That may seem pretty tough, but if you don't know all of the details of what has been going on in our lives you wouldn't understand. I will try to share a couple of the details that have made this such a rough week.
As many of you know, we have been trying to find out what has been ailing Amanda for a while now. She has been having a lot of headaches, fevers, and body pains. After some frustrating clinic visits (I won't take time to go into the details at this time) we were instructed to bring Amanda to Primary Childrens Medical Center ER to make sure she gets the attention she needs until we figure things out. We came in on Saturday April 25th and spent some boring hours in an ER room while we waited for blood tests and x-ray results to come back. I think some peoples' version of Hades may be stuck in an ER room anxiously waiting answers for hours with no entertainment or distraction other than a TV that can pick up one channel and it happens to be NASCAR.
After several hours Amanda was admitted with not many answers other than her blood counts were low. A lot of possibilities were thrown out but not until a bone marrow draw confirmed on Tuesday that we were dealing with leukemia. I didn't even know how to spell leukemia until that day, let a lone know what we were up against. We were about as unprepared for this as they come. If you would like to know more about it you can visit this site. Amanda has been diagnosed with ALL which is the best possible type of leukemia and has the best prognosis.
Amanda has already started the chemotherapy process and things are looking good so far. The road will be a long and emotional one for all of us. We are still dealing with Mary Ann's complications with her pregnancy, trying to raise a 3 year old with allergy problems and the rest of everyday stresses of jobs and life. We have to take any positive news or happy thoughts and hang on tight to it. The greatest thing that keeps us strong through all of this is Amanda's strength and spirit. She can make all worries fade to nothing with her infectious laugh. Thank goodness for the XBOX that is in her room. She gets such a kick out of driving Lightning McQueen into walls. When she starts to laugh it seems to make everything better.
Our hearts have been broken several times this week. It has been very difficult to take the news that we have been given this week. We are given strength from all the family and friends that have shown their love and support for Amanda. This has affected so many people because Amanda is so loved by everyone that knows her. She has had many visitors that bring smiles to her face. She even had a visit from her school custodian that brought tears to my eyes because it made Amanda so happy.
We will soon have a separate blog setup to keep people updated with her condition and what she is going through. It has been very difficult to retell the news and events so we hope that it will help others to understand what she and all of us are going through.
Thanks to everyone that has offered their support, time, and prayers on our behalf.
2 comments:
It is hard to know what to say. I don't think there are any "right words or expressions" in these situations. Just know that Amanda is in our prayers and if there is ANYTHING you can think of that we could do let us know!( you should know by now, that a newborn is not going to slow me down, so the offer is serious.)
Thank you, Dora. I just let Mary Ann know about Arpad. She just smiled and laughed when I told you had yet another boy. I was the last of 5 boys so I can appreciate what it may be like in the house.
Mary Ann may be hitting you up for home school ideas, or at least copy ideas from your blog.
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