Our sweet JP was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia - ALL - on February 24, 2012. This is his story.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Aaaaand we're back! Almost.

I realize there has been a very long time between posts. I am so sorry! It seems like since JP turned 3 we've been so dang busy. A lot's been going on and I have a lot of thoughts and feelings that I've been holding in and if I don't type them out I'm pretty sure I'll forget about them. I am committing myself to writing one catch-up post a day until we're all there. I have to wait until naptime or bedtime but I promise I will be updating. See ya soon

Thursday, October 11, 2012

jetBlue cares about JP

I was contacted by a lady in NY that works for jetBlue's Corporate office and she wanted to feature JP in a story about jetBlue's matching gift program. Of course I was so excited to tell her all about his walk so I sent her way more info than she needed! The story ran today and was emailed out to every employee - I have no idea how many that is, but I assume it's 10,000ish since we fly all over the US, Caribbean, and some of S. America. It makes my heart happy to think so many people could become aware of childhood cancer all because I asked jetBlue to match some money we raised.

I can't exactly post a link to the story since it's on our corporate site, but I copied it and am pasting it here. Hopefully it works.

From Blue to You: SSC walks to fight pediatric cancer

10/11 11:00am
For our From Blue to You matching gift program, Crewmember Megan Gibson rallied her fellow SSC Crewmembers to help support a cause that’s important to her: the CureSearch Walk for Children’s Cancer. Earlier this year, Megan’s young son, JP, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and it came as a shock to the family, who went from shooting hoops together one night to the emergency room the next. You may know that there are no known causes for children’s cancer; neither genetics nor environmental factors have been linked to pediatric cancer, making prevention impossible in a time when 46 children are diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. each school day. In fact, it’s the leading cause of death by disease among children ages 1-14 years old.



 In honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Megan participated in the second annual CureSearch Walk in Salt Lake City. CureSearch for Children’s Cancer is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting cancer research and spreading awareness about this disease. The foundation donates a large portion of their funds to the Children’s Oncology Group, the world’s largest organization devoted solely to pediatric cancer research, connecting thousands of leading experts in hospitals, universities, and cancer centers throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.




More than 3,000 people participated in the walk, raising nearly $164,000 in total, and our JetBlue team was part of this success. Megan created the event through Community Connection and then rallied 25 of her fellow reservations coworkers to sign up for the “All for JP none for ALL” group. Together, they raised $3,265 and JetBlue contributed $1,000 to support their cause. Of note, all of the generated funds are being donated to pediatric cancer research. According to Megan, this is actually rare in cancer fundraising, since most organizations typically allot only 1% for pediatric cancer research specifically.


You can check out the team’s page here—they are still accepting donations through October 13. Great job to SSC for supporting this important cause:
Kim Chavez
Jami Newbold
Karinna Waddoups
Carlee Coon
Sheay Nielson
Steve Wilson
Derek Dangerfield
Wade Okumura
Brenda Wilson
Roseario Fernandez
Whitney Pierce
Sommer Wilson
Vickie Flint
Jennifer Smith
Megan Gibson
Anne Smith
Geo Izurieta
Christine Swim
Grace Larsen
Cami Tribe
Tristin Lopez
Traci Valadez
Brandi McMillan
Tiffany Vigil

JetBlue will match your contributions

To have JetBlue help a cause you care about, sign up for an event and register online. You can read about the matching gift program criteria here, including the type of eligible events and matching requirements. We look forward to creating change around the areas that are important to you!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Happy 3rd Birthday JP!

Josh was leaving town for work the morning of JP's big day so we had a small family celebration Sunday night. We all know I am not great at cakes but I did my best and he was so happy it had a "U" that he requested that piece. It was a pretty big piece of cake for such a small kid, but he loved every last bit of it! Ok, so he mostly just licked the frosting off and then ate a little bit of cake, but still.



Just wait until you see his actual birthday cake - we have a friend from when we lived in Cedar City (she lives in Salt Lake now too) that offered to bake his birthday cake. Naturally I accepted because, who am I kidding, I can swirl frosting on a cupcake like nobody's business but frosting an actual cake takes way more talent that I will ever have. Stay tuned!

Interim Maintenance II - Day 21

I know you're all on the edges of your seats waiting for a new post from me... And I'm guessing this post isn't the one you're looking for, am I right? Well before I can post about the ridiculously amazing walk we had with CureSearch over the weekend, you are going to have to sit through yet another post about a day at the hospital.

