Sam's numbers all look good, and he's doing well overall, so we're heading in for the 4th course of high dose methotrexate tonight. 

This second phase -- something like 2.5 months with 4 courses of methotrexate -- has been a funny mix of challenging & good. It's been pretty unpredictable on any given day what we would be doing, and impossible to put anything on the calendar. The early dose resulted in a ton of nausea that really beat down everyone's spirits (although Sam never really complained at all). But there have been lots of days of something more like "normal life" during this phase, too. 

I mean, after 2.5 years of pandemic and whatever else this global situation is, it's hard to put your finger on what "normal life" even is, but I will say that it's easier to see it once things have been jumbled up kind of beyond recognition like ours have.

So we've all honestly been greedily, covetously, profoundly, grateful for the normal days of schoolwork, soccer, having dinner together, Sam going to (very mediocre!) Paly football games, watching TV together (we're in a pretty weird part of the TV universe at this point, with Alone, Fast & Furious, Forged in Fire keeping our laughs and interest up when we're tethered to home or hospital -- not great TV! But it's our TV).

And the great news for us today is that we can take a pretty normal vacation to Maui next week for Thanksgiving 😀 -- something that seemed like a nice but sorta normal trip when we booked it in the spring, and looked beyond impossible in July & August. We're all just very excited to get back to our tradition of Thanksgiving in Hawaii. And it feels really nice to plan a few activities and meals and to be able to look forward to them. Collaboration with our LPCH team to make it possible has been wonderful.

There's much to be grateful for every year; this year it's all in the most direct, sharpest and most piercingly positive way possible.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, a few days early