Huh. I'm Starting To Like This Plan

For most people, receiving a call from the hospital is rarely a good thing.  It's usually to tell you that that growth you were concerned about is malignant.  Or thousands of spider eggs under your skin.  If it isn't somewhat unfortunate news, it is horrifying and may require you to go through years and years of therapy before you can order calamari every again.  That isn't entirely fair, though, because sometimes it's good news.  Which is what it was today.

As most of you know, we were at the hospital on Wednesday getting another lumbar puncture and bone marrow aspiration to determine what his MRD was, which would then dictate the course his treatment would take.  Turns out, we caught a bit of a break.  His leukemia blasts were at two percent, which was well below the threshold of five percent.  So, because there was minimal residual disease, he will not be needing a bone marrow transplant after all of his chemotherapy and his next two treatments will be slightly protracted followed by one last, hard-hitting round to wipe out even the smallest amount of leukemia lurking within his body.  Everything up to this point has always gone to the least favorable route for the lad and he's taken it in stride, battled through it, and come out victorious.  At least he won't have to go through the rigors of getting a transplant and possibly getting regular check up to make sure that the cancer hasn't flared up again, dooming we three to another stint in the big little person's house.

On top of that good news, I'm sure that most of the people who read this blog, saw, in some form or another, that Jayne was recently featured in an article for the World Series of Fighting.  It was written to highlight the generosity that Justin Gaethje, who grew up in Safford and is currently the lightweight champion of the WSoF, showed my family.  He donated the gloves from his recent victory and inspired the Word Series of Fighting to also donate a few things to be offered at the raffle, put on by Gila Valley CrossFit.  We haven't gotten word on how it went, but the fact that these people donated anything to help my son battle cancer is enough.  I will try to keep everyone up to date on the outcome and if there are any other ways in which they can contribute, should they feel the need.

As I've said over and over, thank you to everyone who has given something to help us out.  It hasn't been easy and it certainly looks to only be getting more and more difficult.  Every little bit is appreciated and I hope that this experience can put into perspective just how heart-wrenchingly challenging this is for every single parent and child who is going through or will go through circumstances such as our.  As much as I appreciate people giving for the sake of my son's well-being, I would love it even more if Jayne inspires each and every one of you to think beyond this one infant, to the world of childhood cancer, a dreary, depressing world that is somehow pierced through with rays of sunshine in the form of a child's smile.  Children who have no reason whatsoever to be smiling manage to be happy and optimistic because they are surrounded by people cheering them onward and doing everything they can to help them in their fight.  Whether it's a small donation of a dollar, the effort it takes to get charity events up and running, people using their position or relative fame to help those in need, or just being a strong and caring parent when the time to step up arises.  This is a fight for us all to take up because children with cancer, who have to live their lives out in hospitals and clinics, should have the opportunity, even for an hour at a time, to be a kid and to have hope.  Jayne gets that hour thanks, in large part to all of you, hopefully, someday, another two or a dozen or even a hundred kids can get that hour because of his struggle right now.