Josh was out of town all last week which meant I was in charge all of the time. Okay, so I'm always in charge all of the time but sometimes Josh thinks he's in charge when he's home and since I'm so good at being in charge I let him think that. Haha! I really shouldn't post late at night. Anyway, JP had labs drawn and his ANC was at 1.3 which meant he was plenty healthy for increased chemo. I always have mixed feelings when he makes counts. On the one hand, SUPER! let's get this show on the road and get one more treatment behind us, but on the other hand I almost always know when he's going to make counts because he's acting so great and happy, almost like a normal kid without cancer, and I don't want to take him in because I know he's not going to feel as awesome anymore. He acts pretty great most of the time, but I can tell a difference between him feeling "fine" and him feeling "great" if that makes sense. Other cancer moms probably know what I mean. Anyway, Day 21 fell on a day when Josh was in Philadelphia and there was literally no way he could come to treatment with us. It was the first time it was just the two of us and I was nervous! Josh usually holds JP while he gets his port accessed and, well you know how my boys are, they are like two peas in a pod and Daddy can always make anything better so I was worried that it might be a rough day for JP to not have his best bud with him. I think I was also selfishly wondering if I would be ok without Josh - he is able to be logical for me while I go off and am emotional about things and if something wasn't right or the doctors needed to have a serious conversation with me I would have been a complete mess without him. Turns out none of the above happened and JP and I were able to make it through our day pulling silly faces at each other, painting on aluminum foil, playing with Cars cars and visiting Superman and Spiderman. Phew!

The only bummer is that on Friday morning JP threw up. For the first time, might I add, since starting this awful journey. This amazing kid acts like nothing abnormal goes on in his life and that chemo ain't no thang. He honestly has never thrown up until this treatment. He is truly an amazing kiddo and we are so blessed to call him ours.

 
 

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Interim Maintenance II - Day 11

Monday we took JP in for more treatment. This phase has increasing doses of Methotrexate as long as JP can handle it. His ANC was 1600 on Monday (say whaaaaat??), I really can't think of the last time he was that high without steroids... Basically if his ANC is above 750 they will increase the dosage, if it's between 500 and 750 they will still administer the Methotrexate but only at the same dose he received last time and if it's below 500 they will hold chemo for 4 days and check again.

We got to the hospital at 10:30 Megan Standard Time (aka 10:50) so we were a little late. Oops. I always try to be on time but I just can't seem to do it! They still let JP have treatment despite his mother's tardiness, thank goodness. He was very happy to be there and even went with the Child Life Specialist to pick out toys. He's never done that - he's always just requested toys and let her bring them to him. He was showing off for his doctors and nurses and everyone was laughing. He told everyone how he watched his Utes and Giants win over the weekend and how we made Utes cupcakes (red velvet). I love that he has no idea how serious this cancer business can be, I wish we all had that luxury to be wrapped up in the innocence of childhood.

JP received the Vincristine chemo and the increased Methotrexate and they asked if we wanted him to have his flu shot. Yep, we sure did, but I got nervous about the actual shot... See when we go in, they access his port - which is kind of like an IV but in his chest - but we put this numbing cream on his skin so he doesn't feel the poke. He doesn't care about getting accessed and does it every week, but getting a flu shot is a different story - we couldn't just put it in through his port like usual. He sat there and watched the nurse clean his leg, pull out the needle and wasn't scared at all. Then she poked him - and he screeeeeeeeeeeamed. Oh boy, it was the saddest thing ever. I'm pretty sure he might now have a fear of needles like most everyone else. Dang. Secretly I'm hoping he's just scared of the nurse not the needles! ;)

Our social worker came in to chat - probably a direct result of me leaving a tear-filled voicemail for her - and we talked about finding a therapist through my work's employee assistance program and to focus on my breathing instead of letting my mind wander. She told me to talk to myself (don't I already do that? haha) about where my breath is instead of letting my mind get away with itself and the what-if's of cancer. She said that between 6 and 9 months after a child is diagnosed is when the mom usually reaches out for some help dealing with all the emotions that have been held in the whole time. I guess I'm pretty normal after all. I've said it before, but most days I can pretend JP doesn't have cancer because he acts so normal. I've just started noticing that I am more and more sensitive to cancer lately, and that could simply be that the last couple months have been harder treatment for JP. It doesn't help when a cancer friend with ALL was admitted to the hospital for a 2nd relapse (!) last week and passed away yesterday... I can't even imagine how her parents feel. Twice they thought they had won their battle but three times they were told their daughter had cancer. We have a 90% chance of beating this ugly disease and so did she (the first time). Ugh. Stupid cancer!

