Back to School!

Can you believe school started here on August 5th! Both JT and Sydney started with the rest of Cobb County on a hot Thursday morning last week. Hopefully Sydney will only have a minimal disruption to the start of her sophomore year with the delay in transplant dates. We made the decision to start JT’s 8th grade year at school so he can meet his teachers, pick up his books, get his locker assignment and most importantly re-establish connections with friends that he hasn’t seen since last March.

Tuesday morning, August 10th, both kids go to Egleston to sign the consent forms for the second transplant. Sydney will return to school and JT will remain the rest of the day to begin the radiology simulation. The second transplant will include “whole body” radiation to help the chemo wipe out his immune system entirely. More on that later.

JT will go to school the rest of the week. On Tuesday, August 17th he will be admitted to the transplant unit for the second time this year. On one hand, it’s not quite as scary since we’ve “been there, done that”. On the other hand, we’re scared to death because we know what’s coming. I hope he gets a good room…large and with a view, and not next to the Family Room. Hint Hint!

DAY 0 will be the following Tuesday, August 24th. Sydney will be admitted outpatient, undergo her procedure to extract the bone marrow and return to school when she has healed and feeling up to it. She’s been on iron supplements for the past few months and there is a chance that tomorrow they will prescribe additional medicine to boost her blood counts before the 24th.

Thank you everyone for continuing to check in with us this summer. And thank you for staying with us and praying with us during this next round of our bone marrow adventures.

Please GOD, let JT skate through this one as easily as he did the last with no Graft Versus Host Disease, excellent care from the BMT Physicians (who also allowed us to sleep in before starting their rounds at a decent hour I might add), great medicines for pain and nausea, pretty Nurses and PT’s to keep his spirits up and keep him motivated, excellent teachers to keep him on track and ready to return to Simpson, and Dr. Felner, our favorite Endocrinologist, who recommended the insulin drip from the start (maybe have him be on call more frequently this go around).

Only this time with a successful transplant on the tail end to share with all our wonderful family, friends and “Pray for JT” followers!

See you next week from the trenches - XO Sabrina