Today was a day full of small, and not so small, miracles...

To the big one first....

Eli is a "Rapid Early Responder"...Yea!!! I want to shout it out to anyone that will listen!! That means that we are done with the Yuckiest part of the treatment, Induction, and now we move on to the next step which is Consolidation. The great part about this is that they won't begin the next phase until his counts are up, so we WILL get to got home before we get anymore chemo. (Unless he gets sick again...)

He is also SOOO much better. He is still kinda red, but alot of the swelling has gone down, especially in his genital area, and I can really tell it makes a big difference in how he feels. We took him off of the morphine drip and we are really doing a good job keeping him comfortable with Benedryl and the topical ointment.

Jane came by today with lunch and they took Eli into the treatment room to remove the catheter and reaccess his port (it got clogged up) I was really glad to have her there, as we sat there for what seemed like forever listening to him scream in the other room. I let the nurses take him in without me because I honestly thought it was going to be a five minute procedure, and it was awful. The thing is I know he screams even when they take the tape off of him, but it was excruciating not being in there. Not something I will do again, but Jane made small talk and helped me try to put my mind somewhere else. This small miracle was completely for my sake, but I needed it.

My book that I am reading comes with a story that I shared with Carrie King today and realized just how it was a "Divine" coincidence as I was telling it: When we did the informational meeting in the trailers of the church for the DOK, I spent the morning there setting things up. I probably have spent a total of 1 hour in those trailers in the past 6 months. As I was sitting by myself I noticed the little library in the corner of the room and went to check the books out. I saw the book "Where is God When It Hurts" by Phillip Yancy and although I was not hurting I thought it would be interesting. So I picked it up and it sat next to my computer until the weeks after Eli was diagnosed and I went home and was going through my bills. I saw the book and realized that it might be able to help me....and BOY has it!!! I am still struggling, but I feel as though I am also "turning a corner".

My Valentine's Day prayer may come true....our counts were down today to 130, but all of his other numbers are up which is really positive. And I am smiling for what feels like the first time in days!!!!!