The “Limbo” Period Before Round Three

Hey Everyone,

It’s been a little while since we updated the website but we’re doing well.

Kai’s Chemotherapy round two ended almost two weeks ago and since then we’ve been in a holding pattern waiting for his bone marrow to recover and start working again.

Chemo targets fast dividing cells in the body and Leukemia cells are very fast dividing (as are hair cells which is why people lose their hair during chemo).  One of the side affects of chemo is that it also kills the fast reproducing good cells that are generated in the bone marrow including the Red and White blood cells.  The holding period between chemo treatments is a time when we are literally just waiting for Kai’s body to start producing Hemoglobin (Oxygen/energy), Platelets (Clotting), and ANC (immune system) cells.

This round Kai did have some rough days just after the chemo had completed.  When his body hits the lowest blood counts and when he has zero immune system he can feel pretty crummy.  He’s had three blood transfusions in the past two weeks to help keep his energy up and ability to clot.  These are totally expected and part of the treatment.

Kai’s blood counts are showing some flickers of movement at the very low end so we’re hoping that within the next week or two he will start to round three.  We’re also prepared for this to take quite a bit longer because with each round the body takes longer to recover.

The weather is awesome right now and we look forward to being able to get some day passes so we can take our little man out for a walk to get some fresh air.  Between round one and two, we had 4 days in a row that we had a few hours that we could take Kai out side the hospital.  There are lots of great places to walk including Queen Elizabeth Park to go watch the ducks, and around the Shawnessy area to see the 10-20 Million dollar homes!

Kai is getting a little bored as are we, but this is a good thing!  He’s full of energy, is continuing to gain strength and has started to show quite a bit of interest in getting up on his knees.  He’s able to stand and support his own weight and we have been encouraging him to crawl (although he shows very little interest in that!).  He’s also gaining weight and is nearly back to his initial weight that he was when we were admitted in December.  An uneventful past couple of weeks is good because there is nothing going on at the moment that requires medical attention!!!

Everyday we are able to unhook Kai from his lines and give him some freedom to play around in his crib or floor mat.  We have also started to unhook him from his continuous feeding tube for 6 hours a day to encourage his appetite, and it’s working 🙂

The Canucks and the player charities donate a lot to the families staying at the Ronald McDonald house and often there are lots of tickets available to us.  There have now been 3 separate occasions with 10 pairs of Canucks hockey tickets available to families.  We have won each time although we had to give our tickets away to another family the first time as Kai was just admitted.  Alicia and I went to one game in January when Lucy (Alicia’s mom) was here and able to watch Kai.  Last week we won Canucks hockey tickets for the 3rd time and Alicia was able to go to the game with her cousin Alexander.  They had a great time and the Canucks won 3-2 against Minnesota!

I was able to get out as well with friends a couple of times in past weeks as well which was awesome.  We’re hanging in there, but most importantly our little guy is doing very well, is happy, and recovering physically – we couldn’t be more happy with the progress.

I think I’ll leave it there for now!

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