One year ago today at this moment, we just received the dreadful call from the pediatrician-- who we saw three hours ago and thought everything looked good with Lucas, the fatigue and paleness was attributed to a lingering cold. The image of the moment when I received the call and how I walked outside to the driveway to let Jianwei hear it with his own ears is going to be something that Jianwei and I will remember very vividly for the rest of our lives.
Today, strangers could not have guessed that Lucas is in treatment for leukemia. He is doing well and we are immensely grateful. His last CBC numbers as of the past Tuesday was: hgB 13, platelets 242 WBC 3.1 ANC 1600. He is still on 40% of the 6MP dose and increased to 70% of the oral MTX dose. He has got IVIG for the second time 2 weeks ago as his IgG level rose from 220 to 360 -- but still below the 560 threshold. We have changed weekly finger poke to every 10 days, and most recently to every two weeks. He hasn't missed a school day for almost 2 months! We signed him up for full-time preschool starting March. His new teacher is a young American born Chinese lady who can speak some Mandarin. Hopefully that will help him to catch up with age-appropriate development. He hasn't grown a whole lot since September -- still just above 92cm, which is below 5th percentile for his age. His appetite is unpredictable but usually okay. He has gained weight -- mostly because how diligently my dad has been cooking.
I very much appreciate how my work environment continued to be friendly as well as interesting. My time at work is usually very busy and somewhat demanding, but I manage to not to work over 40 hours a week. It's rare to have a workplace that offers real opportunity in career development while maintaining work-life balance from top-down. For that, I feel immensely grateful as well.
Every evening I enter our house through garage, I can smell the delicious meal that my dad is preparing. I'm so blessed to have my parents here to help out! I do plan to give my parents a break in the spring -- concurrent with Lucas starting full-time preschool. Hopefully Lucas will stay healthy and we will be able to handle it (it will be the first time we do not have help from grandparents ever since Lucas was born).
Lucas and Alex have played a lot more and a lot better just over the past month. There are still places that I go with Alex alone without Lucas. Alex and I went with his friends to Zoo for the first time in the past year in early November (it's not safe to Lucas to be close to animals). I will take Alex to see Nutcrackers tomorrow. We did take both kids to Jianwei's workplace holiday party on Wednesday. Very few people take kids that young to workplace holiday parties and the coworkers all commented on how well-behaved Lucas and Alex were. I guess they are pretty good boys after all. This is the third consecutive year that we take the boys to that holiday party (that might be the only event we are doing so consistently). We were quite brave to take them there when they were 3 and 1.5 two years ago. We indeed enjoy going to places with kids. I can't wait until they get bigger and we get to travel to many different places.
I think the readers all agree that no news from me is good news. If I don't write an entry before Christmas -- may you have a wonderful holiday and best wishes for you and your family in 2014. Most importantly, stay healthy!
