The beginning of the end of the battle...

Last week was Jarod's seventh total week of chemo and his 3rd long week consisting of 5, 6 hour days. He did well on Monday and Tuesday.. but as I mentioned in my last post Wednesday was a bad day... he felt horrible pretty much the rest of the week. Cleo his Dad came up to sit with him on Friday and our great friends Chad, James and Jon Newman came into town from Asheville to help me out.

James got to our house just before Jarod got home from the hospital he took care of him and the dogs (Georgia and Sampson) until I got home from work it was really nice for Cleo to get home before traffic hit and for me to know there was someone there. He went to bed early Friday and I also went to sleep fairly early sleeping very well knowing there was someone else in the house. Saturday Jarod even made it out to the pool for 3 hours!!We had lunch he spent some time in the shade but he did REALLY well. After dinner he started feeling bad and got back in to bed.

Saturday evening on he's been pretty sick. Monday we went back for his 8th week - just the bleo he felt good enough to eat some real food so we had a nice lunch and dinner but he was extremely achy both Monday, Tuesday and Today. His body hurts and the chemo that is in his veins makes him feel like he is on fire at times. He is very exhausted and trying really hard to fight the side effects that's he's experiencing. They drew his levels for the tumor markers and we got them back the AFP is at 4.7 and the HCG is less than 2.

This mean technically he is in the normal range and the tumors are gone. Our doctor needs to consult with Lance Armstrong's doctor who developed the treatment plan before he gives us the green light on everything but... it looks like next Monday will be Jarod's last day of chemo! We are EXTREMELY excited. Yesterday was a big day to get those levels into the normal range.

We won't know until late this week or early next what this exactly means, as far as being in remission, protocol for moving forward, all we know is that from what we have been told thus far these levels indicate that more than likely next week is week 9 and it appears 9 weeks will do it! No need for 12!

We will keep you posted as we find out more but we believe this is the beginning of the end of this battle!

Thanks to all of you who have called, sent gifts, cards, notes and emails it is very much appriciated. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we continue to finish up the treatment, under go surgery to remove the portocath, and begin the slow process of recovering and redisgning our lives to move forward.

Love,
Lindsey & Jarod