Today's The DAY!
We've been celebrating important "last time" milestones over the past couple of months as Daniel has neared the official END of chemotherapy. 1210 days ago, we got "the diagnosis" and the following day Daniel underwent surgery to install the portocath ("port") in his chest and begin this 3-1/2 year gauntlet of chemotherapy for Acute Lymphoblasic Leukemia (cancer of the blood / bone marrow). Today is the END!!
In some ways, it feels a bit anticlimactic since we celebrated the last spinal procedure in February and the last IV infusion in March. Since then, he's only been on the daily oral drugs. Moving forward, we'll still be coming to Riley every month for blood draws and "check-ups" for another year and then every 2 months for some time after that (uggh!) So there's still way too many hospital trips, doctors, and needles in our lives, but the significance of today is still ENORMOUS in so many ways.
We're eternally thankful to friends and family who have stood by us throughout this ordeal and kept us covered in prayer and so many other "helps" along the way. And most importantly, we thank our loving Father Who has sustained us, brought comfort, peace, patience, and even joy through the dark days and worked "A.L.L. things together into a pattern for good" (Rom 8:28) in the midst of it all.
For 3-1/2 years, we've seen the famous "bell" hanging in the corner of the Riley HemOnc clinic that kids get to ring when their chemotherapy ends. We've rejoiced with those we've heard ringing it (far too few), we've cried for those who never will (far too many, and several of whom were our friends), and we've often looked longingly at it in anticipation and prayer for this very day. And today, at long last, it is here! In reality, it's a simple thing. There won't be much ceremony, and probably not many people, but it's an indescribably momentous event for Daniel to finally get to ring that bell for himself, and for Andrea and I to see it happen.
Most of the history of our journey is captured right here in this blog. I started it the day after his diagnosis back in January of 2012 and the vast majority of the posts have been about this journey.
P.S. For those wondering at my weird "A.L.L. things together" statement, it's a reference to a blog post I made early on in this process when God made a special link for me between the word "all" in Rom 8:28 and Daniel's specific type of leukemia which is named "Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia" or "A.L.L.". So the verse became very personal for me when God showed me that A.L.L. things work together for good. I wrote about it here:
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