Thanksgiving is behind us and oh boy…do we have a lot to be thankful for this year.

• Des is continuing to respond well to treatment and is feeling great. We’ve even noticed his hair is coming in thicker.
• The first trimester of the school year is finished for Solomon and Luke. They’ve been studying hard and at this rate, we’ll be buried in flash cards by the end of May.
• Desmond’s oncology team has given us a projected end of treatment date! His treatment is scheduled to end in April of 2023. Party details to come…
• We’re especially thankful to be going places together as a family again (all five of us). Church, restaurants, appliance shopping!
• Des finished his last round of RC-P (specifically, “Recombinant Crisantaspase Produced in Pseudomonas Fluorescens”). This was part of a trial for leukemia patients who are allergic to one of the standard treatment drugs (I’ll spare you the name on that one…). We’re glad to be finished with that one because the infusion schedule was rough. I think he had 24 (maybe more?) 2-hour infusions of RC-P. And it wasn’t unusual to make him barf. He’s a real trooper.
• After having a pretty rough time trying to manage challenges this year, I reached out to a therapist a few months ago for some help. I am so thankful that I did and it has made a huge difference for my mental and spiritual health and also for our family. If you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed or anxious and you just don’t know how to sort it all out, I really want you to take care of yourself. Reach out to people who care about you. Reach out for professional help. Life is hard but we’re all in it together. Let yourself be helped.

As of November, we’ve crossed over into the final phase of Des’s treatment. This year-and-a-half long maintenance phase is mostly made up of daily oral medication and occasional infusions and doctor visits.

He has quite the pill box at home but we’ll take that over frequent visits to the infusion center.

One of our latest challenges has been food.

Des has always been a picky eater and chemo doesn’t really help. He loves all things breakfast but dinner can be tricky. If he decides he doesn’t like something he’s really fine with just not eating.

However, we’re pretty sure that some mornings he wakes up with low blood sugar, probably due to not eating enough at dinnertime. So instead of just having cereal and fried eggs all the time we do a lot of encouragement and silliness to get balanced diet bites down at dinner.

He’s definitely not a casserole kid. Haha.

Lastly, we want to share the talented work of a family friend (this is the Christmas idea part…).

Carol makes folded book art that is incredible. We have a book from her on display in our house right now. It’s one of those things that make you slow down and really look at it when you see it. It’s a wonderful and unique piece of our home’s Christmas decorations.

You can see Carol’s work here. Shop to decorate your own home or find some really great handmade gifts. She has lots to choose from (not just Christmas!) and can even do custom work.

But here’s the part that surprised us; if you’re a friend of ours (yes, that’s you) and you decide to order a book from Carol by the end of the year, a huge portion of the price (75%) will go toward helping with Des’s treatment. Wow! We’re humbled and so grateful for Carol’s generosity.

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving and that you enjoy these last few weeks of 2021. Every day of it is a gift.

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Matt