Friends, I am so sorry we have been slacking on keeping you updated on Alex.

Last Update: October 21, 2020 we were getting ready to begin round 1 of outpatient chemo treatment (Arsenic). 

Update: Alex began round 1 of her chemo treatment via her port on October 26. She is able to have these at the Phoebe Oncology/Hematology office in Americus. That is such a blessing for us all. She also began the oral chemo (Tretinoin) on the same day. She received the Arsenic Monday-Friday for 2 weeks. The treatment appointments are about 4 hours each. The first week really wore her out. She was struggling with really bad headaches, blurry vision, and some nausea. Week 2 we swapped the appointment time from morning to afternoon. This seemed to make a huge difference with how Alex felt. Still not 100%, but much better than week one. She finished the round of both the Arsenic and Tretinoin on November 6. 

She was then able to enjoy a nice 3 week break. The treatments will usually be 2 weeks on 2 weeks off, but due to Thanksgiving week, they gave her an extra week off! We were extremely grateful for this, as we traveled to "our happy place", Amelia Island, for Thanksgiving week. Her parents both tested negative for COVID, and they were able to join us to celebrate. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, and the weather at Amelia was absolutely perfect. We were so thankful to just be celebrating Thanksgiving this year! We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Alex began round 2 of the Arsenic and Tretinoin yesterday, Monday, November 30. She will follow the same protocol as round one, finishing round 2 on December 12. She will then have 3 weeks off again due to Christmas and the new year. She will complete 2 more rounds after this round, which means she will hopefully finish treatment about the middle of February. The next part of her consolidation phase will be determined by her labs after she has completed the 4 rounds of the chemo treatments. 

We apologize for our lack of keeping you all updated. I have been busy with work and year end things, and Alex has been keeping herself busy by launching her personal blog site. She has turned her diagnosis of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL) into quite the positive. Her blog site is called A Positive Lifestyle (APL) - Life over Leukemia. She would love for you all to check it out! It is about the daily toxins we are exposed to, and how we can decrease them from our lives. She is very passionate about this, and has been doing a lot of reading and research. In her research, she read a statistic that about 90% of all cancers are due to our environment where we live.  She has already changed a lot of products in our house (and even though I give her grief sometimes, I am happy to be learning with her) - from our household cleaning products, laundry detergent, soaps and shampoos, to our bug spray. Click this link to check out her blog site
APL - apositivelifestyle

As always, we appreciate all of your continued support, encouragement and love! Alex loves all the cards and surprises people have sent us! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! We hope you are all ready for some holiday cheer!

Much love and God bless,

Wes and Alex