I’ve been meaning to sit down and write my blog post for some time now. Then tonight I just watched the Stand Up 2 Cancer broadcast. I was brought to tears many times. It is still shocking to me that my baby Mac was diagnosed with AML. Something I knew almost nothing about 10 months ago, now I know all too much. I am...

It’s been 4 months since Mac’s last bone marrow aspirate. We had a follow-up appointment today and it went great! Mac got his finger poked and they did an exam. He is still in remission and his numbers were good. His white blood cell count is still not in normal range but it is going up! We will continue to go for monthly appointments...

Has it really been another month? Wow! Every time we go to an appointment for Mac I am reminded to give an update! So at least you know that will be every month! 🙂 Last week was Mac’s appointment and it went well. We went to the Children’s hospital south campus in Highlands Ranch which is closer to our house. It is a beautiful...

Yay! I am sooo excited to post these! So these were the pictures taken at the hospital at the end of Mac’s third cycle of chemo. They hold a special place in my heart. 🙂...

So last I posted, Mac was going in for surgery to get his broviac out! Everything went as planned and it seems to be healed up! They don’t do any stitches so we didn’t have to return to get stitches or staples removed! If we ask him, “Where were your tubes?” he will point right to his scar! 🙂 Next he had a birthday...

Mac gets his broviac out tomorrow! We check in at 8:30 and his surgery is at 10am. He will have propofol, they will remove the broviac and stitch him up. I don’t know the post-surgery protocol is but I’m sure they will tell us tomorrow! We are so excited for him to be tube-less! Yesterday everyone at my dental office wore TEAM MAC shirts....

We left the hospital for good last Monday! The doctors came in and sang to him (we cried) and it was just the best feeling to know that he is done living there. We went back yesterday for his last bone marrow aspirate and it was NEGATIVE! (no cancer) YAY! He didn’t feel so great all day yesterday after the propofol so we just...

I have a wonderful friend named Suzanne that I was privileged to meet a couple years ago when I cleaned her teeth! 🙂 At the time, I was training for the Denver marathon and she took me under her wing and we went running together. She’s incredible. Last month she got in touch with me and explained that she was going to run the...

Hello everyone! We’re still here at the hospital! Today is Day 24. His ANC was 10 today. He’s been doing pretty good. We are a little concerned about his eyes. He rubs them a lot and cries about it and around his eyes its a little pink. We are still investigating. I’ll keep you posted. I am guessing that we will be here another...

Mac had his last dose of chemo yesterday! It was so exciting and felt like such a milestone. I sure am grateful for chemo meds being strong enough to rid Mac of cancer but I’m really glad he’s done with them. It really is miraculous how well Mac responded to the chemo going from 91% to 0% cancer. His ANC was 1241 today. He...

Today is Day 5. This morning at 2am he had his last does of ARA-C. That’s the chemo med he’s been getting the most of and the one causing fevers and rashes. So now he only gets 1 chemo med a day and has just 2 doses left!!! The chemo is blue! It’s creepy if you ask me. Looks like gatorade. Well, we’ve made...

I seriously can’t believe we’ve only been here 3 days! Time in the hospital goes soooo slow. We checked in Monday and he had his bone marrow aspirate, spinal chemo, an ECHO, an EKG and started regular IV chemo. It was a big day. Unfortunately the last 3 days haven’t been so great for Mac. Soon after his first dose of chemo, we could...

Last Saturday Mac’s ANC was 188 and we got to go home! On Monday we went back for labs and a meeting with the doctors. We talked with them about doing the flexible sigmoidoscopy (a smaller version on a colonoscopy). They suggested we do that either now or after treatment to see if that reveals why there is blood in the poop. We decided...

So every night they draw his labs and in the morning we get a print out that tells us his ANC, platelets, hemoglobin, and lots of other stuff. Every morning for the past 3-4 days, we wake up hoping that paper says his ANC is over 100 but no such luck. The doctor says that it could be any day. Today he was at...

Sorry its been a while since I posted last. The past week or so, Mac hasn’t been going to sleep until 2 or 3am! Then he wakes up every couple of hours or so. We’ve been sooo tired. One morning, the day-shift nurse came at 7am and we had only slept 3 hours! I don’t think Mac feels very good. He hasn’t had any...

