David & the DDC: Take that! And that!!

 GUESS WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?

David is in remission!!!! 

(technically)

This is very joyous news and while not entirely a surprise (we peeped it in his my Alberta Health, but it was couched in so many terms that it did not feel definitive), today it was official. In fact Dr. Brandwein said, "You're in remission. Now we cure you". I wanted to be really jubilant in the office with him, but Dr. Brandwein is pretty chill/reserved, I didn't want to overwhelm him with my joy.

All afternoon I've felt like I have a choir singing the word remission all around me:

So why only technically? Well right now, per the bone marrow biopsy, there is no evidence of the disease. When he got his blood work back from Monday there was also no blasts! This means his body does know how to make good blood and is currently doing just that. But, they want to make sure that he doesn't relapse and make sure that even though it didn't show up in their tests, that there aren't some blasts hiding somewhere in the marrow, or that the bone marrow doesn't go rouge again. So he has to do three rounds of chemotherapy to make sure his bone marrow stays the course. This is the consolidation. 

Consolidation means 2 times a day, 3 times a week, he will get a high does of a chemo drug called cytarabine. This will be a higher dose than he got in the hospital of this drug (15 times higher actually...yikes), but only for 3 hours at a time. And he won't have the second drug, idarubicin, this time as well. The idarubicin was likely responsible for a lot of his stomach pain, so it's a relief to learn that it was the culprit and the stomach pain shouldn't happen as badly in these rounds. The cytarabine is no joke and so David will have anti-nausea medication again. He'll also have eyedrops that he has to put in his eyes because the toxicity can give him conjunctivitis. After a week of treatment, David will get some rest, while his white blood cells, platelets, neutrophils and a bunch of other blood bits are wiped out again. Basically the same as he was last time - very vulnerable to bad stuff. So he will be on anti-fungals, antibiotics, antivirals and one other thing to keep him from getting sick. When I asked the doctor if I should do anything special to keep the house clean, he said everything that would likely make him sick is already in his body - it's kind of wild that our bodies both protect and harm us so much. Like aren't we supposed to be on the same team?

In between routine poisoning, David will go to the hospital for hydration and blood tests. After the week of poison, he will keep having blood tests every other day to make sure what's supposed to be happening is happening. They gave us a little card that said if his red blood cells or platelets are below certain levels, he has to get a transfusion. It's kind of wild because David (or I) just check his results in the app and then call in as soon as we notice. That feels like a lot of responsibility. So right now we are planning for 12 visits to the hospital in 14 days but it could be more if we have to go in for transfusions. David is excited to do this part at home, where he sleeps better, gets to hug kiddos lots and moves around a bit more. I love having him at home but reserve the right to be scared about being a responsible adult.

After chemo David's blood counts will go very low and then slowly work their way back. They figure he'll be about 5 weeks to get fully back to "not dying" and that's when they'll schedule the next round of chemo to start this all again. In theory, if things go accordingly to plan, he'll be doing his last round of chemo in the last week of November/first week of December and might be a reasonable version of himself by his birthday (and also Christmas). But also just taking one day at a time....poorly.

And then he's cured. So crazy.

I am incredibly grateful to the many friends and church members who signed up to take David to his appointments (thankfully the nurse told him that he definitely should not drive himself, so it's nice to have healthcare on my side). All of his appointments have been handled!

We also have Hannah over here each evening for the rest of the month helping with the kids/making our lives magical.

David will likely feel fairly normal during the week that chemo is being administered and then like a zombie the weeks after. So I'll be working from home as needed, especially in the event that he needs a ride to the hospital for a transfusion. I don't want to have to be coordinating rides from the office for that business. Work is amazing and is happy to let me balance as I need to (I actually felt caught up on Monday) so I just keep managing that workload one day at a time.

Honestly, I know that God answers prayers. In some ways I feel undeserving of the news we got today because I know there are so many who are less fortunate and do not get the good news we did. We're not more deserving than they are. But I know that God has a plan for David and for our family and I am doing my best to surrender to that and have faith that this will be for our good. Just like David's bone marrow is getting hammered down over and over in order to build back stronger and better, we might be going through a similar process ourselves.

Throughout this journey, David and I have had some really thoughtful conversations about the intentional things that we want to do with our family - what does work and play look like for each of us, and as a unit, when we know that our lives are precious, valuable, and shorter than we want. I hope it doesn't take life altering health diagnoses to get us to see our lives this clearly. 

....and I know that we're not out of the woods. So keep praying that David keeps making good blood, doesn't get pneumonia, and that our mental health holds for another 10-15 weeks. Also so much gratitude that we can cure cancer. It feels surreal just saying it.

We love you. You're the best. We are so fortunate for the community cheering us on in our journey. Hug your loved ones because they really are your most precious.