Finally.....

the drought has ended. This 3 kid thing has thrown me for a loop! Anyway we are still settling in to our new life as a family of five. James continues to do well. He went to the clinic on Wednesday and his counts are great and we are on half strength chemo. We will get blood work done again in two weeks to see if we can resume to full strength. He also started steroids this week so we would appreciate your prayers. Adrianne and Rachel are great. Rachel will be one month old on Wednesday...hard to believe! Here is the crew all watching TV together!

Settling in.....

FYI

UPDATE
James is home. His counts were great and they are guessing it is a bug. Rachel and I are home and getting settled in. Her bilirubin(sp?) is elevated so we will see the doctor tomorrow. Please pray for us as we continue to get adjusted to our new life!

I am still in the hospital with Rachel and the plan is for us to be discharged today after being here 24 hours. Meanwhile James has spiked a fever and Greg left me to take him to MDA. We would really appreciate your prayers! I will keep you posted.

Baby Rachel has Arrived!

Well, our precious Rachel Claire has arrived! She was born 11/16/2009 at 2:58 p.m. weighing 7 lbs. 12 oz., measuring 21 inches. She came quickly into this world (as it should be) and had moderate difficulty breathing until the NICU nurse whacked her on the back and cleared those lungs immediately! Here are some pictures of her shortly after her arrival.














We feel so blessed to have had things go smoothly today and know that Rachel will bring such happiness and joy! We will post more very soon.

Blessings! Greg and Joy

Halloween and other things.....

Sorry it has taken me a week to post but James is doing much better. We went to the clinic on Wednesday and he had his counts done. His ANC is up to 870 and his white count was 5700. They started him back on chemo but only on half strength. He has done well taking it again which is a huge relief. They discontinued Tamiflu because he was spitting it out. I am including some pics from Halloween and from James riding his bike. Halloween was low key and we didn't go trick or treating. I let the kids dress up and pass out some candy. They seem to be ok with it! We return to MDA on Wednesday for lumbar puncture and chemo plus we start steroids. My mom is coming on Tuesday and Rachel is scheduled for Monday The 16th unless she decides to come early. We will keep you posted. Thanks for all the prayers!

Headed back

Update..They are sending James home with a 10 day course of tamiflu and we can give him Tylenol/Motrin every 3 hours. Right now he is receiving IV antibiotic that will carry him through 3pm tomorrow. If after 3pm he runs a fever of 101 or higher we will head back to MDA where there will hook him up to an IV and send us to Memorial Hermann downtown because MDA has no beds. The good news is his counts continue to climb and his ANC is 170. Please pray the fever goes away, Tamiflu does its job, and James starts feeling better. Thank you.

Greg and James are headed back to the clinic. James feels crummy and his temp was 101. So when we called they said to bring him in. Pray that his blood counts are up and they can come home and that he starts feeling better! Thank you.

Reunited

It was a sweet scene. We are not out of the woods yet. James still has low blood counts. Greg will take him tomorrow to get rechecked. Please pray specifically that he would remain fever free. Thank you so much for your continued support and prayers.