Yesterday was definitely a tough one for me. After his MRI we went back to the room and had a real roller coaster of an afternoon. At one point they were considering putting Eli back into the PICU for observation (which I was in favor of), but things settled down and we stayed on 7B. We had an incredible nurse, Nikki, who was incidently one of Brady Quick's nurses when he was here. She basically spent the entire afternoon with us in the room, which was a comfort. John came here in the afternoon, and I went home last night and slept in my bed.

The rash looks a little better today, but he is swollen. It has gotten worse during the morning, but they think he may just be retaining fluids because his genital area is so swollen he doesn't want to pee. They are going to put in a catheter while they are doing his spinal tap and bone aspirate and that should help. We still don't know the cause of all of this, so it is a wait and see.

On a good note, we got the results back from the MRI and and they were positive. The lesions have not gone completely away, but they are smaller. This was good news. We also got the test results back from the genetic testing, and although they showed the extra chromosome which is good, the doc said it also showed lots of broken chromosomes, which may be a problem. Apparently there is some syndrome that causes chromosomes to be extra fragile. If we have the syndrome, it means all of the chromosomes are fragile, not just the leukemia ones and we may have to adjust the treatment accordingly because he wouldn't be able to tolerate the chemo as well as someone without the syndrome. She said it is rare that someone has the syndrome, but they will send blood on Monday.

I got a call this morning from a friend of my mom's who had given blood/platelets for a friend's child before, and she said that the doctor can give a number that you can take to the West Ashley Red Cross and they will put the blood in Eli's name. I asked the doc about it and she said she would give me what I need. I will let ya'll know as soon as I get it. I know many people have asked about giving blood or platelets and I am sorry I haven't gotten back to you. One thing this experience has taught me is how inportant it is to give blood whenever you can.

I am reading a book ,Where is God When It Hurts, to try to help me understand all of this in my life and in the larger picture and although I have not finished it one quote stands out so far that I am thinking about a lot: "many Bible passages show that some things are more awful to God than the pain of his children....Do these show God's lack of compassion? Or do they, rather, demonstrate that some things are more important to God than a suffering-free life for even his most loyal followers?" I am giving it lots of thought, and I will finish the book.

For my "group", sorry I missed last night. I will definitely be at the next one.

Thanks again for all of your uplifting comments and prayers. Again, you are giving me strength daily.