Jason is doing amazing! He is over 2 years post transplant and you wouldnt even know this boy ever had cancer if he didnt have a scar on his chest from the Broviac.

All his tests came back perfect.
He hasnt been on meds for years.

He is getting all A's in school and has been playing flag football for the last year.

We are awaiting doctors release to put him back in tackle ball.
That has been since 2007 so should be interesting. He has missed several years of physical sports but is strong in spirit and mind.

We are coming up on our 5th Annual Golf Tournament next month.
I was reading the past posts on the blog and noticed that we hadnt put any comnments on how well the 3rd and 4th tournament went.

The tournament went well for Ceclia and we have since seen her at events and she is doing great.

The last tournament we had was for my mother in law Charlotte.
She was diagnosed with AML like Jason was in May of 2011.
She also had a bone marrow transplant in Sept of 2011 and is doing great.

I will update again soon but wanted to let everyone know how things were going!

I havent updated in so long but wanted to let everyone know Jason is doing great. In April we go in for his 2 year follow up post transplant. It is amazing how well he is doing.

THANKS AUNT LAURA for fixing the blog. I have so much to tell. I will be back to update everyone!

Welcome Home

Welcome home Jason and Austin! The boys have been in Iowa this summer with their dad and got back Wednesday. AJ also came ba k on the plane from Iowa with them. It's nice to have everyone safe at home again.

Jason is still doing great. His checkup last week was perfect and we were able to take away another medicine. We are still slowing weining him of one of the immuno drugs but are getting there. Then he will just be on a couple meds to finish out the year and be great! We took extra blood for another cymorism test so cross your fingers it is still good. We did learn that he is producing O+ blood which is great news. Because that was the donors blood type!!

Austin is finally done with the 3 weeks of conditioning for football and this week we only have practice 3 times instead of 5. Then next week we are down to 2 days.

He will miss the first game though because that is when we are having our 3rd Annual PALS Golf Tournament. Lets hope we are able to raise enough money to help Cecelia and her family!

Jason is still doing great. His day 100 tests came back 100% donor. We are slowing taking him off his meds and he is allowed to get out more and more. Last week he went to the Cardinals traning camp with Uncle Robert and had a great time.

Austin is back in school and football practice. I love watching him out there.

Shawn is busy with work and school and doing great!

Wow didnt realize how long it has been since i updated everyone. Jason is doing great. We are waiting on the day 100 results to come back to see how the donor cells are working. He has been able to drop down on his meds to allow for the new cells to take over. Cross your fingers it worked. He is looking great and feeling great. School starts next week for the boys so working on getting school supplies and clothes and all the fun stuff. Also signed Austin up for football again so it is going to be a crazy year. Shawn working full time, going to school full time, and Austin in football along with all the other stuff we do. But hey that is what makes life fun right!! I will keep everyone posted. And dont forget we are doing our 3rd Annual PALS Golf Tournament 8/28 at Arizona Grand!!!

Wow didnt realize how long it has been since i updated everyone. Jason is doing great. We are waiting on the day 100 results to come back to see how the donor cells are working. He has been able to drop down on his meds to allow for the new cells to take over. Cross your fingers it worked. He is looking great and feeling great. School starts next week for the boys so working on getting school supplies and clothes and all the fun stuff. Also signed Austin up for football again so it is going to be a crazy year. Shawn working full time, going to school full time, and Austin in football along with all the other stuff we do. But hey that is what makes life fun right!! I will keep everyone posted.

And dont forget we are doing our 3rd Annual PALS Golf Tournament 8/28 at Arizona Grand!!!

Not a whole lot to report. Jason still doing great. Austin is in Iowa visiting his dad for a couple weeks. All is well for us.

Everyone have a great 4th coming up and be safe!

Sorry it has been so long since i have written
It has just been nice to be home like a family again
Jason is doing great. His blood work came back 99% donor and Tcells 91% so we are well on our way. They will do another test at day 100

Austin is doing great as always too. Got all A's and B's at school and is growing up so fast. When he talks and is all excited you can hear his voice crack :)

He is going to Utah to go white water rafting with the American Cancer Society next week. He doesnt want to go but will thank me when he gets back. There are only 16 people going. 8 Boys and 8 Girls. Duh!!! How many teenage boys turn that down. I guess its better than him being too curious...

