The Latest on Blake

Tuesday, January 6th 2009

Today was our first day home. Blake slept most of the day with the exception of about 1 hour intervals during which he ate and did not play or move around much. He has not complained of any pain, but the hospital stay sure took a lot out of him.

Wednesday, January 7th 2009

We got to the hospital for Blake's bone marrow biopsy at 7:30 am. The nurses had to access his port in order to draw blood to make sure he had enough blood and platelets to make it through the procedure. He was actually very good about them putting the needle in the port and barely made a fuss at all.

They put him under, which took two doses of the anesthesia since he is such a strong boy. The bone marrow biopsy and the dose of chemo only took half and hour to do. It took Blake about an hour to wake up completely, once he woke up we headed upstairs to the clinic to have some blood work done and to have a few more chemo treatments. He was very good there as well, but put up a little bit of a fight when they took the needle out of his port. He really doesn't like the feeling when the rip the tape off of his sensitive skin. We find out on Friday what the results of the bone marrow biopsy are.

Thursday, January 8th 2009

Today was a bit better for Blake. He ate quite a bit and only threw up a tiny bit once. He is a little fussy, which we expect as a side effect of the steroid that he has to keep taking until next Tuesday. He is still in pretty good spirits and continues to amaze me at how strong and understanding he is during this whole process. It is so wonderful to have a 2-year-old who understands logic.

Friday, January 9th 2009

We went to the clinic to have Blake's blood work done. His white blood cell count is very low, which was expected as the chemo treatment takes a lot out of him. The white blood cell count being low means that Blake will catch anything he comes in contact with because his immune system is non-existent at the moment. His sodium level was also low, so we have to feed him salty foods. We are scheduled to go back in to the clinic on Monday to check his sodium levels.

The great news is that the treatment is working more rapidly than we expected. Blake's bone marrow saturation level was at 100% on Tuesday December 30th and as of Wednesday January 7th it has dropped to a 2%. This is amazing as the doctors did not expect it to get that low that quickly. The prayers are working, please continue to pray!!!!!!

It has broken my heart to have to leave Blake the last 2 days for a few hours in order to attend my classes at ITT. I think it's good for Blake to have a little bit of normalcy in his life right now and he is used to mommy going to class. Still, it is very hard for me to leave him, even for a moment, as I feel my place is by his side, making him feel as comfortable as I can through this rough time.

Thank you again for all your kind words and prayers, they mean the world to us!

The Parracks

Another Update

Friday, January 2nd 2009

Blake felt well enough to play quite a bit. His medications were adjusted, so he didn't have any more nausea or pain. He was almost back to normal with the exception of having an IV attached to his port, which limited his mobility. He had fun in the playroom with his ma-ma Corinne. He also got to go on a few wagon rides.

Saturday, January 3rd 2009

It broke our hearts that Blake had to have another Chemo treatment today. He had two shots in his legs, which made them sore. He was pretty groggy and complained of pain throughout the day. At the end of the day he asked us to put his shoes on him, so he could go home. We let him put his shoes on, but we couldn't take him home. We took him on a few wagon rides around the floor, since that was the most travelling we were allowed to do with him. He didn't let us take his shoes off of him until right before he went to bed. He was a little more fussy than usual, which our Dr. attributed to the steroids. Late in the evening Blake complained of pain in two areas. We had to go downstairs and have an ultrasound done of the first area, the ultrasound showed that it was just filled with fluid from the IV he has been pumped with since the day we arrived at the hospital. They lowered his dosage of fluids and the swelling went right down. He also had to have an x-ray done of his tummy, which showed us that his stool was backed up quite a bit. The antidote was a combination of laxitives.

Sunday, January 4th 2009

The laxitives paid off a bit as Blake was able to have his first stool in 6 days. Allthough it was just a tiny bit, we were happy to see that the laxitives were working. He still complained of pains in his tummy and was not very active. He barely touched his breakfast. He was not very active, but enjoyed watching Curious George with Brianne and Dan. Uncle Mike and Aunt Cheryl also came over. Uncle Mike gave Blake a wonderful haircut (pictured above). We really appreciated them coming to us to give a haircut! Around 7 or so Blake told Grandma that he wanted to sit on his big boy potty (which she brought from her place). He had a huge stool and immediately felt much better. We took him on a wagon ride, 6 laps around our floor! We were all very tired after that and retired to our room.

