The wait is over

Blood tests done (again) this morning. And finally.... he's ready for his next treatment cycle to begin! We have an appointment at the clinic at Strong for tomorrow morning at 9:30 am. It was originally scheduled for Monday and I'm glad it got moved due to Mother Nature's temperament that day in Western New York (who would think we'd get our biggest snow storm of the winter on April 23rd?!)

Sawyer will get another spinal tap and then some chemo infusions in the clinic, then be admitted to the pediatric ICU to receive the first shot of the erwinia asparaginase. We're all a bit nervous about it, understandably, but the waiting and worrying is getting worse than what I anticipate the actual event itself will be. Another reason to get things started again!

The break has definitely been fantastic (5+ weeks) for Sawyer to have time to focus on visiting with friends, catching up on school work, feeling good, etc. He's been happily eating ice cream, desserts and all sorts of food in order to stock his body up for the next two months when he won't be eating much at all. And even though he's been feeling well overall he hasn't been able to go to school since his immune system was too depressed. He even got to enjoy Hot Dog Day in Alfred with his buddies even though the weather was less ideal.

He got caught up on all his school work over the spring break except for French. We've found a terrific tutor to help him with that subject; she comes tonight for the first time. She'll get him caught up and then continue through the rest of the school year to prepare him for his final and to stay caught up with work. His regular tutor (who is awesome) will continue to come as usual but being a science teacher doesn't exactly help him tutor someone in high school French!

This last intense phase of treatment lasts 8 weeks which will unfortunately take him through the rest of the school year and his three Regents tests. The original schedule would have had him done a few weeks before the end. Another disappointment from having the schedule shift was that he was nominated by his school to attend a national youth leadership seminar for a weekend but he's had to now decline since he wouldn't be able to be in a crowd nor would he feel good for such a busy weekend. But in the end, it's all small stuff compared to getting him on his way to being cured!