Life Can Change in a Moment

On Thursday, October 16th, at about 6:00 pm, we took our 11 year old into the Instacare.  He had been pale and fatigued.  They took blood work and sent us in a big hurry up to Primary Children's Hospital; which is, so thankfully, just a 20 minute drive for us.  There they did more blood work and had the Oncologist on call come in.  She looked at his blood right there and gave us the diagnosis we were devastated was coming.  Our baby had Leukemia.  Life can change in a moment.

We left our other 4 children in the charge of my parents and aunts, and both my husband and I spent the next 5 days with him in the care of the wonderful doctors and nursing staff at Primary's.  He had Surgery on Friday to instal a port, do a bone marrow aspirate, and do a spinal tap to check for lymphoblasts in his spinal fluid and give him a dose of chemo in his spine.  We got to come home on Wednesday, and life with leukemia has started to settle in a bit.  We have weekly visits to the Cancer and Bone Marrow Clinic for chemo treatments, at least until the 2nd week in November.  We do not know what his road map will be after that yet.  It is an emotional and sometimes very difficult beginning.  He is very tired and his knees and stomach are starting to hurt from the medicines.  He is a champ!  He told me that having courage means that he is sometimes pretty scared of what he needs to do, but that he does it anyway.  Andon is certainly right.  His prognosis is good, we are so grateful for that.  We wait to hear back about the bone marrow aspirate and the chromosomal markers that will help to determine more of what his future course of treatment will be.

We have seen an outpouring of love and concern from everywhere.  On Saturday they told us that he had broken the record for the number of visitors in one day, 25!  His favorite things on earth are probably hugs.  While he was going into surgery, my sister called from California.  At the end of the conversation she told me to give a hug for him.  I said that it would be great if she and her husband were to take a picture hugging each other and email it to me so I could show it to them.  They posted it on Facebook and pretty soon a hashtag -which I don't really get- was set up for him on instagram.  That had so many visits that My sister suggested setting up a community page for him on Facebook.  It is called Hugs for Andon.  He has been getting picture hugs from all over the world and they make a yucky day better for sure.  This has become a real big deal for his oldest sister who has become an administrator on the page.  She had told me about 2 months ago that she felt her future lay in charity and service work.  She said she never feels as complete as when she is doing things that are really meaningful for others.  She has stepped up in an incredible way around the house and with the other members of the family.  Our other children are all reacting in a different way to their lives changing so quickly.

We have had meals brought in, laundry done by members of our ward and family, cleaning helpers (since the house has to be made and kept super clean), gifts, prayers of many faiths, fasting, and letters of encouragement.  It has lifted us and helped to carry us through the beginning of difficult times.