July is over already?

This has been a very busy month for us! Apart from the big scare of relapse with Blake this month has been pleasant and peaceful. We have enjoyed good times with family and are enjoying Blake's energy and Alexia's activity! It is so hard to believe that our little boy is almost 3 years old and our little girl is already crawling and pulling up at only 6 months old! Who would have guessed that children would be so amazing, and so educational. We cherish every moment with each other and with each of our children! It has been such a blessing to grow closer to each other over the past few months. We are fully enjoying life and standing together, supporting each other through all of the challenges life may bring. We are so lucky to have each other and were happy to celebrate 2 years of marriage earlier this month! As Blake nears the final phase of treatment, Maintenance, we are hoping that the treatments will get easier on him and that he will be able to enjoy more of the things that normal 3 year old boys can enjoy! We are very excited for the benefit dinner our friends and family are holding for our family and are also excited for our small family gathering to celebrate Blake's 3rd birthday!

God has blessed us beyond measure and we are just now being able to give back. Blake is an honored hero for a group that does atheletic events to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and he is also being honored at a breakfast to raise funds and blood for the American Red Cross. Both of these foundations have given us the gift of life for our son and we cannot do enough to thank them! If anyone is interested in participating in the run in which Blake is the honored hero let us know and we will try to get you signed up! Also, please donate blood to the American Red Cross!

Thank you and God Bless!

The Parracks

The Latest

Alexia is our mover and shaker! She is up, ready and cheerful in the morning! She is our little happy girl and is soooooo good natured! She loves playing with the big kids and moves around the living room really well! She is starting to pull up on things, it is so cute to watch! She is still somewhat clingy, but will play nicely by herself for quite a while when the time is right!

Low Counts

Blake after we left the hospital, he was asleep before we even got out of the parking garage.

Blake with his favorite Care Partner in the CARES unit. They are very close

Blake enjoying his lei. He wanted us to take pictures of him wearing it

The last picture taken in front of the big torn up leather monster that no longer clutters our living room
Blake has been enjoying his weeks off chemo. We have stayed home mostly our only real trips out are to visit Mama and Papa at their house and on Sundays when we go to church. He had to be at the CARES unit by 6:30 am, so he was very sleepy and slightly grumpy. We don't like the super early mornings, but when we they schedule him for a spinal tap we go without complaint. We have good news and bad news. The good news is that there is absolutely NO sign of any leukemia anywhere in Blake's system. He is still in remission and the blast cells they found were there as a sign that his bone marrow is rebuilding itself and is very healthy. The spinal fluid and bone marrow are both clean, no worries of relapse anymore. Blake's Doctor told Blake that he is not allowed to scare him like that anymore. :)

The bad news is that Blake is delayed on chemo for another week. His counts are low again, so we must wait a little longer. For those who have asked, Blake's counts drop when he gets chemo and also when he undergoes procedures like the bone marrow biopsy. They have nothing to do with his home life, only the medications that he is given to fight the cancer and to keep it from coming back.

We are never happy about delays in treatment, but I think it will be nice for Blake to have a little more relaxing time before he starts getting the massive amounts of chemo again. His Doctor told us that this phase is very similar to the first phase after he was diagnosed, they are just giving one last big blast before they relax the chemo a bit.

Status Update

Blake seems to be doing pretty well now. He is very energetic! He is really enjoying the space in our living room as we FINALLY got rid of the giant torn up leather monster that hogged up all the space in our living room for so long. The results of the bone marrow biopsy were clear, no Leukemia in there. We will find out what the spinal fluid held tomorrow, but it sounds like that was clear of any bad cells as well. They say sometimes a few blast cells sneak through. Those nasty little cells gave us a HUGE scare, but we are so grateful that it was just a scare and nothing more.

Blake goes in to the CARES unit at 6 am tomorrow for another spinal tap, this time they will give him chemo during the spinal tap, then we will head upstairs for more chemo. During this phase of chemo Blake will be in the clinic 4 days a week to get his chemo treatments. They will leave his port accessed during the 4 days, so he doesn't have to be poked constantly. Although we are not looking forward to the 4 days a week at the clinic, we are very relieved that Blake will not have to undergo a bone marrow transplant at this point!

Our strong little boy is doing everything can and he is WINNING this fight so far!

Family Fun

Peek-a-boo

Here are some pictures from our hospital visit. Blake's Dr shaved his head last week at the Saint Baldrick's event. He has been really encouraging. Thanks to everyone for your calls and emails and your support. We really appreciate the prayers and the offers to have your bone marrow typed to see if it matches Blake's! Thank you ALL soo much!!!!!

Not again.....

We are in the midst of a big scare with Blake right now. His routine blood test at CARES showed some blast cells, which may indicate relapse. The Leukemia may be back in his bone marrow, so his Dr did a bone marrow biopsy and a spinal tap, no chemo today. Call or email us for more information.

