Note of gratitude & Josh’s 3rd round of chemo

It has been several weeks since we’ve shared an update about Josh, and before we say anything else, we want to begin with gratitude. 

With humble and grateful hearts, we want to thank every single person who has surrounded our family with love, prayers, encouragement, meals, financial support, messages, phone calls, check-ins, and countless other acts of kindness. From our family and lifelong friends, to coworkers, church family, and people we may not have even known before this journey began, you have shown up for us in ways we could never have imagined.

We truly cannot put into words what your love and support have meant to our family during these past several months.

Through all of this, God has been teaching us something beautiful: how to receive help. He has been reminding us that we are not walking this road alone and that He has placed a much bigger community of people around us than we ever realized. Your prayers, generosity, encouragement, and presence have been tangible reminders of God’s love and faithfulness to our family.

We are deeply humbled and incredibly grateful.

Our prayer is that our Heavenly Father will bless each and every one of you abundantly for the love you have shown to Josh and to our family. May He return to you the kindness, generosity, and compassion you have so freely given to us.

Thank you for continuing to walk alongside us. We are so very grateful.

Update on Josh

As for Josh, quite a bit has happened since our last update.

He began his third round of chemotherapy on September 2nd.

This round was shorter than the previous ones - only about five days of actual chemotherapy - but it was also significantly more intense, with ten times as much chemo meds packed into that shorter period.

We can tell that three rounds of chemotherapy have taken a toll.

His body is recovering more slowly this time.

At one point, Joshua had an ANC of zero for about 15 days straight. ANC, or Absolute Neutrophil Count, is one of the numbers doctors use to measure the part of his immune system that helps fight infection. A count of zero essentially means that his body had almost no ability to defend itself from infection during that time.

As scary as that sounds, his doctors told us that the deep suppression also tells them that the chemotherapy did what it was supposed to do.

To add to how difficult this round of chemo has been on Josh; school started in the middle of all of this.

Josh really wanted to begin 10th grade taking all of his classes and keeping up as normally as possible. Anyone who knows him knows that he is incredibly determined, and I think a part of him wanted to prove to himself that cancer was not going to take school away from him too.

But between the treatment, exhaustion, appointments, hospital stays, and the simple fact that his body is working incredibly hard just to recover, he eventually had to scale things back.

That has not been easy for him - neither has watching more of the visible effects of chemotherapy appear.

His hair has obviously been gone for some time now, but during this round he also began losing his eyebrows and eyelashes.

That may not sound super worrying, as it is something that was not unexpected, but our heartstrings are definitely getting pulled on as we watch each new physical change - a reminder of what the chemo treatments are doing to him - and his own perception of them - as he has lately been very resistant to being in pictures and having visitors...

Still, Josh continues to handle all of this with strength that surprises and humbles us. Sure, he gets frustrated sometimes, because of course he does - but he keeps moving forward. He jokes. He works on projects. He thinks about school. He talks about the future. 

His body may be tired, but his spirit remains strong.

And for that we thank God.

The goal of this round is a very important one: to get Joshua into complete remission before beginning the bone marrow transplant process.

There have been some encouraging things.

One of the biggest is that Josh has been able to maintain his weight (even though there's some definite loss in muscle mass), which has been a constant concern throughout treatment. He has worked incredibly hard to keep eating even when he does not feel like it, and we are very thankful that his body has held onto the strength and nutrition it needs.

Now we wait for his bone marrow and immune system to rebuild again.

And we pray that it does.

There is also another very big piece of good news:

As of right now, the bone marrow transplant is still on track for late October.

That is definitely something that we've been looking toward for months.

We have another appointment with the Bone Marrow Transplant team on Monday (October 5th), where we should learn more about where things stand, what comes next, and hopefully get some additional clarity about the transplant process and what his (1-3 month) stay at OHSU will look like.

There are still many things that need to fall into place between now and then.

There are still test results to wait for.

There is still recovery that needs to happen.

There are still decisions that need to be made.

And there are still plenty of unknowns.

But if there is one thing God has been teaching our family throughout this entire journey, it is that we do not need to know every step in order to take the next one.

So that is what we are trying to do. One day at a time. One appointment at a time. One prayer at a time.

We have seen God’s fingerprints throughout this journey more times than we can count, and even when we cannot understand what He is doing, we continue to trust that He is here with Josh - and with our entire family.

We feel the prayers and support, and we ask that you please continue praying with us;

Above all, we ask that you continue praying that God’s will for Josh includes His grace, His loving and watchful eyes to remain over our family, His healing hand to continue holding Josh, and that we feel His love surrounding us in our daily life, and hopefully the many years ahead filled with the blessings that we have learned never to take for granted.

Thank you for continuing to carry our little family through your prayers, love, kindness, and support.

We feel it.

And we thank God for you.