There really can be too much of a good thing

Live and learn. After a trip to the doc on Friday, Team Taylor were chastised a bit for being a bit too free and easy with the pasta, the chips, the cheddar cheese snacks, etc.. Our Hero actually ended up gained four pounds in a week. Although we all love JoJo, there can be too much of a good thing too fast. But none of us should be to tough on each other about this - after all, they neglected to hand Mom and Dad the fully detailed manual for this stuff. But that said, the focus will now be on disciplined diets (including Mom building a fruit and vegatable stand that would rival Pike Place Market) - 3 meals a day and only 3 snacks. Salt has already been eliminated along with sweets (which Joe cut out of his own diet - completely on his own because he thought it was making his tummy big. But now we know that that was most likely due to his spleen beginning to swell due to the illness.) Knowing is half the battle and Team Taylor is on the job, this will get rectified quickly. Live and learn.

Joe had a good week hanging with Mom and Yiayia - creating art, doing puzzles, reading books and honing his negotiating skills when it came to discussions of food. He is a real renaissance man this Joseph. The good week was punctuated by a good, fairly easy and quick (albeit not quick enough for Joe) trip to the doctor.

Friday night Aunt Kristi and cousin Nick came by for some entertainment and babysitting - definitely the highlight of the week for our Hero. Ever the understanding one, JoJo was ok with not being able to attend big brother Paul's 7th birthday party. But Paulie, ever the magnanimous big brother, decided to open his gifts at home so JoJo could watch. Team Taylor was also excited to have Paul's Godfather, cousin "Paul" up from Petaluma for Paul's birthday.

Now that we have learned that Joseph is a rapid responder and that there are no bad chromosomes (very good news,) Team Taylor will be really hitting the books so to speak by digging into the Clinical trial papers to understand and best educate themselves in order to make the best decisions for which course of treatment will be the best for our Hero.

There are four arms to the "Standard Risk B-precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia" and each arm is a random allocaton for each patient participating in the Clinical trial. The standard form of treatment has a 85% cure rate with no recurrance is one of the arms but what the Clinical trial is trying to accomplish is increasing that to a 98% cure rate by using more of the smae medications used to treat the Standard Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Understanding all of this is important in order to make the big decision of whether to participate after Joe is put into an arm as there is a bit of risk in more medicines and more treatments as it could put him at risk for more infections, side effects and hospital stays.

So here is where all of us Team Taylor members come in, if anyone has direct knowledge or know of people that do have knowledge or experience with this disease and these types of treatments - please let Angie and/or Kevin know. Time to help arm Team Taylor with some knowledge!

As always, keep the prayers and positive thoughts and vibes coming!

Stay tuned...