Chemo Day 6...

First, Happy Thanksgiving everyone and hug your loved ones.  Bill is struggling today with the fight.  His family is by his side encouraging him to keep up the hard work.  We need him.  As Sean says, "he has pushed us all in life, it is time to push dad."  Another 2 units of blood with a cocktail of platelets and chemo were given to Bill today.  His color is good, but appetite is extremely low.  The nurses assure us that rejecting food is okay for now, just plenty of fluids to flush the system.  We all took turns reading to him, visiting, giving a pep talk, listening to soothing music, and carefully laying hands on his head to act as a hug.   We want him to win and beat this nasty, wicked disease. 

On the positive side, a huge, huge, thank you goes out to Melanie Stachelski and her husband Ryan for reaching out to our family.  They both took time out of their Thanksgiving holiday to meet us all for coffee to explain her experience and battle with AML.  Their words provided a wealth of encouragement and the most helpful information.  We hung on to their words and look forward to applying new tools to this situation.

And, we are extremely, extremely grateful for another random act of kindness provided by Gary and Roberta Standish (Tyler's parents).  This family has put their life on hold this week to watch our son and took on a huge feat...cooking the entire Thanksgiving meal, driving it all the way to Ft. Collins so our entire family could have a homecooked holiday meal together.  Of course we were missing a very important member, but the blessing of this day has brought us all to tears.  The food and company was wonderful and it was great to see Matt & Christina Bullington who stopped by in between Thanksgiving meals.  We have missed them.  It was so wonderful to see Talon again and he is still very excited about spending time with grandma and grandpa and not so much mom and dad.  A response that is hard for Jodi, but she has accepted that there is plenty of time with this little boy and the gratitude that he has loved ones that are so caring and dependable.  As one visitor put it, "He is three and you will have lots of time.  When he is 30, you will be begging him to leave!" LOL!  :) 

After the delicious dinner, Brock, Tyler, Debi, and Jodi made one last trip to the hospital to tell Bill that he is on the homestretch of chemo.  His pain level is high and the nurses are going to give him some relief with antibiotics to help him sleep.  So, for tonight, we sign off with a big thank you to everyone once again who follow Bill's progress.  We hope you had a great day with family and friends.  There is so much to be thankful for...especially, one more day of chemo!!!  We can begin to count the hours rather than days of when the poison will come to an end for this round.  Praise God.