Déjà vu

The feeling of familiarity is not something we’ve experienced much on this cancer journey so far.  Everything has been unfamiliar and new to us.  Until this week.  On Monday Nico was supposed to start week 28 of treatment with his VAC chemo and an overnight hospital stay.  However, (can you guess?) his neutrophil counts were too low.  (Sound familiar?)  “Uh oh, is this going to be thing from now on?”  I push the thought from my mind and try to stay positive that by Friday his counts will have come up and we can get it done.  Today was Friday, and they did come up a tiny bit but not even close enough to where they would need to be to get his treatment.  Our nurse today spoke out-loud the thought I’ve been pushing aside and trying to ignore.  “This will probably be his new normal.  The bone marrow is tired, it just needs extra time to recover.”  Extra time.  Extra time means prolonging our end date.  *Insert-big-long-drawn-out-sigh-here.*  I think I started the countdown too soon.  Nick and I were starting to look forward to being done by the beginning of December.  The thought of being released from the world of cancer and set free to travel, take a much needed vacation and visit family was invigorating.  Most importantly, getting back to our home!  If Nico’s body is requiring an extra week of recovery then our end date will mostly likely be in January.  Ultimately, this is good.  This is good for us.  This is good for me.  Patience is not my strong suit (that’s an understatement.)  So I think back on the various times God’s timing was perfect but I was only able to see that in hindsight.  We are surrendering our timeline and know that at the end there will be a blessing added to my list of how God worked this out for Nico’s ultimate good.  And just to be clear, these delays are totally normal and although exasperating for us the oncology team see it very often at this point in treatment.

We’ve had a nice few weeks otherwise.  Week 27 of treatment was a breeze and last week we had a scheduled break in treatment so Nico has been feeling good which is always a huge blessing and makes our days easier.  We’ve used this time to catch up with practical tasks such as dentist appointments which had been canceled back in January.  V is happy to report that he is cavity free and he really enjoyed his visit to the dentist!

Last week Nico was invited to attend day camp at a local church and the theme was woodworking.  

They let me hang around since Nico has some separation anxiety but thanks to a sweet boy who took him under his wing he got comfortable super quickly.  Looking different and being shy make it hard for Nico to feel comfortable in new situations and around new people- especially children- that don’t understand why he has a tube in his nose.  The stares and questions bother him.  But the beauty of children is that once you explain it to them they move on and are ready to play.  Nick and I are usually close by to field any questions and it’s amazing how little it takes to satisfy their curiosity.  But there was one boy who didn’t ask any questions right away, he just made sure Nico was updated on the task at hand and gave him the run down on what he had missed earlier that day.  It really warmed my momma heart to see this.  Thanks to him, I was able to blend in the background and just be around in case he needed anything.  

We also got to visit the Greater Vancouver Zoo with some friends from Lillooet.  We had passed that zoo a few times and had given it much consideration but when our friends said they were going and asked if we wanted to join them we agreed and we are so glad we did!  We got a membership and are looking forward to going again soon.

Waiting to ride the train!

During the predator birds show. They got really up close and personal!

Enjoying the predator bird show.

We learned that Zebras are not very nice animals.

We also got to go home and visit this past weekend.  It felt great to get to attend our home church in Lillooet at the Better Living Center.  We hadn’t been there since December or January- I can’t even remember!  They have been such an encouragement and support to us.  As well as our community of friends at the school where Nick works.  The school was having their annual picnic to kick off the school year and we were looking forward to attending but it was rainy and cold so we decided to head home early.  We didn’t get to see everyone we had hoped but we will be back to visit again soon hopefully.

Sabbath morning pictures in our front yard.

Taking a quick picture before we head off to church.

Cool as a cucumber during his first cleaning and exam.

He makes it look so easy!

Sneaking in a power nap with our cat Meeka.

Had a fun time swimming at our new friend Ms. Gwen’s house!

My almost 6 month old smiley girl! ❤