Monday, January 5th 2009

Today we should get to go home. Blake was feeling well and finished most of his breakfast. Most of the morning was spent cleaning and making sure we had all of our things packed, so we don't forget anything. We are very excited for Blake to be unhooked from his IV! We can't wait for him to be able to move around untethered. I'm sure he will be happy about that as well. Blake is very excited to go home! We have a meeting with our nurse this afternoon at which she will explain to us what we need to do to keep Blake as healthy as possible. Once they make sure we are comfortable with all of our required duties they will send us all home!

We will return to the hospital/clinic on Wednesday for another bone marrow biopsy. Hopefully the saturation of the bad cells will be lower than the 100% it was on Tuesday.

We are also anxiously awaiting the arrival of our cord blood kit, which was so generously donated to us by Desiree's grandparents. It should arrive either Monday or Tuesday at which point we will allow Alexia to be born if she chooses.

We greatly appreciate all the thoughts and prayers and the words of encouragement are much needed at a time like this. Thank you all!

We thank God for helping us through these tough times and for giving us such a wonderful group of family and friends to help us.

The Parracks

Update on Blake

Tuesday, December 30th 2008

Blake was scheduled for an operation at 2:00 pm. We had to keep him from eating, which was hard. He isn't used to us telling him he can't have food. We managed to make it from 7:00 am until about 12:30 without feeding him, at 12:3o they took us all down to put him under for surgery. During his surgery they put a port in his torso, in order to avoid having to poke and prod him every time they need blood or need to give him medicine. They also tested his spinal fluid to check for leukemia and gave him a chemo treatment in that area just to be safe. They also tested his bone marrow to see exactly how saturated it was with the bad cells.

It was really difficult to watch them put him under, but once they took him into the surgery area we were met in the waiting room by a group of family and friends who made it a little easier to handle.

Blake made it through the surgery without any complications. He was very groggy after the surgery and slept quite a bit. He was not hungry or thirsty at all for the rest of the day.

Wednesday, December 31st 2008

We had an appointment with our doctor to find out the progress on Alexia, so we had to leave Blake for the morning. We left around 10:20 am. It was very difficult to leave him. The doctor gave him a dose of chemo while we were gone. He ate a little tiny bit while we were gone also, but he couldn't keep anything down. For the rest of the day he threw up everything he ate or drank. We were really worried that it would be like that for the rest of the time he was on chemo, but the doctor let us know that they would find a medication combination that kept him from being so sick all the time.

Quite a few family members and friends stopped by to see Blake, he really enjoyed seeing everyone and liked the gifts people gave him. He was still in pretty good spirits and enjoyed trying to hit everyone with his Nemo balloon. Blake was still not able to keep any food down when we went to bed at night.

Thursday, January 1st

The morning went pretty well. Blake ate a tiny bit of toast and some cheerios and was able to keep them down. He was doing pretty well until he had to take his medicine. He took all of his medicines very well, but when they gave him the steriod (which we are told tastes like poo) it made him gag and throw up.

The doctor suggested we try giving him the pill form of the steroid. He suggested they crush the pill and hide it in a food he likes. First they tried chocolate pudding, which he took, but it made him throw up right away. We think it may have been a little bit too strong of a taste for him. When we tried vanilla pudding it worked and he hasn't thrown up since. It really seems to be working for him. As seen in the pictures above, he has a pretty healthy appetite. He is still much less energetic than he usually is, but we are just happy he can finally eat!

Blake had a few more visitors throughout the day and enjoyed playing in the playroom. They have to block the playroom off when Blake goes in, in order to make sure the other children do not infect him with any germs they may be carrying.

Latest Alexia News

I don't have the pictures uploaded to my computer yet, but Alexia is a big girl! She measured at 7 lbs 9 oz at our appointment yesterday.

Our doctor wants to induce next week if she hasn't come naturally before then.

Even with all the stress mommy has been going through and the changes in sleep schedule, Alexia is still a super happy and healthy. She still had lots of hair and she is still a girl! She even took the time to flash us a peace sign. We will post pictures as soon as we load them.

Hopefully Alexia waits until she is completely done forming to come out. She is now considered full term.

Learning about Leukemia

Friday, December 26th 2008

Blake went in for a pre-operation check up to make sure he was in good enough condition to have tubes put in his ears. He was a little raspy and the glands all around his face and on the back of his head were swollen. He also had a couple bruises on his legs. We weren’t too alarmed when our NP decided to prescribe antibiotics and breathing treatments to get him better by Monday in order to be ready for surgery on Tuesday. We started medications immediately after his appointment and set a follow up pre-op appointment for 1:15pm on Monday.