If Blake does relapse he will have to undergo more intensive chemo and a bone marrow transplant. :( Our world is turning upside down again...

The Good Brother

Blake went to the doctor's office with us for his sister's six month check-up today. He enjoyed seeing his regular doctor (not his oncologist) and all of the nurses there. He played catch and kicked a mickey mouse beach ball around with our friend Lauren. He enjoyed seeing Grandma at her work and even got to throw coins in the water!

Blake helped his sister by holding her hand while she got her shots. He is such a thoughtful big brother! We love that our kids love each other!

Tomorrow is a big day for Blake. He goes to CARES for a spinal tap with chemo. Once he is done in CARES we will head upstairs to the clinic for more chemo and possibly some blood products.

To anyone who wants to help in any way, please donate blood and platelets to the American Red Cross! They have helped Blake a lot and you are never to poor to donate blood!!!!!!!

Alexia's 6 Month Check-up

Pretty Baby

Alexia with her wonderful Doctor

Getting ready for her shots

Blake holding his baby sister's hand

Alexia crying briefly after her shot

All Better

Our little lady went in for her 6 month Check-up today!!! We all got to go together as a family! Blake's counts were good enough that he was able to accompany us! Alexia weighs 19 lbs 6 1/2 oz and is 27 inches long! She is still above the 100th percentile for her age, but she is still wearing 3-6 month clothes!!!! I think she will be moving up to 6-9 month sizes here shortly though! Alexia didn't mind the visit until she had to get her shots. Blake held her hand to help her be strong.

Our doctor gave us a new meal plan for Alexia, which means she will be drinking less breast milk and eating more baby foods! Only 6 more months until Alexia can drink cow's milk, but the breast milk is keeping her strong and giving her a healthy start in life!!!!

Things to come

We have been continuing to take it easy as Blake's steroids wear off. He is regaining his energy and is really enjoying running around the house and playing with Daddy, Alexia and mommy! He has also been playing quite a bit of catch with Aunt April and Uncle Liam!

He is still rather puffy, in fact it seems to have gotten worse even after he stopped taking the steroid. He is a fascinating boy though and he spent the evening on Saturday telling his dad all about the episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse he has watched as a reward for using his big boy potty. He has a great memory and it is nice to see that the Chemo hasn't had much if any effect on him mentally.

Blake will go in to Children's CARES unit on Wednesday for another spinal tap with chemo. Once he recovers from that we will be carted upstairs for more chemo and an explanation of what will happen next during this phase of treatment. Thanks to our friends who are about 4 weeks ahead of us we know that we will be visiting the clinic 4 days a week for chemo. During these weeks the will leave Blake's port accessed even when he goes home, which makes us VERY paraniod about infections, so prayers are really appreciated!

We are very excited that the Benefit being hosted for us at our Church by some of our family and friends has a date and time now! We are trying to help with preparations as much as possible and are SOOOOOO grateful to the many people who are a part of setting it up and the people who are coming! It is so amazing to see how many people care about Blake!!!!

We have also been blessed with new career opportunities in the family and are thankful for this as well. Nothing is set in stone yet, but this could be a HUGE blessing for us!

We thank God for you all often and could not do this without your prayers and support!

The Parracks

6 Months Old

Our big girl Alexia is 6 months old today! It is amazing how quickly she is growing up. She is quite a mover and loves to play with her big brother! She sits still playing for amazingly long amounts of time. She is such a patient girl and has such a great temperment! We are so lucky to have such a wonderful little girl in our lives!

It is hard to believe that 6 short months ago we didn't even know her yet! We cherish every moment with her and are so impressed with all that she has already accomplished!

No More Roids!!!!

As you can see the steroids have really made Blake puff up this week. The first picture is of our last day out at a friend's place. Blake really enjoyed hanging out there, but tired quickly, so we headed home after a short visit.

Since that day we have not gone out other than a walk we did in the morning on Sat and Church and a visit with Great-grandpa on Sunday. Whatever we do, we make sure to leave or not to go if Blake is miserable. We do not want our poor boy to suffer any more than he already has to suffer.

The day at the clinic was a shorter one than expected. Blake was done with chemo quickly and did not need any transfusions. We stayed in the back room for most of the clinic visit because Blake was not feeling up to socializing. He just relaxed in the recliner and watched his shows.

Now that we are home he has napped quite a bit. I hope that his energy levels increase soon. It is very difficult to watch a boy who is not even 3 yet in so much pain that he doesn't even want to get up and play. He is still very good natured though and likes to play games that don't require him to get up and move around too much!

Thank you all for your prayers and moral support!

