A Day Off Before the Doozy

     Today was a nice slow-paced day. The kids came to visit Ethen and us in the morning just before lunch. Ethen was ecstatic to see his siblings. He gave Hudson and Mikayla three or four hugs each. After we all played together for a while, Christie and I took the big kids outside to eat lunch and walk the parkway by the hospital. It was great weather and a great day to get outside with our older two.
     Ethen was in good spirits most of the day---he only got upset when mommy would leave his side. I think the day off chemotherapy probably had something to do with his improved demeanor, but I won't write off the visit from family making a positive impact. Tomorrow he'll receive melphalan, which is another drug in the pre-transplant conditioning regimen. We've been told this drug will probably put Ethen over his nausea threshold. Thankfully Ethen will only get this drug for one day. After that he'll get his transplant!
     Please pray Ethen responds well to the therapy tomorrow. Pray he can keep some food down. Ethen's had a bit of a cough; please pray this doesn't develop into anything more significant, especially as he approaches the nadir phase of treatment.