Although it may not have been exactly what we had envisioned that Kai’s first birthday would be like, we laughed, played, and had just the best time!

Kai is right in the middle of round three chemotherapy and it’s been quite hard on him.  He’s been pretty tired and he’s been sick a number of times, but that hasn’t squashed his spirit one bit!  Kai is crawling, and pulling himself up on his knees, and trying his very best to teach us his little language!

Last week Kai’s immune system was strong enough to leave his hostpital room but not strong enough to start chemo, so we were discharged from the hospital.  Rather than stay here at the Ronald McDonald house, we decided to make a run for the ferry and spend a few days at home.  We were able to do Kai’s blood work at the Victoria General Hospital in the oncology clinic and that gave us five nights in our own beds!

Kai loved every minute of being unhooked from the machines and being free to roam around and practice his “moves”.  He is still hooked up to his NG feeding tube, but we have been stopping the pump for six hours a day to give him total freedom from being connected.  His appetite has been pretty good while he’s not getting chemo. It’s another story when he’s on chemo when he needs to be on his tube feed 24 hours a day because he won’t eat a thing.

We’re two days away from being finished this round of chemo and it just so happened that there is one day this round that he doesn’t have to get any chemo at all…and it happened to be today on his BIG Day!

Happy Birthday to Me…

Kai’s immune system is on the way back down toward zero, so we had the playroom completely sanitized and blocked off so that Kai could enjoy the space without risk of catching something.  Although Kai is not supposed to be around too many people, that didn’t mean that the nurses and doctors could’t come in to sing happy birthday to our little superman!

They all gathered in the play room for the big event (and to share superman cupcakes)!!

Happy Birthday to the Man of Steel!

Watch the short video below.

…but it didn’t stop there!

Here are some photo’s that can tell the story much better than words!

Go Kai!  He made short work of the cake, smashing it, throwing it in the air, and flinging icing everywhere.  All that without eating a single bit!  It was a healthy carrot cake that we had especially made for him from “cupcakes”.  Of course mommy and daddy had to have a taste of what was left of it anyway 🙂

After demolishing his Birthday cake, it was time to open a few presents and have some play time.

After present time, Kai enjoyed playing with the train set and riding in his brand new car (thanks Auntie Kelly) that we brought over from Victoria with us last week 🙂

After all the excitement, our little superman was quite tuckered out and ready for some sleepy time.  He wanted to keep playing but he was all played out 🙂

Now that we are nearly done round three chemo, Kai’s immune system will come back down to zero and he will be “Neutropenic”.  This is means that his Neutrophils which are the white blood cells that make up the majority of immune system are extremely low, or zero, and that he has no ability to fight infection.  After each round of chemo it takes about a week for his counts to drop to rock bottom and that is a time when we have to be very careful.  Kai cannot leave his room during this time because an infection can spread through his body in as little as 30 minutes.  This is also a time when Kai is expected to catch something or get a bug.  The second that Kai’s temperature raises above 38C, he is immediately put on a wide spectrum of antibiotics to wipe out any possible infection.  In the oncology ward, they do not wait to see if he’s caught something, they act immediately and assume he has.  Most of the kids in the 3B ward are extremely immunocompromised and waiting for results from the blood cultures isn’t an option.

After a few weeks, Kai’s immune system and other blood counts will start come climb back up as the bone marrow recovers.  This is the limbo time between cycles where we play the waiting game and wait patiently (or impatiently) for the next round to start.  The recovery period takes longer each round because the body gets fatigued having to repair the immune system over and over again.  This is also why the chemo is so effective because the Leukemia cells have been repeatedly beaten down.  Even though Kai was in remission after round one, we continue chemo to be sure that there are not any undetectable Leukemia cells hiding out anywhere.  50 years of data and research tells us that 4 rounds of chemo is most effective.

Kai has a bone marrow biopsy before each round of chemo to look for any sign of Leukemia, and we’re happy to report that he’s still in remission as of last week’s results!  Go Kai 🙂

It’s been a really long road for us, but the light at the end of that tunnel is starting to get a little bigger.  Another 4-5 weeks and we will be going into the home stretch as we tackle the 4th and final round.

Thanks to everyone for your Birthday wishes today and for all the cards, and toys, and delicious cupcakes (thanks so much Trish/Kevin/Paige)!  We can’t wait to have a huge party when we’re back in Victoria!

Thanks for all the support 🙂