(As adapted from a FB update)
We’re here all morning & I’m so grateful for the relative ease the Cowell Cancer Center offers to stay local for Forrest’s monthly treatment. He clings to me & tries valiantly to stifle his cries as they access him... no lidocaine on these days as they have to know if the chemo is “burning” the vein. It takes two attempts to access & he holds his arm still as a statue though his cries get louder & little beads of sweat break out on his brow. He’s a freaking warrior & then recovers quickly back to his carefree, impish self ...
Today also starts another round of high dose steroids... an immunosuppressant & Leukemia inhibitor as it fights any latent cells from an angle different than the many chemos coursing through his system.
On other mornings, it’s almost easy to pretend Forrest isn’t still fighting the devil that is cancer. He is tall & strong, goofy & a total towhead. So many ppl lately have been commenting on how grown up & mature he is. And it’s true. The difference in the past year has been astounding.
This time last year we were on the beach with friends. Forrest was on the towel with me & I was, inevitably, stroking his hair. It had grown back over the last few months: course & wiry, kinda curly & a smidge darker. We were in the midst of a phase called “Delayed Intensification.” It was everything the name implied... The doctors told us he would lose his hair again, but week after week passed & still it was there. I thought maybe they were wrong. Maybe Forrest had defied the odds. Again. Maybe all the hard was over.
I looked down, sitting there on a pristine beach in this heaven we get to call home & realized my hand was covered in his hair. Course, blond, wiry hair coming out by the handful. My heart fell. The hard definitely wasn’t over.
That was a full year ago. So much progress has been made toward a clean bill of health. Forrest’s hair is back to stay and though chemo will continue for nearly 2 more years, his body grows stronger, bigger. Chemo has become second nature & the cancer journey—dare I say, easier. The team at both DeVos and Cowell are simply incredible. We know this journey could have been different...We are grateful. ❤️