I am covering the blog tonight because I know that William was in all our prayers today and we want to share information with all of you. Julie said I didn't have to sugar-coat anything and she knows I really couldn't if I tried, so here it goes: Today was rough. Julie and Ryan are exhausted. I do believe we covered every emotion- sadness, happiness, anger, frustration, disbelief, and hope. Julie and Ryan met with the doctors and tonight at around 10 pm, William started chemo. The course of medication is tough, to put it mildly. We are hoping and praying. Repeat.
Julie and I took a long walk tonight and covered a lot of topics, as we always do. We talked about how much comfort we find in faith. We talked about the scary stuff no mothers want to discuss. And we talked about how hopeful we are feeling.
And because we are mothers/planners/organizers, we started planning our day tomorrow. Tomorrow we will work on the helping hands website for all of you asking to help. Julie and Ryan appreciate all the calls, emails, blog comments and we know the helping hands website will let us all know how we can help. Stay tuned!
And while Julie and Ryan were away at one meeting, another meeting took place in William's room- a meeting of the 8 year-old minds. James and William played video games, read books, looked at William's Star Wars pop-up book (Wow, Sam!!), and acted like kids. We discussed William's bowels (a requirement of all 8 year-old meetings), we discussed the school cafeteria and the boys' favorite meals (William loves the bean burrito which lead to another discussion, can you guess?), we discussed William's record-high urine output scores (they track everything in the hospital). It was a surreal experience for a mom letting her mind get too far ahead. It was a perfectly fine afternoon for two wonderful little boys. A mom could learn a thing or two from those two!
We now wait to see how William reacts to all the medications (the treatment lasts for 3 days) but the worst side-effect is the nausea and they have many medicines to help with keeping that under control. We pray for few side-effects! Julie and Ryan and the Child Life Specialist explained the process to William and he is ready. When I left them tonight, William was pretty excited to stay up all night because he would need to give urine samples throughout the night and thought they could just pull an all-nighter together. I love William.
what a neat kid he is! we pray the chemo will have few side effects. thank you for the update!
ReplyDeleteThanks for being such a dear friend to dear Julie! Please give the Murdocks lots of hugs for all of us living far away. Thanks for the update!
ReplyDeleteYou guys hang on. You are in our prayers and several of our YSA kids are praying and have fasted for you guys too. Thanks for the updates.
ReplyDeleteI never thought I would say it but... hurray for video games and potty talk! Laughter is a great medicine too.
ReplyDeleteSending love, giggles, hugs and prayers,
Jayme Bahouth
Thank you for the updates! You are so blessed to be able to be near and help. You are in our prayers. Go William!
ReplyDeleteGood luck to William!! you can do it!! We will keep him and Ryan & Julie in our thoughts and prayers. My mind is consumed with them since I found out last night. We are praying for you guys!!
ReplyDeleteAudrey
Hi William....this is Sam. Row, Row, Row your boat, gently down the stream. If you see a crocodile, don't forget to scream...aaaahhh. I can see you laughing now.
ReplyDeletelisa, thanks for keeping us updated, and mostly thanks to you and Sam for being there for the Murdocks!
ReplyDeleteHere is the Devotional I recieved for the week. I thought it was very appropriate:
ReplyDeleteFaith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Fight the good fight of [the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen]. Fight the good fight of [being sure of what you hope for and being convinced of what you do not see.]
When the answer to your prayers is not on the horizon, when you don't feel differently, you need to fight the good fight and say, "You know what? God's Word says it and that's all the evidence I need. It is the evidence of things not seen, and I'm going to stand on that truth. I don't care what the world says, I don't care what circumstances say, I am going to fight the good fight of the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of what I do not see."
And you stay with it until, as they say, "Faith turns to sight."
What are you struggling with today? What challenge is testing your faith? Stand firm on the truth of God’s Word. Trust Him, no matter what others may say.
Real faith is standing firm in the midst of the storm. So stand firm!
You are in my prays. ~Jamie Keenan
Thank heaven for dear friends like you and James! I feel grateful for true friends for family members that mean so much to me! Thank you for all of the service and love given to Will and his parents!
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