Grace Grams

On 11/2/19, Christina brought Grace into urgent care in North Branch. After checking her vitals, everything look good. Christina knew something just wasn't right, as Grace had been acting very lethargic the past few days and just not herself. Christina asked if they could do a cbc (blood draw) and they did. The nurse practitioner came back right away and said her hemoglobin level was critically low at a 3. They told Christina that she had to take Grace down to Children's Hospital right away.

Once we got to Children's, they started testing her blood. We were admitted and spent two nights down there. After all the testing on the first night, Grace ended up getting three blood transfusions throughout the night to get her levels up. On the third day things were looking much better and Grace was diagnosed with TEC 'transient erthroblastopenia of childhood', which basically means her body didn't respond well to a virus and that her bone marrow was not producing blood cells. Normally, kids rebound from this over a month or two and their bodies kick back in. We were able to go home and do weekly or bi-weekly blood draws to make sure her levels were staying up. Her hemoglobin level was at a 10 when we left the hospital.

The first two visits for blood draws went good. Her hemoglobin was staying up and her other levels seemed to be pretty stable as well.

This past Monday, 12/9/19, her blood labs showed her hemoglobin dropped to a 4.9, so we were instructed to head right back to Children's Hospital. After more blood draws, we were admitted for the night to monitor and get another blood transfusion. At this point, it just didn't seem like she had TEC. The next step was the schedule a bone marrow biopsy so find out what was going on. We scheduled the biopsy for Monday,. Dec 16th and were sent home to monitor there. The following day, Wednesday, I was home with Grace in the morning and she spiked a fever of 102.4. She was also complaining of her knees, head, stomach and hands hurting. I called Christina kinda freaking out and she called Children's. They wanted us to head down there to get checked out. When we got to Children's, our focus was to get the bone marrow biopsy scheduled asap. After labs, we were admitted and were able to confirm that Grace would have a bone marrow biopsy done on Thursday, Dec 12th.

On Thursday, the bone marrow biopsy was performed and initial indications were that is was leukemia. About two hours later our doctor confirmed that Grace had B-ALL Acute Lymphoblastic Luekemia B-cell. It was nothing Christina and I ever imagined to hear. We were in complete shock, but glad to find out what was going on with our sweet, strong, determined, sassy little Grace (or Gray Gray if you ask her).

On Friday, Dec 13th Grace had another surgery to 1. install a port to receive medicine/take blood 2. have a spinal tap to check her spinal fluid for cancer and to give her a dose of chemo, and 3. do another bone marrow biopsy since they had a tough time the day prior. Friday was day 1 of 28 of the induction phase in which the goal is to get rid of the cancer. From that point, Grace would be treated for the next 2 1/2 years at least weekly for more chemo/check-ups and monitor that the cancer is staying away.

So, here we go! Christina and I know that God is in control and that we have many amazing prayer warriors fighting with us. Grace is gonna kick cancers butt, there is no question about that! Thank you Jesus for Grace and the light that she is to us all.