I finally listened to Taylor Swift's song in it's entirety today... Still cried but didn't have to turn it off, so that's good. Cancer still sucks.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Endless thoughts

I have a lot of time to think. Most of the time this occurs at night after Elsie has woken up to nurse and sometimes it's during the day when she's napping and JP is happy with a puzzle or his iPad. I've come to the conclusion that when I'm left alone with my thoughts it is not necessarily a good thing...

Tonight I'm sitting next to JP while everyone else is sleeping because he decided to take a nap at 7:00 tonight, woke up just before 10:00 and now I'm just waiting for the first hint of sleepyness to hit so I can get him in bed. I know, I should not have let him sleep but if you were here, you would have known that I tried not to let him - I covered him in my sheet and blanket (he hates being covered in blankets when he's sleeping). Then we let Ralphie snuggle on top of him and the blankets and nothing. He was out. Cold. Oh well, at least he is sitting next me (and my thoughts), holding my arm, and randomly telling me how much he loves me in the quiet darkness of our living room.

A lot of my thoughts come from a month ago when I was at my high school reunion. We were asked to have one person from each table come up and tell one thing we've learned about life since graduation... of course I was nominated (prior to my knowledge of what I was about to have to do) and all I said was something along the lines of make sure you have good friends and family because when bad things happen they are the ones that will hold you up - vaguely referring to our journey with JP's cancer, of course. I should have used it as an opportunity to let people know about pediatric cancer and how grossly underfunded childhood cancer research is even though it is the #1 disease killer of children, the fact that 1 in 330 children will develop cancer before the age of 19 AND that 1 in 5 of those will not survive... How is it that children are put first in our society in everything except cancer research?? It's maddening, we need to get past the idea of marketing the hope of a cure and just fund the research that will give us cures! Of course that would have been better to have said, but obviously this is a little tender and I can't even type this post without the screen getting blurry.

Anyway, I've come up with a lot of things I've learned since high school, almost all of which I have actually learned/realized in the last 6 months, not 10 years. Here's my thoughts, don't worry, it's not all of them, in no particular order:

#1: Hug your kids and tell them you love them. Every day. You never know when that opportunity may be taken from you. Make sure they know how much you love them, even if they drive you bonkers.

#2: When you have a random thought about a friend/neighbor/family member, act on it. Bake them cupcakes or call them or whatever. You may be an answer to their prayers, sometimes prayers they didn't know they were saying. I can't tell you how many times someone has knocked on my door with dinner or an offer to babysit at the exact moment I was in need. I have been so amazed at how in-tune those around me are and that has made me want to be better and help others even more.

#3: Stop gossiping, judging or making fun of other people. You don't know what load they have been asked to carry or why they say and do the things that they do. We all deal with the same things differently and your way isn't the only way. My way is. (haha, kidding of course!) Walking the halls at Primary Children's Hospital has changed my perspective on basically everything. I feel guilt, anxiety, tremendously blessed, and love all at the same time. It's hard to explain, but I've found that if I can stop talking about others and start looking at how I can serve them or help their situation be better, I feel better about my situation.

#4: Sleep as often as you can. Or stop sleeping so much so you can be productive. I'm not really sure what my stance on sleep is.

#5: Let people help you. As hard as it is, if someone offers to help you with something, you should probably just let them do it. Or offer up something else they can do instead, because they will keep asking until you do. This is very hard for me, I'm a very independent lady who likes to just take care of things myself because I already know how to do it right OR I don't even know what I need so I don't know what to tell people... I'm still working on this - just today I received an email from someone I haven't spoken to in roughly a decade and they offered to do anything they could to help us out. This is a tough one, besides prayers and a cure for cancer I don't really know what to say.

#6: Medical bills can bankrupt anyone. I didn't realize how blessed we are compared to some families dealing with cancer because we have good insurance that is paying 100% of JP's treatments at this point. We met our max out of pocket pretty fast and now we pay a $25 co-pay every time we go to the doctor's and a co-pay for all our prescriptions, but other than that the insurance pays it all. I am blown away with how big of a blessing that is - our insurance has paid over $80,000 so far and I know how stressful any portion of that could be on any marriage. Just one more reason I knew 3 years ago Josh needed to take the job here in Salt Lake, but I didn't know exactly why until now. One more reason to stay in-tune...

