attest, we’ve made quite a bit of progress so far, so we probably shouldn’t start over. I just told Jace I needed to take a picture of him having fun to put on the blog, so everyone would know how he is feeling this week, and he replied, “Take one of Hayden and Kyler. I reeeally don’t want to be in it, K?”