Last round of IM set to begin

It’s been a weekend of change so I don’t want to let this go unremarked. Wes and I will be heading to the hospital tomorrow morning for his last round of Interim Maintenance chemo; each round of IM (three so far) has been followed by a week or two of recovery… this last round landed us in the ER briefly, but it’s been smooth sailing mostly, including an unexpectedly huge bump in appetite.

For days now, Wes has been eating more or less non-stop, and a huge variety of foods including many he’s never liked before. We are burning through frozen waffles, apples and oranges, even a couple of bananas, and about a bucket’s worth of marinara sauce, every day. Burgers, fries, ice cream, cupcakes, it’s all on the menu.

Heading into this hospitalization knowing baby and mommy are safe and together makes it 100x easier – no rush to get home in time, no leaving her alone pregnant at home without us. Seeing how Wes has taken to being a brother, my only worry is how much he’ll miss her while we’re gone.

UPDATE: Lest I give anyone the wrong impression, this isn’t the end of Wes’ treatment – or even the end of the hard part… this is the end of the third phase, which has been the hardest so far. Next phase, “Delayed Intensification” (DI) is expected to be harder, and will run for about another 2 months+, so we should be done with that in June-ish.

After DI, we’ll move into 2 years of “Long Term Maintenance”, which will be easier in many ways, but also a long, long slog with a lot of steroids that will ocassionally turn him into a hungry, angry roid rager.

Still, things are moving along, and now that Ruth has arrived it makes certain logistical concerns far far easier.