Tape

Time for another update. Things are going well around here. Melissa and I still struggle with everything daily but these wonderful kids keep our minds in the present. Tonight was full of more wrestling and a sweaty dance party! Sorry neighbors for both the loud music and having to see an overgrown child "dance" through the windows! Hopefully seeing some cute kids laughing helped balance out the scene.

Last Wednesday was our first chemo appointment. The day was long and that's an understatement. Surprisingly, the part that Isaac did the best on was receiving the chemo drugs. The surgery to put in his port was successful as well! Much to be thankful about!

There were rocky times as well and we'd love your prayers for those. Isaac has developed major anxiety around tape getting pulled off. We have two working theories, one is that he can't really see what's going on with the port and the stuff that's right under his chin. The second is that he sees all these doctors and nurses and parents and grandparents and friends and family fawning and worrying about him but he doesn't really know why and the tape is the only thing he can really grasp. Also, it may just be as simple as it hurts taking that tape off! Whatever the case he absolutely loost it when we were trying to leave and it was terrible. We talked it through, then tried bribes, prizes, TV, hugs and giving him control. We tried everything, and finally after an hour and a half we just had to pin him down and pull out off. He SCREAMED and writhed and it was heartbreaking. Ugh. My stomach is droppimg just thinking about it.

All week we've been working on chipping away at that fear. Over the weekend he didn't even want his shirt coming off for fear of someone being able to get to the tape, but I think we've made some progress. I know there's a lot of people out there that doubt it, but my wife is actually a pretty good mom! And by pretty good I mean AMAZING! She's been so patient talking things through at an appropriate level, getting numerous tape and bandaids put on and pulled off, and comforting our little buddy.

So if you all could pray for Isaac and his fear of tape we'd really appreciate it. Other prayers are for Melissa and I getting some peace and rest in our souls. And for all of us to be able to process Isaac getting the "cancer look" as that will be happening over the next few days.

Lastly, just wanted to express our incredible gratitude to so many of you. We've felt so so so blessed and loved. So many of you have gone out of your way to let us know that you're praying and loving on us. We all don't have the right words in this time so I'll just end it with THANK YOU!