The past few months have been a complete rollercoaster for us. During winter break, the entire family got covid so we spent Christmas and New Years by ourselves as two parents, a toddler, and a baby welcome the new year together with glow sticks and sparkling grape juice in the basement. After everyone recovered from covid, RJ sprained his left ankle somehow. After 3 days, his ankle started feeling better and he was jumping and running again soon after.
A week or two later, his ankle started hurting again so we thought he irritated it again. Then it started swelling and he started getting a fever, so we took him to the ped and were told that influenza is going around and this strain can cause muscle pain. So we were told to use ibuprofen and keep an eye on it. We then realized that the ibuprofen was not helping and the fevers persisted. The ped told us to come back for further testing which is when we noticed that all of RJ's blood counts were low. Our ped then sent us to Children's Hospital for further assessment.
We spent the next few days waiting for results from blood work and a bone marrow biopsy as doctors were preparing us for the possibility of leukemia or a bone infection. Of course we prayed and hung on to the hope that this was just a bone infection that would be cured with antibiotics. After a few doses of antibiotics, there was no change to RJ's ankle's swelling or pain. Later, it was then confirmed that he has B cell Leukemia. The ankle pain was actually caused by leukemia cells multiplying in the bone marrow and pushing on the bones.
As you can imagine, Julie and I felt lost and numb. We were just going through the motions; switching off between watching Arlo and staying with RJ at the hospital. Thanks to the love and support from our family and friends, we've been able to do so thus far.
RJ has now been on chemo since Wed Feb 14 and is projected to come home on Wed Feb 21. He's starting to feel better and is able to put weight on his ankle and stand again but can't walk just yet. Although it's been a very difficult time, we have received a lot of favorable news since the diagnosis. RJ's type of leukemia is one of the most common ones with kids and the Children's hospital has a +90% success rate in treating this type of cancer. His specific type is also one of the easier ones to treat from this "common group" so side effects from chemo will be in theory as minimal as possible.
We decided to create this site to help share RJ's status and updates so that we have more time to focus our energies solely on him and not our phones. No donations are necessary, we only want to keep his loved ones updated. If we don't get the chance to respond, please refer to this site as we will continue to update you with progress and development. We sincerely appreciate all the incredible love and support we've received. The support has truly been a humbling experience. Thank you so very much!
RJ was scheduled to be in the hospital this weekend for another round of chemo but luckily was able to come home a day early so he didn’t have to celebrate his birthday at the hospital. He handled this round of chemo like a champ but had to carry around a backpack of IV fluid at home to flush out the med. Luckily engineer dad found a way to make carrying this backpack a little easier 😅 It was kind of scary to sleep attached to this backpack but at least he was able to have a small birthday celebration with family and even got a gift and visit from his best friend Leo! ❤️
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