It is Day 8. He had five days of high dose chemo and now his counts will go down and then we wait for them to recover. They estimate that we will be here about the same amount of time so 3-4 weeks. He is still pooping blood but they have no idea why. They checked again for infection and it came back negative....

We had a great time at home and now we’re back! Mac had his bone marrow aspirate and spinal chemo on Monday and we were admitted for round three on Wednesday. The picture is of Mac after his Monday procedures. We went to our favorite donut shop and each picked out a donut! Mac made the biggest mess! 🙂 He was hoarding all of...

I got looking at this post and realized all my words were missing!?! After a few tears, I found it. So here is the real “mystery poop” I figured out how to add more pictures! Now I won’t have to agonize over which one to choose 🙂 Little muffin can crawl now!! We let him crawl across the couch since he can’t play on...

Merry Christmas! I can’t believe 2013 is almost over! I remember last Christmas being pregnant with Mac. I was holding out, only wearing scrubs and pjs and my mother-in-law had sent me some money to buy cute clothes that actually fit. I was so excited to wear them out for Christmas activities! Well, we obviously didn’t anticipate Mac’s first Christmas to be in Children’s...

I had to post this because Jeremy and I keep laughing about it. Last night when we were getting Mac ready for his bath, his nurse came in and told Mac, “you look good naked” haha! I told Jeremy, its not everyday you here someone say that to your kid! 🙂 What a funny thing to say! Then tonight we had his shirt off...

My good friend Brittany from dental hygiene school entered our family in this Christmas contest to win $1,000! If you have Facebook, you can help us to win. Voting is today, tomorrow and Wed and the winners are announced on Thursday! Brittany told me that earlier today we reached the 5th place spot! I’ve posted instructions on Facebook but I will try to summarize...

I am so glad today is Day 7. His ANC numbers have been high so I am guessing they will start to go down here pretty soon. Hopefully he will still eat and sleep and feel ok when his numbers bottom out. A couple nights ago Mac threw up again and really felt horrible. That day he had 4 chemo treatments! I think it...

The last few days have been pretty good! Mac is taking longer naps which is great because I’m almost sure he was sleep deprived last time. We brought in our big exercise ball to bounce him to sleep and it works like a charm- been doing that since he was a newborn! 🙂 This is Day 4 and we have 8 days of chemo...

Today we got wonderful news. The results of his bone marrow aspirate came back and his MRD (how much disease still remains) was… 0!!! That means that as of now, Mac’s body is cancer free! It brought tears to my eyes when I got to tell Jeremy the great news. So he is now considered in remission! This doesn’t change anything with his treatment...

Well, let cycle 2 begin. Today was a whole different experience then when we started cycle 1. Last time, he was sooo sick from his cancer that we started to see him feel better with his chemo. Today was the opposite. He came in feeling great. They started his chemo this afternoon and pretty soon there after he started making a face like, “my...

I’m sure many of you know that we’ve been home for a week now! When we first started treatment I couldn’t imagine wanting to go home because it sounded scary. (and it would have been in those days) On Monday his numbers were high enough that he could recover at home. This is typical for AML treatment: 3-4 weeks in the hospital then a...

I am happy to report that a couple wonderful things happened today. 1st- every morning we get a print out of all his counts (white blood cells, hemoglobin, platelets, ANC #, and tons more) Well this morning the % of his white blood cells that were monocytes was up. The Dr explained that that is the first sign of numbers starting to trend up....

Today and yesterday we’ve just been dealing with Mac throwing up. Its been a combination of feeling nauseous, hating his oral meds and having mucous in his nose and throat. Thank heavens they finally took him off all his oral meds today and they are giving them IV. Watching him throw up is the worst. Especially when he throws up a bunch of milk...

I know I’m a day late but believe it or not I have almost no time to post until Mac finally goes to sleep and last night I was so tired I just passed out. But I wanted to post in honor of Thanksgiving and I wrote this yesterday anyways. Today I actually left the hospital, by myself, and went to a quick Thanksgiving...

There are a lot of nights that I am up more than I sleep. I find myself praying for strength and peace. I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father that comforts me and fills me with all of the patience and energy I need. We really feel his love for our precious baby Mac. Mac is still suffering from internal sores and ear...