January 24, 2011 in Uncategorized with 10 Comments

After Gray’s CT Scan and blood work last week, we were scheduled to return several days later for a follow up blood test because Gray’s counts were so extremely low. In order to keep his surgery date, Gray’s blood counts needed to increase dramatically. Friday, we went back to the hospital for his follow up blood test and unfortunately the news wasn’t good. Not only were Gray’s overall blood counts still way too low but his platelet count was alarmingly low as well. They decided to go ahead and keep us in the hospital for the day and “give” Gray platelets. It wasn’t a transfusion, they didn’t remove anything from Grayson, they simply put more platelets into his blood. Even as the nurse performed the platelet addition she didn’t sound too optimistic that Gray’s counts would be high enough to follow through with his scheduled surgery, but we had to have hope. After a long day in the hospital Friday, we were scheduled to return yet again today for more blood tests. During today’s visit they checked Gray’s levels and while they have gone up quite a bit they are nowhere near high enough for him to have surgery. At this point, Gray’s blood isn’t able to clot on its own so surgery is obviously out of the question! As of now, Gray is scheduled for surgery next Monday, January 31. While we’re not looking forward to his surgery we are eager to go ahead with it. It’s emotionally draining to prepare yourself for something as big as “surgery to remove a tumor” and then have it rescheduled at the last minute. Plus, we’re just ready for this cancer to be out of our baby’s body! We really didn’t need anything else to make today worse but, unfortunately, it was made worse by Jill getting sick. She wasn’t feeling well this morning and so went to the doctor and was told she has the flu. She IS able to stay in our house with Gray but she was advised to “stay away from him as much as possible”…as you can imagine, that’s nearly impossible!! Please just pray for the overall health of our entire family. Continue to pray for Gray’s healing, pray that Jill will be well and pray that no one else in our home gets sick. We don’t have the time, energy or emotional capacity to deal with anything more right now. Jill needs her strength and energy to return and we simply need one normal, drama free, health problem free, chaos free day for our family. Also, please pray that during this week we can again prepare ourselves for Gray’s surgery. We need peace. Just peace.

In light of a not-so-funny day we wanted to share a very funny picture of Gray! Gray is performing his own medical procedures on his toys! Here he is about to access Buzz Lightyears port with a needle! If you had asked us six months ago if we would find it endearing to see our three year old playing “cancer patient” with his action figures we would have been appalled! But after so many long days, even longer nights and endless procedures and surgeries any form of play is worth the memory! Gray’s smile can still light a room and never fails to melt our hearts.

“The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; he is their stronghold in time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.” Psalm 37:39-40