A World Turned Upside Down

On Friday 12/17/10, it all began.  Like any normal weekday, I went to pick Everett and Avery up from day care.  Unfortunately, today wasn't going to be like the rest.  When I arrived there was a man from Child Youth Services waiting to talk to me.  I knew what this was about...

A week or two earlier we had started to notice brusing on Everett's legs, arms, and on the top of his head.  Being a two year old, we assumed that he was just clumsy and since he was going to day care full time, we assumed these were normal "2 year old bruises."  As the days went on, more and more appeared but we tried to reassure ourselves that it was just the overly excited kids at day care playing rough.  We had planned to take him to the pediatrician this week for an evaluation.

The man from CYS pulled me aside and asked me what I knew about the bruises.  (As most of you know me, I'd rather set myself on fire than hurt any of my children)  I tried to remain calm so not as to seem like an angry father.  I explained I assumed he was getting the bruises from daycare and that I would never harm my child.  He took my statement and took pictures of Everett.  He told me that we would have to take him to the ER immediately for an evaluation.  Apprehensively, I packed Avery and Everett up, called mom and arranged for Bugga (grandpa) to meet us at the ER.

After getting to the ER we spoke with several doctors, had blood drawn, xrays, and cat scans performed.  Needless to say this took several hours.  After the doctor returned, he informed me that 'something wasn't right with his blood counts' and that we would be on the next ambulance to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.  It was about 11:45 once we hit the road and got to CHP around 1:30AM.  Again we waited.  They took more blood and we waited.  They said they weren't sure but something wasn't right so they wanted to get him into a room for the night and do some additional bloodwork.  It was 4:00AM and we slept for maybe an hour or two before we got the news...

The doctor came in and said that they had gotten some results back from the bloodwork and they had seen evidence of Leukemia.  Anger, fear, and uncertainty set in.  After we had composed ourselves we immediately concerned ourselves with the next step.  More tests would ensue and we learned that there was a possbility of a very long term (6-12 months) treatment with Everett spending 4 out of 5 weeks of the time in the hospital for Chemotherapy and recovery.

As of today, Dec 20th, we are still waiting.  Hours go by and anxiety is increasing.  We were told today that it might be a different kind of Leukemia than what we had originally expected but no word of what and what the prognosis is.

Everett had bonemarrow taken in what was a terrifying procedure.  I'll save the details, but he didn't feel any pain and was asleep during the procedure.  It was one of the scariest moments of our life.

The nurses and doctors are amazed by his strength, willingness, and even eagerness to comply to repeated blood work, blood transfusions, medications and platelet infusions.  He takes needles without tears and is running around playing, giggling, and getting into things unaware of what is happening.

We don't know what to expect, but we continue to wait and hope we can salvage a Christmas for the twins at the hospital at the Ronald McDonald house.  The doctors and nurses have been fantastic and we really couldn't ask for better treatment.

We appreciate all the prayers, e-mails, cards, gifts, texts, etc.  Keep them coming as we search for strength in God for our innocent little man.  I wish we could be as brave as he is.