Sunday (January 4)

We have finally reached a milestone in Joel's chemo. He finished up 10 weeks of arsenic chemo on Friday, Jan. 2. We are so happy to finally have this behihd him. He will now have 2 weeks off during which time he will be going to work for a few hours each day. His blood counts should continue to go up while during this 2 week period and prepare him for the next phase. On January 20th, he will return to Baptist as an outpatient for 3 consecutive days of a chemo drug that he received while he was in the hospital in September. It is one of the "bad" ones that may cause his hair to fall out or then again and will lower his blood counts again. After the 3 days of treatment, he will then have to stay home for a few weeks while his blood counts recover and he regains his strength. After 6 weeks of rest and recovery, he will again have 3 days of the same drug. This drug is make sure that all the cancer cells are killed. At the end of the 2nd 3-day treatment, he will have a bone marrow test to determine if all cells are gone. That is a really big prayer for us right now. We want so much for him to be in full remission and for our lives to get back to normal? (Is there such a thing as a normal life anymore?)

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. We will need them again especially during these next 3 months as he finishes the last part of his treatment.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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