Feelin' Pretty Good!

It's been over a month since my last post and I apologize to my loyal readers who have mentioned that they've checked the blog and haven't seen anything new. We have had a few significant milestones but not really that much to report.
On November 14th, JR had his first MRI since his post-op MRI (August) and he has endured the majority of his first of 10 rounds of chemo. He continues to cause the reaction of "shock and awe" as people who know what he's been through see him and notice how well he's doing. He's still doing an amazing job keeping his chin up and not letting this get to him.
The best news we can hear is that there are no signs of anything new on his MRI. That was the news we heard on the 14th. He was totally calm during the MRI process, no sedatives, no music, he just hung out, stayed still and let it happen. I've heard many a horror story about how terrible the process is but he took it in stride (not the same story with the IV line but we'll gloss over that for now...!). After we finished, Jim told him he could have anything he wanted. He chose a hamster that we bought the following weekend when my brother and his wife visited from Colorado. Addie got one, too, for being such a good sister :). Their names are Dusty and Cloudy and they are Blueberry Dwarf hamsters.
We have another MRI coming up on Jan. 3rd, so we hope to report the same news then. Hopefully J.R. won't figure out that when Jim says he can have anything he wants, he pretty much means carte blanche. We could get in some real trouble!!
The five days following the MRI were the first 5 days of the 5 days on, 23 days off chemo cycle. He had 5 days on of some strong stuff and it made him feel pretty off. We had heard that day 10 to 14 of the cycle would probably be his low days but he was pretty good by day 7 and was able to eat a decent amount of turkey (a good food for him anyway!) on Thanksgiving at Aunt Beth's and Uncle T.K.'s. The best part of Thanksgiving for J.R. was having some time with his "big" cousins. We've now been off for 13 days and he feels pretty good but just incredibly tired. He's been trying his hardest to get some extra rest and to get some fun and exercise in between. We had our first snow today and it was perfect sledding for us here on Hoyt Court. I'm a strong believer in fresh air and exercise and sledding down the street is one of our top favorite things to do.
Blood counts have continued to be great so J.R. has been trying his best to stay in school full time. Some days he's just a little beat up and needs to take a breather. His teacher has been very pleased with how he manages to keep up with his schoolwork. We still have our wonderful tutor part time and she is truly a blessing!!
So that's it for now! We can only hope that this is as bad as it gets and that J.R. will keep handling things so bravely. Both of my children make me so proud it's really embarrassing!!! We really don't know much about what to expect as each person who goes through something like this reacts uniquely. We know that on the chemo-taking spectrum, JR is on the "handles it well" side of the scale and we hope that the 23 days off will give him sufficient time to recuperate before starting up again. I feel as though I'm always thinking that I don't know what the future holds but that is true for all of us. All we can do is expect it to be great and somehow it always is! Happy Holidays to all if I don't get back for a while! Your are all in our thoughts and prayers! XOXOXXO