November 28, 2012

One year ago today we received the mind-numbing news that our son has leukemia. We are so proud of him for how he has handled his treatment thus far and profoundly thankful to God for the same.

Our rosy-cheeked munchkin, enjoying the snow he's been anticipating since July.

One year down, two years and seven months to go.

November 1, 2012

It's been a busy month! After SD's 6-day stay in ICU, we returned home on Tuesday the 16th for a few days until his follow-up checkup in Grand Rapids on Monday the 22nd. Then Grandma Cleary watched the kiddos while Stephen and Mandy went to the Stratford Festival in Canada. As soon as we got back, both the kids and Stephen got sick (mild fevers, coughs, sore throats, and runny noses!) and we spent the next week closeted at home.

SD has been getting a little better the last couple of days, but we still weren't sure if he would get his regularly-scheduled spinal tap this morning. He still had a regular cough, his lungs weren't clear, and his bottom was still quite sore from his ulcer.

While we waited to hear about his counts and whether his lungs were healthy enough for sedation, the cap on SD's line fell off. This resulted in his needing to be re-accessed. They took a culture and put him on an antibiotic to protect him in case anything got in the line. Not a fun start to the day, but SD took it well, considering that he'd had a hollow needle stuck in him about twenty minutes before and was just settling in when he had to get all the tape ripped off his chest and start over again.

The doctor decided to leave the decision whether to sedate SD up to the sedation techs. Since a spinal tap is such a quick procedure they went ahead with it. We were pleased that this wasn't a wasted trip!