Jack just finished up the first part of Course 4 last week. He has a few days' break before starting treatment again on May 6. It will be a pretty intense set of chemo that will take him through June 7 and to the next bone marrow biopsy. He'll have about 7 different kinds of chemo. It is a mix of infusions, pills, shots and two lumbar injections (LPs). They call this course "delayed intensification" for a reason. 😞 Praying he handles it all as well as he has up to this point. Here is his full schedule with dates. I know a lot of you like to pray for him on those days particularly. ❤️ He's decided it is time once again to shave his head or at least buzz it down. He knew he'd lose his hair again, and is starting to a teeny bit and wants to just go ahead and deal with it. Just in time for summer. 😁

He's been feeling good, although he did have to contend with a mild cold a couple of weeks ago and some irritability due to steroids he's on (that bothers us more than him though LOL).

He's been able to get out and see friends more lately. His numbers have dipped a bit but with the weather being nice, he can do things outside. He even got a mini-vacation earlier this month when our friend had an empty apartment and let him stay there for few nights. It was good for him to have some time and space to himself for a little bit.

Yesterday, he had a visit with a cardiologist who works with oncology patients to talk about the heart racing Jack had last month. Everything looks good and the doctor doesn't see anything concerning. A lot of these chemo treatments just affect the body in so many different ways and he sees elevated heart rates with chemo. Then add some stress or anxiety, and other factors like dehydration, too much caffeine, not enough rest...not uncommon to see heart irregularities. He wore an at-home monitor for awhile and has not had any more issues, thankfully. They put him on a very mild, low dose beta-blocker (blood pressure med) that will help prevent any more incidents. He'll have a follow up prior to his transplant, then another after he is off chemo for awhile just to triple-check that there aren't any underlying non-cancer issues or damage to the heart due to chemo. The doctor doesn't anticipate there will be, as Jack's doses aren't at the level of concern for that. But we appreciate the thoroughness of all the caregivers we've seen at Emory regarding Jack's long-term health and care.

Thank you all for your kindness. Meals, cards, Walker Wednesdays mean so much and break up the monotony. ❤️ We are seven months into this and knowing we still have so many people supporting us is uplifting.