Today is one of the hard ones.  Alexander is getting his MRI done.  As I sit in the hospital room waiting for him to return, I am thinking about what his radiation oncologist at St. Jude told us.  “You are doing the right thing by considering the side effects of radiation before you consent, but all you’re going to care about in a few months is clean scans.”  He was right.  That’s all I care about right now.  Please let this scan be clean.

Christy ran the St. Jude Marathon this past Saturday.  She completed the race and did a fantastic job, and she had a huge team supporting her and Alexander.  I will not steal her thunder by saying more about it–check out Christy’s Facebook posts on her page and on the AlexanderStrong group.  But it took tremendous physical, mental, and emotional strength to do what she did.  She is very proud of her accomplishment–I’m so unbelievably proud of her.  Oh, and the kids were pretty thrilled to get sweet medals and other swag from the race.

Tomorrow, I will go to a local radio station to tell Alexander’s story as part of a St. Jude fundraising event the radio station is putting on.  I’m excited to talk to the on-air personalities and the St. Jude staff that will be present, and my interview will be recorded and broadcast in the coming days.

Monday we return for Alexander’s fourth round of inpatient chemo.  It’s hard to believe that we’re halfway through the chemo process already.  In just three more months, Alexander will get to ring the bell in the hospital hallway to signify the end of his treatment.  But again, in three months, we will have another MRI, and if this scan is clean, we will feel even more anxious, I’m sure.  Each successive scan will mark an additional length of time during which the cancer might have returned, and so there will be no breathing easy until we get to the five-year mark after diagnosis.