Day 160 – August 25, 2022

9:30 pm: We returned to the hospital this morning for Harvey’s last scheduled inpatient stay (for now). This evening, I type these words from the very hospital room that we first occupied on the day Harvey was diagnosed with cancer. Everything has changed since then. The light coming in through our south-facing windows this evening illuminates the couch we sat on when Dr. Miller explained to us that “Harvey’s tests revealed that he has Ph-like b-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.” I started to comprehend those words when he followed up with “the prognosis is poor. I’m very sorry.” I’ll never forget that moment. It was day 11. March 29th, 2022. One of the worst days of my life to be honest. (Post from that day for reference.) Now, our fighter is in remission. What a difference some 149 days later!

I want to share an infographic. It’s a visual roadmap of Harvey’s cancer treatment plan: Where he’s been, where he’s at, and where he’s heading next. Harvey is in remission. (I may just climb to the roof and sing about it, yet!) The chemotherapy is working and, therefore, he has a lot more of it to come to eliminate any chance of cancer returning. Here’s Harvey’s “steposcope.” It steps through Harvey’s treatment plan. Get it? Stethoscope. Steposcope? Ok, anyway…

The main point is that he’ll have ongoing cancer treatments through at least sometime in 2024. Right now, he’s within the last 2 weeks of the interim maintenance 1 stage and will begin delayed intensification 1 in mid-September. He’s receiving high-dose methotrexate right now (hour 7 of 22) and has been fighting nausea side effects this evening. I’m happy to report that it’s otherwise been a very uneventful past two weeks. Harvey has remained at home, comfortable and playing both inside and outside. His ANC (immune system) has been slightly higher and he’s been healthy overall. *Looking over at Harvey* Update: He’s now sleeping. ❤️ Our past 3 hospitalizations had Harvey discharged and back home by late Saturday night. We’re hoping for another quick 3-day, 2-night stay this time, too.

We’ve been home together as a family and healthy. We couldn’t ask for more! Hattie and Henry have been spending as much time as possible outside partaking in water activities. Water balloons. Swimming. Slip n’ slide. Sprinklers. The heat of summer isn’t wasted at the Goldade household! Hattie had the chance to attend a fishing retreat for kids last weekend. She caught 12 fish! If you know someone she hasn’t yet told about it, could you let us know? 🙂 (A big thank you to C.A.S.T. for kids!) The twins are on their 3rd week of first grade and it’s been good for them (and us!) to get back into the school routine. Harvey won’t be attending school in-person this year (hard for us to accept). But we did enroll him in online pre-k and his curriculum arrived on Wednesday via mail. It was nice to see him excited knowing that he’ll still have scholarly responsibilities this school year.

Thank you so much for keeping Harvey and our family in your thoughts and for all the love you’ve shown us. Nothing promotes reflection quite like being in the same room, sitting in the same chair tonight as I did on the very first night of Harvey’s cancer fight. What each new day has brought isn’t nearly as important as who. Our friends. Our family. Our medical care team. Thank you for getting us through the top-most part of the road map above. We wouldn’t have survived 160 days without you!