An Update & Some Prayer Requests

First, a huge thank you to everyone who has posted a comment or guestbook entry to the Caring Bridge site or the blog.  Please know that we read EVERY ONE and frequently go back through them again. Your comments, encouragements, and just letting us know that you're praying for us are absolutely wonderful.  Thank you all.

Daniel has been doing well and tolerating the chemo treatments better than average with regard to side effects.  Nausea has been very infrequent, and hair loss has only recently begun to show.  It's coming out fairly fast now though and he's certainly not happy about it.  The biggest problem is the ravenous appetite that the steroids give him.  He's put on about 10lbs in the past 4 weeks - a 16% increase in weight roughly equivalent to a 180lb person gaining 30lbs so you can imagine the effects on his body.  Combined with the bloating the steroids produce around the face and his gigantic belly, he's quite the site and becoming more and more uncomfortable.  It's exacerbating his back pain and the new brace that was made for him doesn't really fit at all because of it, so he can't wear it.  It actually causes him pain to put it on because the bad-fit forces him into an even more uncomfortable position.  The back problems continue to be a concern and I'll be pushing for more investigation / action on this front with the doctors this Friday.  This was one of the original problems that I was trying to get to the bottom of when the leukemia was discovered, but the docs don't believe they're related.

He thinks and talks about nothing but food and I'm having to be more and more hard on him about limiting portions, refraining from snacks, and drastically cutting back the total intake.  I'm really worried at this point that the food intake and weight gain will be producing it's own problems if it continues unchecked. 

We believe that this Friday will be his last steroid treatment - at least for awhile as we come to the end of the first phase (called "Induction").  He has another bone marrow aspiration and biopsy scheduled for Friday and, assuming the results come back as positive as we've been seeing, we'll then move into the "Consolidation" phase.  They haven't told us much about it yet, as the exact details are very dependent on these test results.  We know that it's still fairly intensive as far as the chemotherapy, but supposedly not as bad as this first phase.  I'm hoping we'll know all the new details on Friday.

This weekend, one of his good friends came over to play for a few hours and some of the girls from church his age made him a beautiful friendship quilt.  We were all REALLY impressed.  It was really good for Daniel too as I've more or less had him under reverse quarantine for a month now.  The good news is that his last blood test shows his counts beginning to make a slow climb again and the docs believe this is demonstrating the recovery of healthy bone marrow.  We want to see them continue to climb back toward the healthy / normal region.  Daniel is praying for the same thing just so he can have Taco Bell again!

Prayer Requests:
1. Continued good results moving toward (if we're not already there) complete and total healing
2. Wisdom, Courage, Endurance, Self-Control, etc. for Daniel with regard to food intake.
3. Sleep for everyone!  (Andrea & I tend to think/worry too much, & Daniel has insomnia as a drug side-effect ... so he lays awake all night thinking about food.)
4. Solutions / healing / wisdom about the ongoing & increasing back pain.
5. That Daniel will be able to deal well with the hair loss & other side effects - especially the visible ones - to his poor little body.
6. That all the lessons God has for us in this would be well-learned and that we as a family would continue to keep and protect the JOY of the Lord despite circumstances & worldly "wisdom".
7. That God would be glorified greatly through all this, and that others might come to know Him or know Him better through it.
8. Time management for me (Tim) as I try to balance work, time with doctors & hospital visits, & preparing for my upcoming Genesis class.