Back in the Saddle

For the months of June and July, and most of the month of August, Sarah has been taking Michael to his weekly appointments at Mott on Mondays. Since she is a teacher, she has not had to take time off work to do this. This arrangement has freed me up to work on Mondays and take my normal Fridays off. The result though is that I have been writing much less on the blog. Mondays at the hospital have been my typical time to write. It has been hard to replace that time on Fridays, because we are usually doing family things on those days. But starting today, I am now officially back in the saddle on Mondays. Sarah returned to school today. As a result, I will be traveling to Ann Arbor with Michael on Mondays for the next several months.

The last few months have absolutely flown by. At the time of my last writing, Michael was able to come home after being in the hospital for 18 days while his body adjusted to a drug called Blin. Michael was able to finish the Blin over the next few weeks without incident.

July was a very full month for our family. The week after the 4th of July, our younger three kids went to camp. We made the decision a number of months ago that Michael would not be able to attend camp this year. During the time our three younger children attended Camp Cobeac, Michael, Sarah, and I stayed at a cabin near Higgins Lake. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to use some friends’ cabin for the week at no cost. We enjoyed sleeping in, relaxing, golfing, spending time at the beach and renting a pontoon boat for a day of fishing.

The following week our church held a fantastic week of Neighborhood Bible Time. The week of Bible Time is always a crazy busy week, but it was exciting to see Michael feeling good and able to participate. Michael, Blake and I capped the week off with a charity golf outing with my faither in law for a crisis pregnancy center. Unfortunately, I was not feeling well, but the others had a great time.

On Monday, July 20th, Michael began a new course of chemo called Interim Maintenance 1. During this course, Michael gets admitted to the hospital on Monday. Late Monday afternoon, he is hooked up to a chemo drug called Methotrexate for 24 hours. This usually wipes him out for about a day. While on the chemo, the toxicity levels in Michael’s blood can potentially spike to 150. Once he is taken off the chemo, his system is flushed with fluid until the toxicity levels in his blood drop below 0.1. This process typically takes a few days. Once Michael is released from the hospital, he gets a week off of the Methotrexate for his body to recover. During this entire time, he is also taking Mercaptopurine, another type of chemo, on a daily basis. This cycle of a week or so in the hospital and a week off will be repeated 4 times during this course. Michael was able to get out of the hospital on Friday July 25th.

On the following day, Michael received what is probably the biggest highlight of his journey with cancer thus far. When he was diagnosed with leukemia in January, he learned he qualified for Make a Wish. This was a surprise to us as we assumed that only those with terminal illnesses were eligible. Michael is expected to survive his leukemia, so Make a Wish was not on our radar screens. However, we were told that a person only needs to have a life-threatening illness to qualify. So, back in January, we filled out the initial paperwork to start the process.

On a number of occasions during the early stages of the process, I asked Michael what he wanted for his Make a Wish. Usually he said he didn’t know. After several weeks, he finally started thinking that he wanted to ask for a fishing trip. Michael loves to fish and appreciates the proximity of our residence to Saginaw Bay, which is known for being a world-class walleye fishery. I suggested to him that instead of asking for trip, he could ask for a boat. That way he could go fishing for years to come. It would be the gift that keeps on giving so to speak. Michael jumped on that idea, and after much discussion and a little research, he settled on asking for a fishing pontoon boat that he could take on the Saginaw Bay.

At the time that he submitted his wish, I cautioned him that boats were very expensive, and that he should not be surprised if his wish was denied. To my incredible shock, Make a Wish got back to us a few weeks later, saying that they wanted to move forward with the boat. Michael was so excited that he immediately signed up for an online boater’s safety class and finished the class in a matter of days.

On Saturday, July 26th, Michael was handed the keys to his (new to him) pontoon boat. He received the boat just in time for our annual Reece family camping trip at Otsego Lake near Gaylord, MI. Michael absolutely loves his boat and has had several conversations with me about fish finders and trolling motors. Those will have to be added when we can afford them. But for now, we are thrilled with the new boat.

Because Michael has a port, he is not allowed to swim in freshwater lakes. So, during our camping week, he gave the boat rides. A few days after returning home from our camping trip, we launched the boat at Smith Park in Essexville and cruised up the Saginaw River to get ice cream at Cream and Sugar in Bay City. We are looking forward to many more adventures with Michael’s boat.

Michael spent the first week of August back in the hospital for another round of Methotrexate. His body responded much better than it had the first time, and he would have been able to come on Thursday evening, had some procedures not been scheduled for the following day.

This past week, he has been home and feeling well. My in-laws came at the end of the week to watch the kids, so Sarah and I could take our anniversary trip that had been postponed due to Michael’s extended hospital stay with the Blin. It was great for the two of us to be able to get away for a few days and enjoy the time together as a couple.

Today Michael and I are back at the hospital for the third round of Methotrexate. Michael also had to have a spinal tap today. And as I write this, we are in the recovery room post-procedure waiting for a bed to open up for us on the 7th floor. Lord-willing, we will be out of here by Friday.