Even Heroes have tough days...

After riding an extended streak of relatively incident-free days, our Hero hit a little bump in the road when late last week he woke with a bit of a fever. Admittedly the bump was a bit more significant for Mom and Dad as this has been the first fever Joe has run since the start of his journey. The fever was on and off so not too terribly troublesome but to be on the safe side JoJo spent the day/night in the hospital on Friday where he slept almost all the way from 2pm to 9am Saturday morning. Joe's roomate was an 11 year old boy with a brain tumor who was very sick so needless to say, Team Taylor left with renewed perspective and an odd feeling of gratitude that Joe's illness is being treated and he continues to respond well.

The remainder of the weekend was spent in the friendly confines of Taylor manor, relaxing on the couch, snoozing and watching movies. Sunday and Monday also involved a couple of more trips to the hospital for Cytarabine treatments but now there is a break before it's back for a spinal and more Cytarabine on Friday - and Cytarabine daily for the 3 days after that as well. A Hero's work is never done.

Speaking of responding, Joseph had his first case of vomiting after his treatment of both IV Cytarabine and Cyclophosomide. After which he very quickly notified Mom that Dad will need to be getting him a new Xbox game for his efforts. Can't argue that logic.

Joe's fever continues to come and go but the doctors aren't too terribly concerned because his daily tests have shown that the fever is not bacterial and it appears that the fever may be just a bit of a reaction to the Cytarabine which does have a history of having some "flu-like symptoms" that serve as side-effects. Team Taylor is treating our Hero with Tylenol every 4-6 hours, alternating it with the nausea medication.

There is a break on the horizon though, as Joe will get to be free of the treatment (minus the Friday spinal sedation Mothotrexate treatment) from 12/11 to 12/28. Happy Holidays indeed! An additional piece of good news, as of Sunday JoJo is off the steriods and it has resulted in a 75% reduction to his stomach and he's lost 1.5lbs.

While Mom crosses the dayst of treatment off the calendar, keep the prayers coming that Joe doesn't suffer much with the nausea, fever, etc.. Although he still isn't much for complaining or whining, sometimes Joe's placid silence can be just as deafening. All are used to seeing our Hero flying around with his cape flapping behind him, it's not a fun or easy thing to see him dragging a bit so say an extra prayer and send extra positive vibes to Team Taylor.

Stay tuned...