Chemo on hold

Today was to be the start of my fourth round of chemotherapy.  We showed up at the doctor ready and dreading but willing.  They took a sample of my blood, like always, and then we went to wait in the consult room.  Dr. Tudor came in and began the conversation with "You know, Eric, you are highly unusual".  Why do I always have to be weird?

So, my white blood cell count has continued low and has actually gone slightly lower since last week when it was too low to proceed.  Since it has been four weeks since my last treatment that is not what we would have expected.  In his opinion my body is not responding well to the chemotherapy and he wasn't comfortable going forward with the way things are going.  He knew that we were going to Mayo this next week and wants to wait and hear their opinion before doing anything more.  He then said that perhaps we should stop at three rounds and call it good.  We will have to see what the doctors at Mayo think of all that.  He then said that he thought it was divine inspiration that we chose not to do Methotrexate way back at the start.  In his words, "Had we done methotrexate, it is quite likely it would have killed you....okay, maybe I could have saved you but it would have been close".  For those who follow this blog you may remember that the doctors were split 50/50 on whether or not I should do methotrexate.  It was a hard call for us but we took our question to the temple and asked the Lord.  We received a very clear answer back then that we shouldn't do methotrexate.  It should be no surprise that Heavenly Father knew from the start what would be best.  I am so grateful that once again I have been divinely protected.

Cute little birthday girl

Well, after the doctor left I was dumbfounded.  JoLynne stood up ready to leave and I was just sitting there speechless.  I guess I had an expectation that I would need to suffer for so much longer and now I am being told that perhaps I won't.  I guess it is too early to know that for sure.  We will see what they say at Mayo.  So, here I sit, feeling great when I expected to feel lousy.  I'm not complaining.  Today is Elizabeth's eleventh birthday and it seems I got the nicest present.  When I mentioned that to her, she said, "Having you feel good is the nicest present for me too, daddy".  Boy, I am blessed with good kids.

We leave for Mayo on Monday.  We should have answers from them by Tuesday or Wednesday I would think.  I don't want my cancer to come back but I don't want to die from chemotherapy either.  I am sure the doctors will figure out what balance of risk is best.  In the meantime we are praying that they will be inspired as they consider my case.