his own words

This is Isaiah. Hi guys. I am doing well. How are you guys? After a treatment I felt well. I'm dressing up as Luke Skywalker. Next Halloween I'm going to be Mace Windu. What are you going to be for Halloween?

Isaiah in Capitola/Emmaus Staff Family Retreat/October

[We go back for outpatient appointments tomorrow and Thursday. He's really doing great. Thanks for praying for him!]

big week

Friends - We're off in a few minutes for what we think will be a two-day scheduled stay at the hospital (followed by two more daily trips). We're very grateful for your prayers. More soon...

600

Dear Friends,
We are home again. Isaiah's ANC was 600 today, too low to be admitted to the hospital for treatment. He was happy to break his fast early and end the day playing at his Bita's house. We go back on Monday to check counts again. If his counts reach 750, he will be admitted and we will begin a 4 day course of treatment. We praise God for His hand on Isaiah's life and for all the support you give us. We love you all!

no more curls

People have always said we have the same hair.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we go in for a scheduled hospital stay. We'll be fasting, spinal tapping, etc. etc. unless, of course, his blood counts are too low to move forward. Much peace to you all. We'll keep you posted.

Jacob demonstrated strong support for his friend Isaiah.

home

We're all home and everyone is asleep. It feels good to be all together. Isaiah's counts are very low but he's feeling good. It sounds like they'll postpone his next round of chemo and scheduled hospital stay until at least Thursday. More soon...

waiting...

Isaiah's temperature is back to normal but his counts are still very low. We're still at Sutter and may be for a few days. We'll keep you posted. Thanks for all your encouragement and prayers.

Prayer

Dear Friends,

Isaiah's fever returned. He will be spending the night at Sutter Memorial tonight (for observation). Please pray for protection from infection and healing in his body. Pray for God's peace to overwhelm Isaiah's heart. Tonight Sienna prayed for Isaiah to come home "soon tomorrow." Please join her in praying for his quick return home. We love you all and will update you on his progress.

fever

We had to come home early from our staff family retreat because Isaiah's had a slightly-raised temperature for over 24 hours. We spent the day at Sutter (his ANC has dropped to 200) where they gave him an antibiotic. We're home now, hoping he's over the worst. We're back again tomorrow. He's really wiped out. Please pray for health and strength.

i was amazed

On Friday we had our 4th doctor appointment in 5 days. Recent news that Isaiah now has 6 compression fractures in his spine prompted an order for an MRI and a bone scan.

Initially, we were told we'd need to wait several weeks to get the MRI due to the anesthesiologists' slammed schedule. Wanting to have the test done as soon as possible, I asked if we could do it without putting Isaiah "out."

Our team agreed to let us try but made it clear that they didn't think a 5 year old could hold still for the nearly 2 hour scan. A slightly combative combination of extreme confidence in my son, my conviction that kids will rise to the challenge when they believe others believe they can, and my own competitive (pronounced: twisted) nature caused me to argue that Isaiah could, in fact, handle the MRI without sedation.

What I never could have imagined was how intensely loud the whole experience would be. I naively brought Steinbeck's The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights to read to Isaiah. The technician smiled politely, handed us ear plugs, and pointed to the "panic" button.

For the next hour and a half Isaiah remained perfectly calm and completely still through scan after scan (there were 7 in all, with just 5 or 6 second breaks) inside this tube with what literally sounded like a jack-hammer pounding away. And I mean jack-hammer: that incessant, deep, gets-inside-your-head-like-a-bad-dream-will-it-ever-stop? kind of pounding. It was insane.

Though my head was only a few feet from his we couldn't talk at all over the noise. All I could do was bend at the waist over the table, reach as far into the tube as I could in order to rest my hand on his head.

I could hardly believe what I was seeing. He just dealt with it: This little five-year-old with a sense of calm through this nearly-unbelievably intense experience that frankly left me speechless in admiration.

When we got Isaiah dressed again in his new Jedi Master robe (with light saber, of course) and exited the room a whole crew of nurses and technicians met him with comments of amazement and praise.

Thanks for indulging this father's pride. Isaiah has just maintained such a hopeful, trusting attitude throughout this fight. I asked him, "What were you doing the whole time during all that noise?" He replied, "Just thinking." "About what?" I wondered. "About Return of the Jedi" he said, "and about how God was helping me be strong."

It's getting tough. But I'm so proud of him.

Words from Isaiah...

Hi everyone, this is Isaiah. I am doing well. Thank you for all the posts. It's really encouraging me, thank you. My mommy and daddy are praying and praying. Thank you for encouraging me and loving me. -Isaiah

kicking-off week 2 of delayed intensification

We just returned from a long day at the hospital. Isaiah received two types of chemo which he seems to be handling well. He felt sick for a little bit but mostly has just been very tired. After his appointment we shared a "bowl of soul" and a delicious pastry at Tupelo's cafe. He continues to have a great attitude about this whole process, which is very encouraging. Thanks for checking in! Isaiah is really enjoying reading your comments these days. We've changed the settings so you don't have to sign in to leave a note...so please give a shout out to Superman. More news later!