This update is a few weeks overdue - we had it all typed out, and then a technical glitch erased it before it was uploaded. Anyways, here we go:

Liam has had enough! Although he is not suffering from too many of the possible, awful side effects of the chemotherapy, he's done with it - unfortunately the protocol doesn't agree, so Liam tried to put his argumentative skills to good use with the doctors, reasoning that if Jeff the Jerk shrank by 90% (we've outsourced the calculations to confirm ours) after 2 rounds of chemo, chances are it will be completely gone after round 3. Therefore, it would make sense having an MRI after round 3, instead of waiting until after round 4, because, as his argument goes, if an MRI now shows no sign of Jeff, then surely round 4 can be skipped. Unfortunately Liam was up against the best of the best in the 'cannot' game - 'the protocol must be followed' and the all-winning counterargument of 'we don't do that' lost us the debate. That said, the doctors did have some good reasons not to skip the final round of chemo, for example that the MRI may show no more tumour, but that doesn't necessarily mean that tiny cancer cells aren't there, flowing around freely, only that they can't be picked up by the scanner, and if that were the case, it could have terrible consequences if round 4 was skipped, allowing the cells to grow back.

At times it can be difficult to comprehend how serious this all is. Liam is happy, albeit bored, and if it wasn't for the bald, scarred head and the tube sticking out of his chest, you wouldn't know he's sick. Yes, he is nauseous during and just after chemo, loses his appetite for a few days, and generally feels more tired and weaker (no push-ups!), but it's nothing compared to some of the poor children in the ward. We get to go home every evening and have only spent one night in the oncology ward, right in the beginning, and then only because we didn't know how Liam would react to the treatment, and wanted to be close, just in case. Liam's constantly joking with the nurses, calling them vampires for stealing his blood, covering their fangs with their face masks! Most of them laugh and go along with it, but the older ones don't quite get Liam's wicked sense of humour. We don't feel like we're living with a sick child. But then the doctors point out that although Liam is responding extremely well to the treatment, the tumour is still of a significant size, and the whole situation is still dangerous, hence the no go on skipping round 4. Even though we know that we're nowhere near out of the woods, that midway scan gave us a sense of 'we'll be fine'. And we're sure it all will be OK, but every now and then we realise what exactly it is we're in the middle of, and that can throw anyone off course.

Liam himself pinpoints it - cancer is bad, but it's not all bad. We have had some pretty spectacular things happening these last months; just plain incredible things people have done for Liam and us as a family. There was the school push up challenge, which was awesome! Then there was the team of people (you know who you are!) trying their darnedest to arrange a meeting with Liam's greatest idol - you know it! Dwayne the Rock Johnson. That unfortunately was mission impossible, but we did get a very special something from this, which we will cherish forever (we have been sworn to secrecy by DJ's PR team, and can't reveal any more here, but let's just say that if we didn't think he was awesome before he visited Hong Kong, we do now!). And of course, there are all of you who continue to support us in every way possible, which we are unbelievably grateful for. If it wasn't for cancer, none of these things would have happened.

So, here we are, 3 rounds down, last round knocking on the door, just 2.5 months after we had that first fateful, precautionary MRI.