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Hard to believe, but it has been a year since we found out our little boy had leukemia.

It was on June 23, 2009 that we got initial blood work back indicating leukemia, and it was confirmed on June 25 with a bone marrow aspiration. That moment, the moment of hearing the word “leukemia” will forever be seared in our minds. Without a doubt Adrian has endured a tough year. When you look at the numbers, it boils down to 57 blood tests, 10 blood transfusions, 3 bone marrow aspirations, 15 spinal taps, 1 surgery (to insert port-a-cath), dozens of chemo injections, hundreds of pills, countless doctor appointments and sleepless nights in the hospital. The fear, the helplessness of it all, and the feelings of “Why Adrian?” are still things that we face every day, but in many ways this experience has taught us to be thankful and has given us the ability to appreciate the moments we have with our kids. It has also taught us to not let cancer rule our lives. We have tried to keep our everyday lives as normal as possible, and we’ve been pretty successful at it so far.

June 23, 2010

And, on the bright side, we are almost 1/3 of the way through treatment. One year down, and a slightly over 2 more to go. And to be honest, since AJ started Maintenance, things haven’t been too bad. He is flourishing – he enjoys school, loves drawing, writing and numbers (he is already starting to add and subtract), still loves books and LEGOs, enjoys exploring outside, and has started up with soccer again. We are fortunate that he has had very few side effects from the treatment, so far. Many kids have difficulties with their tendons tightening up (from the vincristine), making running and sometimes walking difficult. AJ has not had this happen. His legs and ankles are still very flexible, and we have not seen any changes in his athletic abilities. Also, many kids experience adverse effects from steroids (dexamethasone is part of the monthly treatment) including extreme moodiness and behavioral problems. AJ fortunately has been able to handle the steroids very well with the only real side effect being that his appetite increases slightly when he is taking them. Some kids experience learning disabilities (from the methotrexate). We have not seen any effect on AJ’s ability to learn, and in fact he is smart for his age – though issues can arise down the road and is something for us to keep an eye on. Long-term, we remain optimistic that AJ will come out of this experience relatively unscathed, as long as the leukemia doesn’t come back, and there’s a 90% chance that it will not. Only time will tell. The more time passes, the less likely a relapse becomes.

AJ’s most recent check-up at Children’s (last week) went smoothly. His blood counts all look good, and with his ANC still strong (1974), the doctor raised his dose of mercaptopurine again. AJ’s hair has grown back nicely, and we even had to give him a haircut a couple weeks ago! Both he and Camille have been enjoying the summer so far, although the summer is a little slow to get started here. We are looking forward to some warmer temperatures for sure. Both kids remain in preschool/pre-K during the summer for 3 days a week, then in September AJ will start kindergarten at Puesta del Sol elementary. In the meantime, we don’t have any huge summer plans – we are just looking forward to having a nice, relaxing couple months much unlike last summer. We’ll continue to keep everyone posted on progress, and keep the prayers coming our way. Only 26 more months of treatment left.