You People Rock!

Only one day in and we've gotten a wonderful response on our fundraising efforts and we here at blog central can't thank everyone who donated enough. We've received amounts from $5 to $500 and every single one is appreciated more than you know. RJ is going to have to learn to accept help from other people. This is a kid who, when a bunch of friends are being taken out to ice cream will claim he is full because he doesn't want that parent spending money on him. We at blog central know that it is an honor to be able to help out any way we can.

It's been a day of ups and downs on the front. We were on location last night in the ICU and RJ was looking much better. They had lifted his sedation and he was conscious again, although the agitation and fear that had been hanging around several days before wasn't nearly as bad. They changed out the ventilator to the one he was using before and his lungs look to be making progress. He still really wants people around, and in addition to the nurses and visitors, there is now a medical 'minder' that sits with him to make sure he doesn't pull out the breathing tube or any of the other tubes running over and through him.

In a good news/bad news situation, the doctors feel that RJ is stable enough for the next round of chemo tomorrow but that it will likely make his condition even more critical. The tumors in Burkitt's lymphoma can double in size every day so they need to be hit hard with very toxic chemo which will likely make him very sick again. Such a double edge sword. It's hard to hear all of the things that could go wrong in the next few days - we just have to wait and see which of them come true.

Hold on tight and send your best thoughts - it's going to be a bumpy ride.