First off, Jackson is doing great, although for at least another five to eight months his immune system will still be compromised.  He has not gone this long without chemo since this all began.  It’s like his body is thinking, “Say, this feels pretty good.” His mood has improved, his speech is improving, and he just seems happier.  After months of only drinking water, he’s finally drinking milk and apple juice.  His appetite is in full force now, too, but his taste buds are only slowly coming around so finding the right foods is tough, but manageable.

After going under anesthesia late last week for a CT scan, we packed up and spent a little bit of time back home in Sacramento this weekend.   The weather was great and Jack and Wyatt had a good time.  Jackson even got to go out and watch Kathryn Kane's team win 8-2 in their soccer game on Saturday.  In the past, Kathryn and her sister, Audrey, have made some great artwork for Jackson to decorate his room whenever Jack is admitted to the hospital.  Since they support him so much, we felt Jack should go support Kathryn at her game.  O.K., mainly he sat in his stroller and ate eggs, and I'm not entirely sure he even knew there was a soccer game even taking place...but it was the thought that counted and it was good for him to get out in the world and see that there are other children in it!   That evening, Keri and I spent our 5th wedding anniversary in our real home, eating a homemade lasagna dinner made by our neighbors Craig and Jen.  Thanks guys!  It was great and it couldn’t have come on a better day (since we had only been in town for a short time, hadn’t been to the grocery store yet, and we only had our “Jack food” with us that we brought from SF.)  By the way, folks, you know it's gonna be good when someone hands you lasagna and asks, “You’re not a vegetarian are you?”     

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This Tuesday afternoon, Jackson will begin the next phase of his treatment in San Francisco, at UCSF--radiation.  It's the part we were trying to avoid, but knew actually avoiding it was unlikely.  As some of you may know, for a while now we thought there was a pretty good chance that we would have been traveling to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for Jackson’s radiation treatments.  We have consulted with them for months, Jackson is already a registered patient there, and we had even already secured housing near the hospital in Boston in preparation for the potential journey.  However, for a number of reasons, Jackson will continue with this portion of the treatment here at UCSF.  So now the mystery of where we will be for the next few months is over.    

Jack will be receiving daily IMRT (intensity modulated radiation) treatments designed to stop the cancer cells from dividing and growing… and hopefully to outright kill them.  He will have treatment every day, except holidays and weekends.  

He’ll have a lot of treatments…but he’ll never actually be able to tell anyone about them.  Just before they start each day, he’ll be placed under anesthesia to ensure he remains completely motionless during the procedures.  At some point, he’ll probably start wondering why he keeps going to the hospital five days a week and then waking up just in time to go back to the apartment.  

Sounds easy, right?  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that because of the anesthesia he can’t eat anything after midnight the night before.  It’s called “NPO” for any medical term junkies like my wife out there.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he can’t drink milk after midnight either.  Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that a good portion of his treatments couldn’t be scheduled until the mid-afternoon of the following day!  The worst part is he just got his appetite back!  It’s not going to be fun getting a three-year old who just got his appetite back to skip all foods until the afternoon so often.  I’m betting he’ll start to get pretty testy pretty quick.      

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This picture isn’t that recent, but we like it, and we’ve been so busy we don’t have any new ones.  Plus it’s good to give The Wy-Man some pub, too.  Thank you for keeping up with us and for supporting Jackson!!