Delayed

Tuesday was a long day in the car, traffic, and San Francisco. William had another bone marrow biopsy and aspirate along with lots of blood drawn as part of the next phase of treatment. A lot of the blood and bone marrow samples will actually be used in ongoing research of neuroblastoma cancer. We felt strongly about participating in the studies since it only required blood and bone marrow, both of which were being sampled that day anyway. We are so grateful to the many neuroblastoma children before William who have paved the way for us to have some of the newest treatments available today.

William's recent stint in the hospital was an obvious hot topic in SF. After reviewing the timing of his current antibiotic treatment and the scheduling of the antibody therapy, it was decided to delay the antibody therapy by one week. I suppose we expected it so it didn't seem like such a shocking blow, but it was just an ever constant reminder that we must always schedule our lives in pencil. The main factor contributing to this decision was that some of the common side effects of the treatment are similar to the infection he is recovering from and the doctors want to make sure he is fully recovered so the culprit of any side effects is obvious. Makes sense.

The good news is the antibody therapy schedule will still not interfere with our family reunion/vacation to Newport in June! [Happy dancing and sighs of relief]. That was really the only thing that worried us. I know, priorities. But we all need to escape some reality from time to time.

When we got home from SF last night, I felt emotionally and physically exhausted from the hectic ups and downs of the past week. I looked at the huge pile of clean laundry on my bedroom floor that needed folding (it's been there since Friday) and just climbed into bed and ignored it. I know constant flexibility is nothing too new for us, but we were becoming accustomed to a slightly less unpredictable lifestyle. William was worn out too. The anethesia probably had a role in that, but he made a funny request as we drove up to the house. "Mom, when we get home, I'm going to go find my new tennis racquet and then sit on the couch and just look at it." And he did. Funny boy.