Things Are Going Really Well

People keep asking me, “How’s Jacob?” And it is so fun for me to say, “Things are going really well!” 

This phase of chemo (called Delayed Intensification) is suppose to be, well, intense but Jacob seems to be doing really well. The major side-effect is tiredness, but even that isn’t very bad. We were sort of prepping for the worst a few weeks ago and I’m so happy to report that it hasn’t been bad at all.

Jacob pushing his own syringe of saline into his port 3/1/12

He is losing his hair again, as you can see. It had started to grow back, and was actually kind of long, albeit thin—we referred to it as his ‘Yoda hair’ (see any number of previous posts on Jacob’s interest in Star Wars).  The Yoda-hair is all but gone now, coming out in clumps and patches where he rubbed up against his pillow.

Jacob is feeling fine though and we mostly hang out (watching too much TV) as we wait for his counts to climb back up. This Sunday (March 11th) he takes his last chemo pill for this phase. Then it’s two weeks of recovery time and on to the next, much-anticipated phase called Maintenance. We are told that in that phase things become a lot more “normal” for us.

Mom, Isaac and Jacob watching Disney’s cartoon Robin Hood (a classic, right?)

We've had a few people ask us about the shortage of methatrexate, a chemo drug that Jacob takes regularly. Several news sources reported on it about two weeks ago. The shortage is reportedly over and it never affected Jacob or his treatment. No doctor, nurse or anyone at the hospital ever mentioned it to us which leads me to believe that it was not yet worrisome to them.

However, I still thought I'd post some information for those who might be interested. Don't feel obligated to be interested, but I do know a few people who might like some more info.

Here's a link to a letter from the Children's Oncology Group, stating that the shortage has been resolved.

And this is a PBS NewsHour video on the subject (it's about 7 minutes long).

Watch What's Causing a Shortage of Pediatric Cancer Drugs? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.