We’re at the tail end of delayed intensification right now, and currently we’re just waiting for Gabe’s counts to come back up enough for him to begin the maintenance phase of his treatment.
These past several weeks have been stressful, incredibly stressful. Knowing that Gabe’s immune system is completely in the tank brings back a lot of anxiety, fear, and neurosis. Memories from the first time we went through all these drugs come back and haunt Chet and I. The fear of another infection, another hospital stay, watching Gabe just be miserable. We’ve been just waiting, holding our breath and waiting for this last nasty, horrible, awful, despicable phase of his treatment to be done. And, we’re nearly there.
Chet and I are just starting to allowing ourselves to breath. And I think for me, I’ve just kept my head down. So, I’m sorry to all of you looking for updates…there hasn’t been a lot to report except our stress. Honestly, writing about stress and fear isn’t always the most appealing thing, particularly when there isn’t a whole lot of context to put it into or new information to share.
But, now that we are seeing the end of the intense phases of Gabe’s treatment, Chet and I are trying to get excited about the possibility of a fairly normal life, or at least as normal as it will be until April 27, 2014 – which will be the VERY LAST DAY Gabriel has to take any form of chemotherapy.
Once Gabe starts maintenance treatment then he’ll be released to start school again. And that brings up a whole new round of excitement mixed with incredible amounts of anxiety and apprehension.
So, assuming all goes as planned, Gabe will be starting maintenance on Friday. We’ll have a better idea tomorrow when we get the results from his blood draws from this morning. If you’ll keep us all in your thoughts and prayers, we’d greatly appreciate it. We’re so close, and we’re just ready to be there, desperately ready to be there.
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