Friends and Helicopters

William checked back into the hospital and started Round 7. (sigh). And we are stuck in the quad room with three other roommates. (big sigh). Many people call this room "The Projects"! So appropriate! However, we got lucky with our roommate, Spencer. He is William's same age and we've been wanting to meet him for a while. Lisa's (good friend and guest blogger) husband, Dan, was college roommates with Spencer's dad. Got that? Small, crazy world. Too bad it's the cancer world.

As parents, the emotional roller coaster continues. On Monday, Dr. Hsu informed us that more chemo was likely and more chemo means a minimum 2 more rounds, not just 1. Today in the clinic, Dr. Lee said William will be reevaluated after this round, but didn't clarify how many chemo rounds were expected. I neglected to ask for clarification and eagerly mistook it as one additional round being possible. Reevaluation (bone marrow biopsy) always occurs after each round with William. After we were admitted, Dr. Yim stopped by the room and said he suspects William to need 4 more rounds based on previous patient experience (obviously his educated opinion at this point. I think I may be bald too by the time this is over! I keep repeating in my head, "Every child is different. Every case is different. And there is no reason why William can't be the exception. Miracles, big and small, happen."

So we continue our juggling act and try to enjoy something each day.

Here's what made Wednesday a good day!

Joe, William, Carson

William and James

One of the frustrating things about this whole process is the inability to plan fun things. Correction: it's the inability to guarantee the participation in fun things. So we've taken the impromptu approach; we don't plan too much and sometimes it's more fun that way.

For instance: helicopters at school.

I heard the helicopters Wednesday morning and thought, "Oh yeah, that's today. The boys will have lots to talk about this afternoon. Wait, William's healthy and home and we have about an hour before we have other commitments." We quickly piled in the car and headed to school. It was awesome! It was quite the event: 2 helicopters, undercover officer and vehicle, police horses, canine unit, narcotics officer and truck, etc. William loved seeing his friends too and his friends loved seeing him. I think it was great for his friends to see him on such a healthy day and be reassured that he's still the same William. Some of them begged him to take his hat off, but William didn't give into the peer pressure! :) Sometimes he is self-conscious about his head and sometimes he not.

Here's to good days!