Doctors Visit Tomorrow 5/22

Sorry for the mass postings this evening.

I thought I would give an update as to what Jake's schedule looks like for the next couple of days.

Tomorrow we are heading into the clinic. They are going to take another blood sample and check to see where all of his levels are at. In addition to the blood test, they are going to give him a transfusion of platelets to prepare him for Friday.

On Friday morning, he will be going in for an out-patient surgical procedure. They will be doing another bone marrow biopsy as well as a spinal tap. These are part of the standard process so that the doctors can make sure his bone marrow is responding to the treatment and to make sure that no leukemia cells have moved into his spinal fluid. Jake told me tonight that he is not worried about the surgery at all. He didn't remember or feel anything the last time he had his surgery, so he is completely at ease with Friday's procedures.

He continues to amaze me with his understanding of this situation as well as his ability to grasp all the steps that are being taken to help cure him of this sickness. We had another discussion this evening about the fact that it will not be too much longer before he will start to lose some of his hair. I explained that Josh and I are both going to shave our heads as well to help support him. He was a little concerned about this and doesn't really want us to cut our hair. He said that he doesn't want us to have to deal with people laughing at us. Unfortunately, by digging a little deeper on that one he commented that he expects people to laugh and make fun of him when his hair falls out. I tried to explain to him that I think he is underestimating people and that I would be very surprised if anyone laughed. We talked about some different hats that he could wear. He is wanting to get some Minnesota Twins hats to wear when all this happens. We'll have to see if we can find a couple of them here in Colorado since this is not Twins territory.

Pray for us tomorrow as we get his blood tests. We are expecting the white and red cell counts to be low, but we are asking God to make sure that the rest of the counts are right where they need to be to allow him to remain at home. He had such a good day today and commented that he liked being able to sleep in his own bed and play with his own toys.