Spring Break and Cycle 3, Part 2

We had a great break with the kids. A week and a half of no Chemo, the kids had Spring Break, and we celebrated Bennett’s birthday on his birthday, then had a joint birthday party with Avery to round out the week! (Dinosaurs versus Unicorns).

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Clay has been dreading going back to start part 2 of Cycle 3. The way his 4 cycles of Chemo work, Cycles 1 and 3 are the same and then Cycles 2 and 4 are the same regimens.

Cycle 1 was where Clay ended up inpatient for 24 days 😬. And that was due to the “part 2” portion of the cycle – the dreaded “Methotrexate” infusion. (In my mind when I wrote that, scary music started playing in the background…). But so far, so good this time. He does have some mouth sores and mucosa, but nothing like last time.

We made it home late Friday evening and have pretty much just taken it easy since. My angel of a sister volunteered to take Grace and Marianne to the dance competition in Montgomery this weekend – and she roped in Kevin to go with her. I think he survived – as I write this I have not seen proof of life yet, but have talked to the kids. So at least they are all ok!!!

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Clay is tired, sleepy, and just feeling blah. He gets up for a few hours, gets cold, gets hot, gets cold again (Manopause) and then goes back to sleep. His body is healing. On the bright side – we got to puppy sit Cooper while Maggie and Kevin took our girls to dance. So Clay had 5 animals, plus me plus Bennett to keep him company and help him heal!

The really good news we received this past week is that a CT scan of his abdomen showed nothing special – ie no enlarged lymphnodes or anything else extraordinary! He got the scan because he was having some abdominal pain last week – which is the catalyst that began the scenario in December. The pain was not exactly what he felt in December, but was different enough for him to say something. However, since the scan showed nothing unusual – the Dr said that it was just the chemo. Even though chemo sucks, it seems to be doing what it supposed to do!!!

We go back to Jacksonville Easter Sunday (after gorging ourselves on chocolate from the Easter bunny, hunting eggs, and going to church of course). The next cycle should be the last.

Please pray this week that Clay continues to do well, that the mouth sores don’t get any worse, and that the next cycle is really the last and that God has cured him from this awful disease.

Also, please pray for our sweet friend Stacy who found out she has breast cancer and had her surgery last week. I pray that she can also make it through the ups and downs of chemo/radiation/etc and that she can see an end in sight as well. All too well I know how scared and uncertain her husband and kids must be feeling right now, but faith in God and support from family and friends will get them through as well.