#7: I love Taylor Swift. She wrote a song, Ronan, about a little boy who lost his fight with cancer. It's from the perspective of his mother, and it really is so beautiful. I honestly haven't even heard the song in its entirety because about 20 seconds in I'm crying so hard I can't hear anything else. Anyway, I read through the lyrics and my heart just breaks because almost all of it could have been written by me, word for word, and that scares me. JP's prognosis is really great, but there is still that chance I could lose him. I do try not to focus on the teensy tiny negative possibilities but sitting up at night thoughts go through your mind and you can't believe you're thinking them but they've already been thought, you can't unthink them. Maybe that doesn't even make any sense... I am in the works to see a professional (don't judge me - remember?) because even though I honestly think I am handling things well and am having normal reactions to my son's cancer diagnosis, I still should probably talk it all out with someone who knows how to handle it, if it needs to be handled. Anyway, where I am going with this is here: watch the video if you can (http://youtu.be/1ITrd7fM6aY), or read the lyrics below. So beautiful.

Sidenote: I always tell JP I love him to the moon and back and the other day - not to be outdone - he said, "Mom, I love you to the moon and Finn McMissile and back!" and smiled so proudly because he knew I couldn't top that. :)

Ronan

I remember your bare feet down the hallway
I remember your little laugh
Race cars on the kitchen floor
Plastic dinosaurs, I love you to the moon and back

I remember your blue eyes looking into mine like we had our own secret club
I remember you dancing before bed time then jumping on me waking me up
I can still feel you hold my hand
Little man, from even that moment I knew
You fought it hard like an army guy
Remember I leaned in and whispered to you

Chorus:
Come on baby with me
We're gonna fly away from here
You were my best four years

I remember the drive home when the blind hope
Turned to crying and screaming, "Why?"
Flowers piled up in the worst way
No one knows what to say about a beautiful boy who died

And it's about to be Halloween
You could be anything you wanted if you were still here
I remember the last day when I kissed your face
I whispered in your ear

Come on baby with me
We're gonna fly away from here
Out of this curtained room in this hospital
We'll just disappear
Come on baby with me
We're gonna fly away from here
You were my best four years

What if I'm standing in your closet trying to talk to you?
What if I kept the hand me downs you won't grow into?
And what if I really thought some miracle would see us through?
But what if the miracle was even getting one moment with you

Come on baby with me
We're gonna fly away from here
Come on baby with me
We're gonna fly away from here
You were my best four years

I remember your bare feet down the hallway
I love you to the moon and back.
 
 
That's enough of my emotions for one night. Thanks for "listening."

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Interim Maintenance II - Day 1

Sorry for the delay in posting and for not having any beautiful pictures to share. Turns out I've met my 1 GB max in free blogger space (yes - ONE GB) that Google allows so until I export my family blog I will just not be able to post pictures! Silly Google, just give me 2 GB for free! haha

Anyway, JP met counts on Monday, September 3rd so we went in to start phase 5 - Interim Maintenance II - on Thursday, September 6th. Day 1 consisted of Vincristine, 2/3 the highest dose of Methotrexate he tolerated in phase 3 through his port and more Methotrexate into his spinal fluid with a lumbar puncture. He did great - he woke up from his LP the happiest I think he ever has, which was a delightful surprise considering he had his hardest day last time he had an LP. We mentioned that we had Goldfish crackers and that we could go see Superman and he sat straight up. Yes, not only does Primary Children's have a Spiderman statue, but we also found Superman! He is much more muscular than Spiderman so JP was a little aprehensive, but still managed a smile for the picture.

We enjoyed a neighborhood bbq on Friday night and I woke up with a sore throat on Saturday morning. Of course I did! We've been so careful not going anywhere and have basically locked ourselves up in the house for 2 months - 500 square feet the entire summer - and we figured he was acting ok and had a 900 ANC on Monday so we tried it. So far he's ok, but I'm the mom taking care of him so I think it's only a matter of time before he gets my cold. I blame it on Elsie - she's had a runny nose for a few days (and isn't cutting teeth) so she must already be sneaking out at night to hang out with the cute boys down the street. It's the only logical explanation! JP did fever up to 100.2 on Saturday but never got higher so we're keeping our fingers crossed. And I'm constantly sanitizing my hands and not breathing near him. We'll see how things go the next few days. I did take some NyQuil last night and had a really hard time waking up... and I mean a really hard time! I wasn't making sense, I couldn't think straight, and I was mostly out until 11:15 this morning. I did, however, manage to get up with Elsie at 8:00 and put her back down for her nap at 9:30 but I don't think I was awake for most of that... Not sure if I'll be doing that again!

I will work on cleaning up my blog so we can post cute pictures soon. :)