Here We Are Again
Well unfortunately we have landed ourselves back in the hospital. Ethan started vomiting last night which continued through until the morning. By 7am his fever was spiking up over our 101 threshold. So we went into the clinic at 9am. They drew a bunch of cultures and gave him IV fluids and anti-nausea medicine. His fever didn’t improve so they decided to admit him to the hospital and start a strong antibiotic. He slept most of the day. It was odd to see him so still… I hadn’t seen him like that since our first hospital stay. We finally got a room at 5pm and since then he has perked up quite a bit. Right now he is playing Angry Birds Space and munching on dinner. We will be here at least until the 24 hour cultures come back and he stays fever...
How We Got Here
I thought it was about time to write out the events that led to Ethan’s diagnosis. Leukemia is a sneaky cancer. It comes on fast and can be fatal within weeks if not diagnosed and treated. Luckily we managed to catch Ethan’s cancer before it got out of hand. Many of his symptoms we remembered retrospectively after knowing more details about leukemia. During the month of January we noticed Ethan was pretty lethargic. We homeschool and he was pretty hard to motivate. He kept lying down on the floor and couch during lessons. He was pale even in his lips. My dad noticed that his bruises were different, more reddish than purple and long lasting. On January 21st we took him in to the walk in clinic because the lymph nodes in his neck were extremely large, so...
A New Beginning
Our “big kahuna” test results came back and they were as good as they could possibly be. The MRD test is 1,000 times more sensitive than simply viewing bone marrow under a microscope. It can detect 1 leukemic cell in a million healthy cells. In Ethan’s bone marrow sample they couldn’t find a single leukemic cell. There are no words to describe how these test results make me feel. I want to take a victory lap like Brandi Chastain at the 1999 FIFA World Cup. My heart feels so full it could explode with the force of a collapsing star. I’m completely and totally overwhelmed with emotion. I just keep repeating to myself “My son is in remission!” and I can’t help but cry and laugh at the same time. The significance of...
Waiting Expectantly
Patience. In some ways this is the primary lesson of parenthood. First there is (sometimes) the waiting to get pregnant, then there is the waiting of nine long months of pregnancy, then there is the patience learned during labor, then comes a lifetime of having your children teach you patience while you try to teach them patience. It seems l’m destined to master another layer of patience as a parent. There is an interesting dichotomy when you are dealing with leukemia. The treatment plan is basically: we must do this now and do it big, there is no time to wait. Yet, somehow, I feel like we are always waiting. Waiting for doctors, waiting for test results, waiting for our turn in the treatment room, waiting for meds to be drawn up, waiting for counts to...
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