A long journey has started

OK, while I can give quick updates on facebook, I can give details on the blog. So, here's what we've learned in the past two days. Henry has infant acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). He got his first dose of chemotherapy into his spinal column on Friday, but officially started his first round of chemotherapy Saturday the 12th at midnight. The first round of chemo is about 33 days long, all of it in the hospital. Then, we will take a couple day break, and start it all over again. We will be in the hospital, pretty much continuously for the next year. If Henry is healthy enough, hopefully between each round of chemo we will be able to go home for a few days, but Emanuel Children's Hospital will be our primary home away from home.

As I know everyone will look this up on-line, I'll tell you... his five year prognosis is about 60%. Though as our oncologist said, we only care about Henry... and for him it's 100% or nothing. He does have a few things going for him. 1. He's older. Infant leukemia is from 0-12 months. While he technically is 12 months and a few days, we know that he had this for a while before his birthday, so we are being aggressive and treating it as infant ALL. Two month olds with this diagnosis have only a 10-20% chance. 2. His blood counts are already responding to treatment. While this isn't a tell-tale sign of greatness, it does look really good.

He will need blood and platelets often, as chemotherapy not only kills the bad blood cells but the good ones too. He will get really really sick. Become very susceptible to infections. Even a diaper rash is going to be tough to treat.

This is a very long road. And currently I can only see a day or two ahead. We are currently giving some blood and platelets. Then we will move out of ICU and onto the pediatric floor, our new abode. Today he was feeling better enough to play for a while. Laugh, play peek-a-boo... be Henry.

We are so lucky that we have friends and family from around the entire USA thinking about us, sending us prayers and well wishes. So many people offering up help, which we will need... and lots of it. But right now, we have no idea what help we do need. As the days go by, I'm sure it will become more obvious.

Lucas and I have cried more tears in the past 72 hours than we have our enitre lives... but though it, we can laugh, we can have hope. We are so scared, but we have each other, we have Owen and Henry, and so many friends and family to support us.