Saturday, December 27th 2008

Blake woke up in the morning and we saw a few more bruises on his legs, we were a little worried since Blake really doesn’t bruise easily, but we thought we would just ask our nurse what she thought at our appointment on Monday. His breathing was much better and the medicine she had him on was helping the swelling of his glands go down. By Saturday evening Blake’s legs looked almost like solid bruises and he had little red dots called petachie. We were very concerned about this, so we decided to take him to the Urgent Care Clinic.

The Doctor at the urgent care clinic dismissed our worries about the bruises on his legs as he was more concerned with Blake’s breathing. He did some x-rays and said to continue the treatments that our Nurse prescribed. In order to appease us about the bruises he also sent a suggestion to our nurse to run some blood tests on Blake.

Sunday, December 28th 2008

Blake seemed to be improving. He slept a little more than usual and the bruises seemed to get worse. He also had a few scratch marks around his neck, which indicated that his glands were still bothering him.


Monday, December 29th 2008

I woke up to a phone call from my mom, who works at our Doctor’s office. She informed me that our nurse suggested we take Blake to Children’s Hospital for blood work first thing. We got up and got ready. Travis had to go to work, so I took Blake to Children’s by myself. Blake had his finger pricked and didn’t even fuss or cry. He was very good about it. They let us leave right away, so we headed home.

We had almost arrived home and I was on the phone with Travis when the Doctor’s office called us. Blake’s blood came back with abnormally low levels and they needed us to go back to Children’s to draw the blood from his arm. I was pretty shaken up about it, so I decided to pick my dad up in order to have some moral support.

They ran Blake’s blood through again and a nurse came out of the lab to take us to see a doctor upstairs. She led us from the elevators and I couldn’t help but notice that we were in the Oncology/Hematology section of the hospital. It started to feel like I was having a bad dream. We went into an examination room and a doctor met us almost immediately.

He informed us that Blake had leukemia. He said that there were two different types of leukemia and based on what he had seen he thought Blake had the one that was more easily treatable. At this point it still seemed completely unreal to me. Travis called me to see what the results of the blood test were and I told him. He told me he would leave work and come to the hospital right away.

They admitted Blake to the hospital right away and shortly after Travis arrived they took us to our room. They needed to get a few more blood samples to run more tests and they needed to put an IV in to keep Blake hydrated, so we went to the “torture chamber” where they poked and prodded Blake for over an hour and a half trying to get an IV in and trying to get enough blood to run a test on. Poor little Blake actually fell asleep at one point while they were poking him. He was so exhausted from fighting the needles.

Once the results came back our Doctor came in to tell us the results. By this point Jodi and my mom were with us. The Doctor explained that Blake has Type-B ALL Leukemia. He was very healthy other than the Leukemia and that he was very optimistic about Blake being cured. Thank goodness they actually have a cure for Leukemia now.

They explained to us that Blake is in the most treatable age range with this disease, children over one and under 11 have the best success rate. Blake will have to undergo 3 plus years of Chemotherapy, but hopefully once that is over he will be completely cancer free and he doesn’t run a risk of having it again.

If anyone needs any more information or has any questions about what is going on please feel free to contact me.

God Bless,

Desiree

Trying to arrive early

When editing these pictures I found an orb in the first image. I wonder what it's from!

Alexia is not due to arrive until January 23rd, but she has other ideas. I went into labor at about 11:00pm on Saturday night and they stopped labor early Sunday morning. The Dr put me on medications to stop labor and I must take them every 6 hours, night and day. Since Blake was late, I'm not quite sure how to react to a baby who wants to come early. She is still very active and I love to feel her move around.

Since Alexia was in such a rush to come see us, we had to rush out and buy a few things for her. We found a great bassinet and we found quite a few warm newborn outfits for her.

We have an appointment tomorrow (Thursday the 18th of December) to find out what our plan is. I will post an update once we know!

Little Chef

Our little chef loves to make Christmas cookies! I think he would do it 24/7 if he were able to. Tonight we made green Christmas cookies with the mini cutters we just got! He did all the work, all mommy had to do was put the trays into the oven and take them back out. He is such a great chef! I can't wait to see what other hidden talents this amazing 2 year old boy has.