June 2, 2024

Liam's Status

Yesterday he was not eating or drinking. He was still running a fever. The bacterial infections seemed to be dominating. This morning, he took a turn for the better. His white blood cell count was down (good) and some new baby cells were being produced by his body (very good). He has been eating throughout the day, went on a little outing in the hallway, he is largely fever free, and the mass on his neck has decreased in size. Overall the doctors are impressed with where he is at physically. We believe this is because of your prayers. Thank you.

Chemotherapy begins tomorrow (June 3) afternoon PST. According to the doctors, the goal is to get Liam down to 0.01% (or something like that) leukemia cells in the first month of treatment. After that, if all goes well, treatment will continue for about 6 months following an average of 9 months of maintenance. Obviously, this is all dependent on therapy going well. Ongoing therapy is necessary to rid Liam's body of any remaining leukemia cells. 

The scariest part about tomorrow for Liam is, honesty, going to be nausea. He has zero context for what the doctors are injecting into him. So that isn't disturbing. What would be is throwing up (which, from what we heard, almost all kids do, regardless of the anti-nausea meds). In general though, it's been the small adjustments for him that have been the hardest. He wants to go home. He doesn't like the hospital shower. The toilet is different. He has wires and IVs sticking out of his body. His urine will be toxic due to chemotherapy. Sorry of this is TMI, but it's what he and we are facing. These sorts of things are causing him the most discomfort.

Thank You

The amount of support, prayers, messages, financial help, we've received even since yesterday is utterly overwhelming (in a good way). Whole churches are praying for us. Friends are organizing donor web pages. Our church is rallying to prepare meals. Thank you for bearing this burden with us.

How to Pray

• Pray for chemotherapy to kill the leukemia cells quickly

• Pray for healing

• Pray Liam would experience little to no nausea 

• Pray for wisdom for doctors

• Pray we can help Liam adjust to the small things

• Pray for patience for Emily and I

• Pray for our adjustment - it's hard to keep up. Everything is moving so fast. It feels like we can't keep up with Lily and Jack or normal life things.