what happened
Here's the short story of Sam's illness and prospects, the diagnosis and the prognosis.
Early Monday morning on July 12, about 12:30am, my wife Kafi and I took our four-year-old Samuel to the emergency room at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena. He had had a fever for seven days, and it wouldn't come down. We were concerned, but we didn't really think anything was up. We had visited our family doctor twice during the week, and each time he said just keep treating him with rest, fluids, and medicine to bring the fever down. We called poison control on Sunday night, the 11th, because we thought we had given Sam too much medicine. The person on the other line suggested that, just to be safe, we take him to the emergency room to get him checked out.
We waited from 12:30am to 5am. First we waited just to get his blood tested. Then we waited for the results of the test, all very routine, we imagined. We were tired, just lying on the bed at the hospital, and my wife was six months pregnant. Kafi's Aunt Shirley came down to the hospital around 3am or so. She was the first to hear the doctor, from down the hallway, mention "leukemia." Very soon the doctor came in and looked at us and said that his blood tests should abnormal white blood cell activity that appeared to be leukemia.
I'm struggling to describe how it felt to hear those words. We went into immediate mourning. From 5am until 4pm we waited at Huntington, waiting to be transferred to either Children's Hospital in Los Angeles or City of Hope in Duarte, both top cancer facilities. We would need to run through a series of tests at the next hospital to verify whether or not he had leukemia.
We ended up at Children's Hospital. That's where this blog started. If you choose, you may follow the story by clicking this and going all the way to the bottom of the page, to the post titled "Original Post."
Sam is now in remission, having entered remission after two weeks, praise God. He has to follow the augmented protocol, meaning it's 12-18 months of intense chemotherapy, followed by three years of maintenance.
Thank you for your interest, your concern, and most of all your prayers.
Rudy
Early Monday morning on July 12, about 12:30am, my wife Kafi and I took our four-year-old Samuel to the emergency room at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena. He had had a fever for seven days, and it wouldn't come down. We were concerned, but we didn't really think anything was up. We had visited our family doctor twice during the week, and each time he said just keep treating him with rest, fluids, and medicine to bring the fever down. We called poison control on Sunday night, the 11th, because we thought we had given Sam too much medicine. The person on the other line suggested that, just to be safe, we take him to the emergency room to get him checked out.
We waited from 12:30am to 5am. First we waited just to get his blood tested. Then we waited for the results of the test, all very routine, we imagined. We were tired, just lying on the bed at the hospital, and my wife was six months pregnant. Kafi's Aunt Shirley came down to the hospital around 3am or so. She was the first to hear the doctor, from down the hallway, mention "leukemia." Very soon the doctor came in and looked at us and said that his blood tests should abnormal white blood cell activity that appeared to be leukemia.
I'm struggling to describe how it felt to hear those words. We went into immediate mourning. From 5am until 4pm we waited at Huntington, waiting to be transferred to either Children's Hospital in Los Angeles or City of Hope in Duarte, both top cancer facilities. We would need to run through a series of tests at the next hospital to verify whether or not he had leukemia.
We ended up at Children's Hospital. That's where this blog started. If you choose, you may follow the story by clicking this and going all the way to the bottom of the page, to the post titled "Original Post."
Sam is now in remission, having entered remission after two weeks, praise God. He has to follow the augmented protocol, meaning it's 12-18 months of intense chemotherapy, followed by three years of maintenance.
Thank you for your interest, your concern, and most of all your prayers.
Rudy
posted by Rudy at
10:00 AM
1 Comments:
I accidentally stumbled upon the story of your beautiful son Sam. Something about his smile and his beautiful eyes made me want to read what he's going thru. I will pray for him tonight. I know the Lord will answer your prayers. I have great faith in the Lord and the power of prayer.
You mentioned that your wife, Kafi was pregnant when Sam was diagnosed with Leukemia. Did the Dr's mention that they could have used the umbilical cord blood to cure Sam from his Leukemia? Was that option given? If so, was he not a match with his sisters cord blood? Please post this information and let me know. Reading about Sam's struggle with leukemia has made me realize that I need to register in the National Marrow Donor Program.
To all that are reading this comment please register in the national marrow donor program as one never knows if they can help save a life. Here's the info.
www.marrow.org or by phone 1800 marrow2.
Good luck and God Bless. I will be praying for your family.
By
Marianelly, at 8:47 PM
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home