Official Diagnosis and Prognosis

So I am new to this whole blogging thing, so please be patient as I learn this new medium.  Sorry again for a long post.

I realize I posted the initial "announcement" a few days late.  I hope you can understand that it's been a whirlwind few days for us.

I have some news though.

Cooper's diagnosis has been confirmed to be Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL).  If you are like me and know nothing about the various stages/types of leukemia, I won't bore you with all the details, but here are the highlights.  As we understand it...

1. ALL is the most treatable form of leukemia.
2. Cooper's age (5) puts him in a lower risk category for this disease
3. This was caught very early.

A few specifics on the past few days.  Cooper was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore Saturday evening with a suspected diagnosis but not yet confirmed.  His blood results gave the ER staff and Oncologists a fairly high confidence on their preliminary diagnosis; however they needed further tests.

Sunday is a bit of a blur as we began to cope and understand from the doctors what was happening.  We discussed with his team of Oncologists (whom we love and could not be happier with both in their medical expertise and bedside manner - they've been a shoulder to cry on for us, when they had more important things to do) what the next few days would look like.  They needed to perform a few procedures over the next days to both confirm the diagnosis as well as start to map out his treatment plan over the next 3+ years.

Sunday Night - End of Day 1

Monday - Cooper was put under anesthesia to (1) perform a bone marrow aspirate to confirm the diagnosis (ALL leukemia lives in the bone marrow primarily), (2) perform a Lumbar Puncture to both check for leukemia in his spinal fluid and administer the first round of treatment (IV/traditional Chemo drugs to not cross the blood brain barrier; therefore since they were already in his spine the doctors and us wanted to get started ASAP, and (3) to insert his PICC line to allow for treatment and blood draws without constantly poking him.

Cooper on Monday - Ready to fight! (before his OR visit)

Tuesday - Results came in.  Initial prognosis is great!  High leukemia in the bone marrow (expected) but undetectable in peripheral blood (from his arm) which means that the leukemia has (as much as the doctors can tell at this point), not begun making its way into the blood stream.  His first chemo infusion was Tuesday night and he tolerated it extremely well.  At this point the biggest challenge is dealing with "roid rage" (steroids are a heavy component of his first month of therapy) and pealing EKG stickers off his chest - which he hates but if thats the worst part, it's an answered prayer.

Wednesday at bedtime - what a difference a day makes!

Wednesday (today as I am writing this) - Cooper had a great day!  He is off his IV fluids which means that he has no "leash" as he puts it himself.  He's able to use the restroom without help, play almost normally and his personality is getting back to normal.  Best news from today is that they have moved up his target discharge to Friday!

Cooper on Wednesday learning all about blood cells with jelly beans!  He ate most of them!

In case you were wondering - his therapy schedule is still being mapped out, but we expect about 1 month for the initial "rush", 5 months of chemotherapy and then about 2.5 years of maintenance.  Long, I know, but we're just happy with his prognosis at this point.

Sorry, again for the long post!  I do want to provide as much information as possible to everyone.  Hopefully these days are going to be less eventful coming up soon and I'll have less to write.

Love you all!

Jason, Kristy, Cooper and Evyn