Since so many of you have already donated your time and money through the moto-photo-shoot, I wanted to pass this email along so you can see a little bit about what you're helping. 75% of every dollar you've donated goes to helping patients and their families deal with some nasty stuff. This email is only one of countless stories. These kids are freakin' amazing.
There are so many causes and charities out there that it truly means a lot to me that you're helping me with mine (& Bryants with his poker tournament).
Thank you.
Gage Holmes is one of our amazing Honored Heroes for Team In Training. This is an update his mother Rebecca (a recent TNT alumni) posted today on their blog today...
1/21/2009
This morning, Blake and I took Gage to clinic in anticipation of starting the maintenance phase of his treatment. This stage will last a little less than three years and should end in September 2010, close to his 8th birthday. His counts were high enough today to start, so here is what the next few years will look like medically for Gage.
Maintenance consists of 12-week cycles that we will continually repeat:
Week one: Chemo by spinal tap and chemo through his port (both at clinic), a nightly chemo and 5 days of twice-daily steroids (at home)…in addition to medicines for nausea and reflux
Weeks two through four: Chemo on Monday and nightly chemo (all at home)
Week five: like week one, minus the spinal tap
Weeks six thru eight: same as weeks 2-4
Week nine: same as week 5
Weeks ten thru twelve: same as weeks 2-4
Then, we start all over again with Week One.
So, this is supposed to be the “easy” part. As you can tell, though, it’s only ‘easy’ in comparison to how hard the last six months have been…and it certainly doesn’t seem easy on a day like today. Even the bottle of medicine I picked up for him today was a bit jarring with all of its hazardous stickers on it. Hard to believe I’m putting this inside my child.
Also, the nightly chemo he’ll take for the next several years has to be taken at bedtime and a couple hours after finishing eating. So, we’ll get used to paying great attention to when dinner starts and ends so that we can give him his medicine without having to keep him up too late or waking him to take it (never a good idea). And, I’m sure we’ll learn how to handle it all so that Blake and I can occasionally leave home at night too.
So, today was a great milestone that has been a long time coming. The doctors say Gage should gradually feel better over the next couple months. I hope that’s true, but it’s hard to imagine that he might actually feel (and look) like a child without leukemia. Still, I’m encouraged by how much better he felt even last week.
And, I know that the Lord will carry us through these next years as He has carried us through these last six months. I often think of the words to the hymn ‘Great is Thy Faithfulness’: “All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.”
Thanks for your prayers today, as always.
RH
Rebecca recently completed a triathlon with Team In Training. Check out this video of her experience:
http://gageupdates.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/wanna-tri/
