Our Hall of Thanks

Jordan is home! Everytime he's released from the hospital and he and Brianna walk through the door, it feels like a holiday. He tolerated this cycle of VCD better than the first cycle while inpatient. At that time, violent vomiting caused small hemorrhages of his eyes, and he reacted poorly to several antinausea meds (antiemetics). No Compozine, Zofran, or Aloxi for him, ever. The latter decreased his heart rate from a norm of about 70 beats per minute for an adult male, to the mid 30's for a couple of days, and the former produced a strange sensation that he was unable to communicate until it subsided. Calling it discomfort would be an understatement; and calling it pain would be inaccurate. Dr. Z. explained it as an allergic reaction that causes the synapses to fire randomly, sending mixed signals throughout the body. Fortunately, he responds well to Ativan and Marinol, which he takes as needed, and 30 minutes or so before meals. Presently, fatigue is his main side effect, but we are on the lookout for those dreaded mouth sores, which proved so distressing from about 10 days after the first round of chemo and persisted for 2 interminable weeks. He is diligent about salt and baking soda mouth rinses, in hopes of staving them off completely this time. He began the first of 7 Neupogen injections yesterday to stimulate white blood cel production, and this should safeguard him from them as well. So first in the hall of thanks....is Jordan.

In no particular order, other recipients of our sincerest gratitude include the following:

For posting blog comments:
Julie, Amy, the Chipmans, Dave & Kathy, Lucinda, Barb, Jamie, Amy & Matthew, and Rebekah

For knitting the beautiful afghan:
Cindy, Cross's mom

For the cheery cards and posters:
Jana and the Primary children, Lucinda, and Sister Wheeler & Sister Tupa

For chauffeuring us to labs and appointments:
Karen, Lorrie, Jolene, Cindy, Erin, Verna, Gladys, Diane, Kirt, Joyce, andprobably many more to come

For prayers:
So very many faithful friends and family members

For flowers and crafts:
Don & Janet, Joan, Jean

For food:
Karen, Cindy, Kirt, Lorrie, Jana, Lois, and Joan

For big surprises:
Nauvoo's Christmas delivery, a huge stocking from an unknown Santa, for Greg and Neil's wild, wintry ride from Denver to Boise, the Lims' gift, and an unnamed gift from the Victory View ward

Family visits from far away, visits from friends close at hand, all the phone calls, e-mails, posts from CLLC Friends and Nauvoodles, mean so very much to us. Many thanks to the doctors, nurses, social workers, technicians and to the charity of St. Luke's, for a multiplicity of highly-specialized, invaluable contributions

To our Father in heaven, we are most deeply indebted.. And we will never, ever forget.