A CT scan was needed to see if they could determine where the fevers were coming from.

It’s been a week.

This week was one of the hardest weeks of this entire journey, let alone our lives. The doctors and medical staff have all pointed to this round being the hardest, and they were right. Nothing can fully prepare a parent for the daily struggle and pain of a child enduring the aftereffects of high dose chemotherapy. Nat and I have shared many tears, cried through many prayers, and sat in silence looking upon Murphy’s frail body. Yet, in spite of great hardship, we have seen cause for hope, and been comforted by the many people loving our son.

Over the past week, my work has been incredibly understanding and gracious in their approach to my absence from work, because thankfully they recognise and believe that family comes first.

The week begun with Murphy’s bloodwork numbers plummeting quickly, him becoming neutropenic, and the mucositis increasing in severity. Murphy’s pain level was a daily juggle for the ‘Comfy Kids’ pain team, as well as the careful consideration to the mix of medications for the home team of oncologists. Murphy endured a very long week of crippling pain throughout his body, itchiness that led him to scratch his entire body red raw, and constant fluctuations to his temperature and mood.

A lot can be said of the midnight hour, that time of the day when despair can set in. Murphy’s body has been in fight mode this week, and his sore, tired and drained body has been so pushed to the edge that he has at times been too exhausted to sleep. He’s been erratic, agitated, and frightfully not himself. There was a moment of desperation on Thursday where Murphy’s pain became too much and we were on the verge of going to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), because they can access and administer higher levels of pain medication. This saddened us greatly because by that point our boy was already on a truck load of medications, and knowing he had maxed out on his current pain treatment broke our hearts. There was one sentence that he was able to get out amidst the pain, with great sadness in his voice, “Mum, this is like Gympie pain.” When Nat relayed that to me, it shattered me, not realising how much pain and sickness he had in his body and can remember from last September.

When we hit that point of desperation, God heard and felt our sadness. Nat and I were broken. And in that broken state, we still pressed on reading through passages of the Bible on healing and miracles. God still gave us hope.

We have had a greater finish to the week compared to the start! Our family has ended the week being supported by our wider family and wonderful friends through prayer. A close friend, Lauren, helped to organise some prayer warriors to pray for Murphy in Atlanta, LA and in her house in Nashville. Here in Adelaide a group of faithful prayers prayed at EBC on Friday night, followed by Kristy organising a bunch of family and friends on Saturday morning to gather out the front of the hospital. Some brought banners, balloons and plenty of smiles and waves as they called out in prayer for healing to take place. Murphy looked down from his room with a gentle smile on his face and a heartfelt look of immense gratitude. Across these powerful times of prayer, faith was built up, declarations made, and God’s healing name was called upon. In our hospital room, Nat and I were able to bring that shining light of God’s glory to the entire ward as all the nurses looked out of the window to see the love of some of the MANY who are behind Murphy supporting him (in reading this now, you are part of that many, thank you)! One nurse couldn’t stop looking down to the group, and she repeating to us, “I’ve never seen anything like this before, I have goosebumps it’s that touching.” The same nurse proceeded to look away as she became teary at the thought of people gathering near and far in support of Murphy. Our shining light of love, hope and joy is to be never to be left hidden, but to be presented bright and high, so all can catch a glimpse. And while all of this was happening, my family looked after Hugo and Ted, who had a complete blast at a Camp Quality camp over the weekend!

Here’s a video taken from one of the prayer gatherings… You’ll need to open this from the website to see it.

Today we have seen positive signs in Murphy’s body!

Murphy has signs of improvement in his body. His white cell count has been climbing in the past 2 days, which means there has been some positive action happening within his tiny body! Murphy’s oncologist is expecting that we see him turn a corner in the coming days, and we are hopeful that the prayers of thousands have been heard by our healing God. We declare enough sleepless nights, enough pain, enough suffering in the name of Jesus.