Kansas City, Leukemia, and the Elusive Milkshake

Yes, I have slacked off and not posted in a ridiculously long time.  I'm going to use the "pregnancy brain" excuse.  It's legit, so there.

Speaking of pregnancy, I hate it even more than ever before.  I had heartburn almost the entire 9 months!  Let me just tell you how much fun that wasn't.  Getting enough calories was a serious challenge given that eating was painful most of the time.  Evening stomach pain became routine. Ugh.

Zachary James Canova arrived 2 days before his due date on 20 May, 2015 at 8 lbs, 12.2 oz and 22 in long, with blonde hair.  He first 5 or 6 weeks of his life were a blur.  Lots of fussiness, me trying to figure out why, Derek and Benjamin and Daddy adjusting.

We all flew to Kansas City end of June for a Canova family reunion.  Tyler's brother lives there so we all met there.  We had a grand time getting a tour of the Sporting Kansas City stadium, visiting a few Church history sites, swimming, and more.  Our flight home included delayed flights (into late-night and early-morning hours), a sleeping Benjamin peeing on Daddy in the Denver airport, a kind Southwest employee finding our bags for a change of clothes, and Derek having to wake up and walk through airports half asleep.  But, we made it!

A few days after coming home, we celebrated Independence Day (we love you America!) by going on a hike with some cousins.  Derek complained a lot that he was tired and then couldn't make it to the destination (he'd been complaining of fatigue and cold sensitivity a lot over the past 6 weeks-ish).  This is HIGHLY unusual for him.  He was white as a ghost and when he sat down at the furthest point he hiked to his lips were even white.  This kid had been doing cannon balls into the pool 3 days earlier and just finished running around like mad during Spring soccer end of May!  Something was wrong. Tyler carried him back to the car.

Derek already had an appointment with the pediatrician in conjunction with Zac's 2 month check up 2 weeks from that point, but we knew he needed to be seen earlier.  We got him an appointment the following business day (July 6).  One look from the dr. and she knew Derek was severely anemic, but needed labs drawn to figure out why.  A few hours later we knew that his platelets were at 15,000 (normal range 150,000-400,000), and hematocrit at 12 (normal is above 35).  We were sent to Primary Children's Hospital and Derek was admitted immediately.  By the end of the day the doctors were almost 100% sure little Derek had leukemia.  They even let me look at the blood smear- it did NOT look good.

Our lives drastically changed faster than a peregrine falcon spots, catches, and devours its prey (or so it seemed).

The next day we got the official diagnosis of B cell ALL (over a 90% cure rate), then they put a central line in, took a bone marrow aspirate, and put a little chemotherapy into his spinal fluid.  So it was 3 procedures with 1 sedation (that's 3 birds with one stone folks- they throw stones like hobbits around here!).  And in the course of all that Derek was transfused with 1 pack of platelets and 3 units of blood.  He spiked a fever and was put on big-gun antibiotics.  Crazy to think of how much his little 5 year old frame can handle!

The next day (today) the 1st round of chemotherapy was administered, some favorite friends came to visit, and our brains began to process this whole shenanigan a little more.  Our hope is to go home after 4 or 5 days from admission.  The 1st month of treatment will be pretty intense including daily pills at home and weekly outpatient chemotherapy appointments.  Then we will be on treatment cycles with their own time tables (I'll figure out what they are when they're closer).  The grand total for treatments will be 3 years and 3 months.

The cute kid loves chocolate milk shakes and has ordered one almost every meal.  Each time he either is asleep, busy being poked, prodded, the like, or not up to eating.  Another sits untouched as I sit here now.  He's sleeping.

Tyler and I are grateful for such a great support system!  There are so many who want to help and be a part of what's going on.  Prayers are more powerful than I think we give them credit. We have witnessed countless miracles already and can feel extra help and buoyancy from the Lord's grace. 

Let the crazy roller coaster ride begin, even though we didn't know we were in line for it!