Logan's Leukemia Journey

Welcome to Logan's Web Page. Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

Logan was diagnosed with Biphenotypic Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on October 6, 2004.
Remission achieved November, 2004
Logan will be continuing chemotherapy and radiation for three years.
He will be considered cured after five years cancer free.

We thank you for checking on Logan and keeping us in your prayers. I pray that you will find encouragement from our brave little boy. Life is truly a gift from God.

"For I know the plans that I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11-12



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Check out my Steroid month in review!

Radiation Pictures

Journal

Thursday, July 10, 2008 11:35 PM CDT

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LOGAN!

Can you believe we are celebrating his 6th Birthday today! It is hard for me to believe! Logan was so excited to go to the movies and see Kung Fu Panda. He was then supposed to have grandma and grandpa come and watch his baseball game. However, it was rained out. He was a bit disappointed, but a few presents later, I think he recovered. All in all, I think he had a pretty nice birthday.

What a fun and crazy summer we have had so far! Logan has been “port free” for an official month now. He has finished physical therapy and seems to have more strength and energy each day. I just cannot believe how well he is doing! He had a routine checkup yesterday and all labs looked perfect! Liver numbers are normal, IGG levels are back to normal! I can honestly say that I really did wonder if this day would ever come! He is scheduled for a Heart Echo on August 4th and a routine visit on the 13th.

Let’s see – since my last update just a short month ago, we have been busy. The highlight, though, by far, has been our trip to the Lighthouse Family retreat. You may remember how much we loved it last year. This year was no exception. It is truly a wonderful experience for our entire family. We were sad to say good–bye realizing that we would never again be attending as a retreat family. However, we have every intention of returning as family volunteers for other families in the future. We can’t think of a better way to give back. That aside, however, the Emerald coast is one of my favorite spots in the U.S. This is partly because of its amazing beauty and partly because I associate it with the Lighthouse. This time we stayed in a community called “Rosemary Beach” and met some new and amazing people. We were blessed to return with one family from the last retreat, but the other seven families are new friends. Our family partners that took care of us all week were the Jernigan family. Logan and Mike felt like they had two older brothers and an older sister for the week, not to mention a “mom” and “dad” that were strictly for fun! Their older brothers were 12 and 17 and their older sister was 20. So, you can imagine how much they enjoyed time in the pool or playing baseball or football. We were all spoiled by having our beds made, our laundry done (okay, I was spoiled by that!) and someone to look after our ever need. We all have sincerely missed the notes and chocolates on our pillows each night since we have been home. The Jernigans were truly a blessing to us. It is amazing to me that a family would give up a week of their lives to minister to us. It is humbling. God has blessed us with such special people in our lives.

Beyond the amazing beach, the amazing house where we stayed and the attention we enjoyed, it was so much more than a great vacation. Truly, it is an amazing ministry. We met so many other wonderful families that were on the cancer journey. They were all true inspirations. Having a child with cancer changes you in so many ways. We may appear to be “moving on”, but let me tell you that it takes about ½ of a second to be right back there. Still, all of these families share an amazing appreciation and love for life that none of us had before cancer. We have found strength in our God and feel as though all of the “fluff” in life has been shaken out. We appreciate God’s miracles and have an awareness that we did not have before our children had cancer. In a strange way, we all agreed that we have found amazing blessings in this journey and consider it an honor to parent these special children. In all honesty, this Lighthouse is a place of healing the soul. I can’t tell you how it has changed our lives!

During our time at The Lighthouse, we stayed with the Austins from Georgia! We laughed and had a fun time! Jackson, their five year old son is still in treatment for Leukemia. He was a sweet and funny boy! By the end of the week, the boys had picked up a bit of a southern “twang” that will be forever etched in my mind!

Let’s see, beyond the parent time we had each day that was truly “healing”, we also had beach Olympics, a wonderful parents’ night out, a poolside luau, a wonderful concert by Todd Fields, a spa day for Mom, a talent show, and some amazing family time. My boys, and I mean all three of them, are definitely beach bums! They love the beach. Logan caught two sand crabs that we kept in a Starbucks plastic cup until they were long past living. Logan was so proud of them! I now fear that I did not ever get a picture! I was so busy living in the moment that I did not take a picture of Logan and his precious crabs! He LOVED catching whatever he could in that ocean. Mike – not as much. One evening, after visiting the Sugar Shak for some ice cream, we decided to take a walk on the beach after dark. We get down there and found another family with flashlights and a net. Logan immediately ran over to see what they were doing. Catching crabs! Mind you, I am all the way by the water now – the stairs up and away from the beach are a LONG, LONG, LONG way from me. Suddenly, I realize that these crabs are everywhere! I thought I would pass out before I got away from there! This midwestern city girl did not know what to do! They were all over the beach! I could stay by the family with the flashlight and at least see what I might step on, or make a break for it and risk running through at least 1,000 more in the sand between me and the stairs! Oh, panic! The classic thing is that Dave and Logan were thinking this was so cool. Logan was trying to catch them with his bare hands. Michael was not quite so sure – he was not prepared to pick any up, but he was down there taking a pretty close look. Later, when I was safely on the “stairs”, I made a comment that I might never do that again – Mike said, “I think I agree with you, Mom!” I laughed as I realized how Mike is more like me than I realize sometimes! He said, “Next time I will bring a flashlight so I don’t step on one of those nasty things!” Honestly, I am not into walking on a beach full of crabs. Ugh, I am getting chills just thinking about it – yet, it will be one of those classic “snapshots” that our family will always remember! We honestly had an entire week of “snapshots”. Oh, what a wonderful experience! We really miss all of our new friends. It is funny how many times one of us has made a comment, mentioned a name, or broken into a chorus of “come on down, come on over, come on in to the lighthouse”, only to find ourselves having to explain to someone else what we are talking about. It is just so much a part of us – it comes out.

Oh, one more thing . . . they had a photographer come in and take photos – what a nice wonderful gift! Here is a link – not some of our best, yet pretty cool, we think! We at least had fun taking them!

http://jacobdmoore.com/wang/

Geeze, there is more to tell, but I am sure that is enough about that for now. We returned home in time for a busy week of vacation Bible school. I must say it was not my brightest move to return from a sixteen hour drive to get up the next morning and face 27 first graders. We had a great time but we were all pretty wiped out by the end of that week.

Baseball season is almost over. We only have two games left. Both Mike and Logan really seem to love baseball this year.

Now we are starting to look ahead to our next trip which is next week. We are going to Gatlinburg, TN to stay in a cabin with Grandma, grandpa, Aunt Liz and Kaylee. It should be fun. We have plans to go white water rafting and visit the Smokey Mountain National Park. Logan plans to find a bear, a snake and catch a salamander. Sounds like fun to me! I will update and let you know how that goes!

We hope you are enjoying summer as much as we are! Thanks for always checking on us and keeping us in your prayers. Logan is doing so well and I thank God for that and for you who prayed for us and supported us during this journey. We love you!

“Despite life’s circumstances, our God is good. He cares. He is in control and He wants us to know Him.”
--The Lighthouse belief statement

Read Journal History

Hospital Information:

The University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital
5721 S. Maryland Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637-1470

Links:

E-mail Author: jlsw@wowway.com