The Parracks

Clinic Day

We are preparing for another long day at the clinic today. Blake is scheduled to get 3 doses of chemo and may need blood or platelets. We are very unhappy with the way the steroids are effecting him this time around. He doesn't want to move. It breaks our hearts to watch him in so much pain. He has been very sleepy, so we have spent the last few days "hiding out" at home, just recuperating. Today is his last day on the steroids for quite a while, so we are looking forward to his recovery from the side effects.

It is so difficult to watch our baby go through so much, but we know that the cure is better than the disease and that we must continue to do as the doctor says. We are lucky to have a medical staff who genuinely cares about Blake and the rest of our family and who let us know when it is okay for Blake to do things and when it is not. We are so blessed to have such amazing people in our lives who visit to check up on Blake and who pray for him to feel better when he isn't doing so well.

God has blessed us beyond measure and though Blake has his hard times during the treatment, most of the time he behaves as a normal 2 1/2 year old would and seems to enjoy life. He is such a loving, caring, well-behaved boy and we are so glad that God chose to give him to us!

Thank you all for your prayers, we have really needed them during this phase. We still have a few weeks to go during this phase, but we are coming up on maintenance!

Blake's Long Day

Blake had a long day at the clinic today. We went in at 10 am and there were many people there, so there was a bit of a wait to be checked in. Once Blake was checked in he waited a while to have blood drawn for labs. We had to wait a while for labs to come back, so while the chemo only took about 20 minutes to run, we didn't get to leave until after 3 pm.

We enjoyed the clinic today though. Even though we were there for 5 hours it was still fun for Blake to play with all the clinic toys and Alexia enjoyed staring at another baby and playing with her toys on her blanket.

A Parrack 4th of July

The first picture is of us on the 27th of June when we took Blake to see the fireworks show put on by our Church.

We spent the day at Travis' dad and mom's house. We really enjoyed the day. It was by far the chilliest 4th of July, but it was fun and it wasn't too chilly. Travis got to his parents' house early in the morning to start his new smoker. It had to smoke for 4 hours to cure it, so it wouldn't make the meat taste funny. Once it ran for 4 hours he started the ribs. The ribs cooked for 5 1/2 to 6 hours, but they were well worth the wait.

We enjoyed spending time with Travis' parents and sister Ryleigh, along with Travis' brother Tommy and our sister-in-law Val along with their daughter, our niece Taylor! We had a really nice time, very relaxing! Then Rodney showed up! ;) He livened things up a bit for us by bringing fireworks.

We had a very enjoyable 4th of July! The whole family thoroughly enjoyed it!

Blake's Fun 4th of July

Blake was very excited to go see Aunt Ryleigh and Papa Tom and Mama Jodi for the 4th of July! He had so much fun playing basketball outside with Daddy and Papa Tom. He tried putting together a puzzle with Aunt Ryleigh, he danced, he "napped" and he saw his cousin and Aunt and Uncle for a while as well! He enjoyed the day so much that he wanted to go back on the 5th as well!

Papa Tom, Mama Jodi and Aunt Ryleigh hung out with the kids on the 5th while mommy and daddy went to see a movie to celebrate their 2 year anniversary! Blake got to swim with Aunt Ryleigh and he made cakes with Mama Jodi! They finished the day by watching Mary Poppins! What a fun weekend for the kids!

Alexia's First 4th of July

Alexia really seemed to enjoy her first 4th of July. We spent the day at Papa Tom and Mama Jodi's house! Alexia enjoyed watching her big brother play with Aunt Ryleigh and also enjoyed watching her cousin Taylor play a bit! She napped a few times and seemed really interested in the fireworks!

Our Blake

On Tuesday we took a family trip to Cabella's, so daddy could get some things for his smoker! We are really excited for him to make ribs for us! We also enjoyed a relaxing day at home as a family. It is always nice to have an entire day just for us.

Blake is being such a trooper about his steroids. He is such a joy to be around and does not complain about anything at all. He had a pretty long day at the clinic on Wednesday which included an x-ray on his tummy and a dose of chemo. Once we were done at the clinic we went home to rest up and had a nice visit from Brianne. She has been such a blessing to us, not only throughout mommy's life, but she has been there for the kids through everything! It is so uplifting to have her around.

Thursday we enjoyed a play date with Blake's friends Luke, Bo and Vance. They are such sweet boys and are so much fun for Blake to play with. He requested to hang out with them again after they had so much fun at the sprayground (that didn't have any spray) so we set up a play date and he really enjoyed it. They played in the splash pool and enjoyed eating lunch together. It is so nice to see Blake enjoying life and being carefree!

Blake has the next 7 days off of steroids and we are really looking forward to a steroid free 4th of July! We can't wait to spend time with the family and try out Travis' new smoker! We are really excited to taste those smoked ribs!