Football Fever!

Brayden is bouncing back nicely and we're breathing another sigh of relief as we've made it to Day 3 1/2 post-treatment (after the rescue drug last dose) without any mouth sores! Yeah! We've done a LOT of football watching. The Hog game yesterday was SO GOOD! It was nice to enjoy a quarterback who can PASS THE BALL!! We've missed Matt Jones a lot in the last several years, to say the least. In the days of D-Mac and Felix, we were bummed while daydreaming of what could have been with a quarterback that could pass them the ball! I'm just sayin'...

Mom nearly lost my voice cheering last night while the boys were ready to go in their Hog uniforms. They refused to let me take a picture. I wasn't happy with that. They were so cute...father & son cheering on our team. It's just like old times again. We had yummy football food and wondered when the next time will be that we can again walk to that awesome stadium and attend a game in person. It's only happened a couple other times before! So don't get me wrong...it isn't a regular occurrence at the Jones house or anything! Plus we heard how ticket prices have gone up AGAIN! Anyway, we enjoyed one of the best college games in a long time. If you're going to lose to someone, I guess it's okay for it to be Georgia. Ever since seeing Facing the Giants, we just love their coach.

Today? More football, as the beloved Cowboys are on tonight. Mom is being blaspehmous by getting caught up on emails and blogs after a week without internet access instead of being glued to the tv! So the boys are again cheering everyone on. Brayden has been in full football mode all weekend and has been doing well. We're super nervous with counts that have dipped a bit lower while germs abound everywhere. We've been warned to be a little more cautious for a while. So it looks like we'll be enjoying home. It's been nice to try to rest and recover from a busy week. Coming home always leaves me exhausted. Getting up every 2 hours through the night doesn't leave room for deep sleeps while at ACH. Plus having to get up between 5-6 each morning to shower and get ready for the day left me in a serious sleep deficit by the time we got home.

What's next? Brayden will again get his counts checked this Friday locally. If they are high enough, we'll return again to LR the following Monday for the FINAL ROUND of the High-Dose Methotrexate, while was a 2-month treatment round called Interim Maintenance. Last we heard, Radiation would be next, followed by another 2-month round called Delayed Intensification. He'll have the ugly med 1 last time. I'm not looking forward to it at all after checking the calendar and realizing that could hit during the Thanksgiving time frame. Poor guy. I'll definitely be requesting prayers for his body to be protected during that time after how rough it has been on him in the past. But the good news is once that 2-month phase is over, it's on to MAINTENANCE! Maintenance treatment is given in 12-week cycles for 3 years (from the start of Interim Maintenance). It's definitely more than what we first thought it would be. But we're still hoping and praying that with each treatment, Brayden continues to stay strong and there continues to be no trace of blasts showing up in his blood or spinal fluid. This treatment MUST keep the Leukemia away permanently and that's our constant hope and prayer.

Monday brings schoolwork catch-up again. We were hoping to work ahead more than we have been able to. He was just not feeling well Thursday and I was so thankful he never had to 'emesis.' Lots of special tricks that day to keep it away, but it worked. He's awesome. Anyway, we're off on another week and I can't believe another Little Rock trip is on the horizon, but thankful we can start to see a small glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

Thank you to each and every one of you for all of your support. I've gotten so lost in the thank-you's and pray I haven't left anyone out. We have a couple of events coming that we'll be posting about more later. We're close to securing the Red Cross Blood Drive in Brayden's name for a date in December at an AWESOME centralized location. You'll be able to make an appt online in advance so there will be no waiting and we're hopeful Brayden and I will be there to thank everyone! Also, a sweet friend is setting up a spirit night at our local Chick-Fil-A to help with gas expenses to and from Little Rock on all our trips, food, etc. Those trips are so expensive and even though we don't talk about it here, there are so many unforseen expenses that come up when caring for a child with cancer. We're so thankful for her help in this and will pass along more information as it becomes available. I better get back to the boys and get a score update!