Wow, another year has come and gone. June 25th marked the 2-year anniversary of AJ’s leukemia diagnosis. The date brought mixed emotions. A sad reminder of the day our lives would be forever changed, and the reality of all that AJ has endured over the last two years. On the flip side, there’s a wonderful feeling of accomplishment, knowing that AJ has made it this far – knowing that two years are behind us, and now we’re down to the last 12 months of treatment. I guess we can see the glass half empty or the glass half full, and at this stage we are seeing the glass half full.
On the treatment side, we haven’t had any recent setbacks. AJ was admitted to the hospital for a few days right after Easter for a fever, which thankfully turned out to be just a virus. It did wipe out his blood counts for a couple weeks so his chemo had to be temporarily stopped. However, once we restarted the chemo, his counts seem to have stabilized and in fact we are back in the mode of increasing chemo doses because the counts are looking good. We just had another checkup at Children’s earlier this week, and we don’t have to go back until early September. Woo-hoo!
We’ve had a great summer so far. Well, weather-wise the summer has not be great (very late start to summer here), but we are making the most of it. AJ had his kindergarten graduation in June, and actually misses being in school. The kids are both doing soccer on Saturdays and loving it. They are also enjoying having their Grammie and Bapa (Brian’s parents) so close, as they now live on Vashon Island. It’s been great having family nearby.
We were able to spend the 4th of July holiday up in Alaska visiting family. The kids had a lot of fun, as we got to go on a boat ride, play at Pioneer Park and go on a “camping” excursion where we roasted hotdogs and made smores, and the kids got to go fishing. And of course there were the fireworks on the 4th, which also happened to be great Grandma’s birthday. All in all, it was a fun trip. Thanks Aunt Roro for planning so many activities! We also just got back from southern Oregon visiting the other grandparents (Sarah’s mom & Larry). We had a great time relaxing, playing in the water, catching frogs and lizards, and Camille especially loved the tree swing.
Sadly, we recently lost both remaining great Grandpas – Sarah’s grandpa passed in May and Brian’s passed just last week. Rest in Peace Lewis and Merle.
As always, we appreciate your support and prayers. Please keep AJ in your thoughts as we continue on this journey.
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