Jack is about 34 hours in to his 96 hour infusion and he is doing really well.  He had a very busy day today…my dad came this morning to visit and bring Jack his favorite treat, a vanilla scone from Starbucks.  We had to go down this morning for a chest x-ray which was a follow up from stem cell transplant for his 100 day checkup.  He did great!  We came back up and I talked with his BMT nurse who told me that Jack’s vitamin D level was a little low so he has to go on a supplement for that starting Friday.  She said it was nothing to be concerned about and most people have a low level of vitamin D, but since he is a transplant patient, they want to make sure they give him all he needs.  She also said that all the blood tests they took 2 weeks ago came back great and everything is in normal range.  Great news!  She also called a little bit later and told me that the x-ray looked great and all is well.  We have a meeting with the BMT team for his follow up in a couple of weeks so we will get more info then on how they think he is doing….

After all of that my Aunt Theresa, Uncle Jim and 2 of my cousins, Kevin and Marie stopped over to visit for awhile.  They came in from Atlanta for Christmas and we were only able to see them for 1 day before we checked back in so it was great to see them.  We haven’t been able to spend the holidays with them for a few years, but they have been so supportive all the way from Atlanta so it was great for Jack to get to know them in person.  Jack had a ball with Kevin and loved having them here with us. 

Jack is feeling good, a little tired, but good.  He has been eating really well and putting up with being stuck in the hospital like a champ.  Tomorrow will be more of the same thing…playing, resting, eating, and riding the scooter all around the floor like a wild man.  He will probably start to feel pretty tired and worn down by the end of the week, so we will be getting lots of rest this weekend so he is as strong as he can be for next week when we check back in again.

Hopefully we will be able to get some rest tonight because we didn’t get much last night!

One more thing…for some odd reason, this website sent out emails of posts to people who signed up for updates from about a month ago.  No clue why, but I saw that it sent out 7 different updates!  Sorry about that!

Day +39

Well we haven’t written in 5 days and we have just been so busy and sometimes just busy doing nothing. Does that even make sense???

Nikki and Shawn had a safe drive from Idaho and arrived late Saturday night. Zac was at a golf tournament for work so he wasn’t here when they arrived. Jack was so very excited for them to get here. We went out to see them as they pulled up and our new neighbors across the street were outside decorating for Halloween so we were able to meet them. They are so very sweet and have two young boys. They ended up putting up lights on our house for Halloween and we thought that was so sweet. Jack loves having the lights.

Sunday we all got up nice and early and Jack, Zac, and Shawn took a ride in the neighbors golf cart to Starbucks to get us all coffee (it’s right across the street and yes they went through the drive thru) and Jack thought that was so much fun. After unloading Nikki and Shawny, Shawn had to hurry off to the airport so he could get back to work.

Zac had to go back to back to Tucson for work Monday and we tried to get things accomplished around the house. We were able to get out and Jack got to go to the park for the first time in so long. He was so happy being outside. I was also able to connect with a family that I used to nanny for years ago. They were such a huge part of my life and I just have always loved all of them. I didn’t have their number and I was honestly scared to tell them about Jack because it has been a few years since I have seen them and they are like family to me. It is hard to talk about Jack with people that you are close to because it always makes it even more real. I was able to tell them everything and they automatically said that they were stopping over today even if they had to stand outside just to see me. I thought that was so sweet of them. You really realize when you go through something like this who you can count on and Melanie and Barry are 2 of those people. They stopped over tonight and were able to meet the boys and they loved them. For those of you who know Jack, he doesn’t warm up to everyone and he totally did with them. He tried to make Melanie play the Wii and Braden was all smiles and flirty with her as well. I just can’t tell you how happy I was to see them tonight….thank you so much for stopping over to see us!!

Zac was able to come home tonight and he will be taking tomorrow off to go to Jacks’s first radiation session tomorrow morning. We have to leave around 5:30 am so that should be interesting. Please pray for Jack that he get through this with as little side effects as possible. He is our fighter and he will do this with such courage as he has with everything else.

I heard this the other day and I think this is how we have been able to get though this journey….”we all have problems but we also all have triumphs. If we focus on on the triumphs and the positive, we can get through our lows that much better.”. So true.