Ok well everyone have a great weekend and i will try and keep up on this more. Always and forever thanks for all your prayers for my family.

JASONS HOME!!!

Jason came home on Wednesday. 21 days after his transplant! He broke the record. They were telling us to get ready for 6 wks- 3 mths and he breezed through it. Not to say there hasnt been issues. But he is doing amazing. Went to clinic today and adjusting some med levels but otherwise doing great!!! Way to go Jason

Sorry i havent updated in a while
Jason has had his ups and downs but overall doing great.
He has had infections in his blood and stool but they are being treated with meds. He has had the runs so bad that he has a bedside toilet but other than that he is amazing. Few fevers here and there and not sleeping that good but still making me smile

He has also shown signs of cell growth and has an ANC of 91.

We are on the road to recovery!!!

Jason is doing amazing. Small reaction to the ATG but they slowed down infusion rate and is back on track. It should have finished up earlier this morning. Just laying low today and getting ready for his transfusion around 9:30 tonight.

Today is the best day ever!!!!

Jason is doing amazing. Small reaction to the ATG but they slowed down infusion rate and is back on track. It should have finished up earlier this morning. Just laying low today and getting ready for his transfusion around 9:30 tonight.

Today is the best day ever!!!!

OK we are well underway with Jasons treatment. He is done with 2 of his chemos' and is getting the last one today and tomorrow. This is the one that runs over 6 hours and he could get sick from. It is Rabbit ATG. So Robert my brother made Tshirts with Jasons face that say THUMPER! Always the jokster. All is going good so far and Jason hasnt gotten sick. But like i said he got the 2 strong ones today.
The infusion is scheduled for Wed nite so we are really excited for that. His dad finally made it in last night so i am getting a break and am at hope for a couple of weeks. Though i like being home i feel like a bad mom not being by his side. But I am having fun with Austin and Shawn. Austin is so funny he cracks me up to see how big he is getting.

Will keep everyone informed on how things are going. Pray that my baby does good and doesnt have too many side effects

We have been around the world and back having people look at Jasons liver biopsy to see if that will give us any idea what is going on and why his enzymes are high. They did find one small virus so he is getting medications for that but looks like the main irritation is the iron levels. So we go admitted yesterday and are moving forward with transplant. We will start chemo around noon today and continue on for about a week with transplant scheduled next week. I am thankful the donor is still willing to do all of this as many times as we have rescheduled. Jason doesnt express much concern about what is ahead. He just goes with the flow so that makes it easy. He loves being in this hospital i swear. He is more relaxed here than at home. Playing games and smiling all the time. This kid is amazing!

These last few weeks have been crazy. We were supposed to go to the hospital March 8th to start chemo then transplant. That has gotten postponed several time because Jasons liver enzymes have been elevated to a point where the doctors didnt think his liver was ready.We were admitted last Wed and we were supposed to start chemo Thursday but his liver was still too high and it also felt larger to the touch. They decided to do a liver biospy Thursday and we found out why he has been having these issues. We thought origionally it was due to the chemo or to all the meds he was one and that they would go down on their own. But the biopsy showed that it was actually high doses if IRON in his liver. You get that build up over time due to the number of blood tranfusions he has had over the last couple of years.So there are 2 ways to fix this. Bleed him out( take a bag out every month for 6 mths) Not an option we dont have that kind of time OR with meds. But those again take 3 months to get back to normal levels. So we are going back Wed and starting chemo with transplant next week and will have to keep a close eye on his liver and hope that it can take it.We have also changed to a stem cell transplant with low intesity chemo instead of bone marrow and high dose chemo.We have to watch the liver and once the new cells graft then we can start the meds. So long story short i have been stressed and we all just want this to start so it can end. thanks for keeping in touch with me and please feel free to pass this on.

Latest UPDATE

We arent going in now until 4/13 because the donor center wasnt open in observance of the Easter holiday. So now the transplant is rescheduled until 4/21.
We go in tomorrow to clinic for an appt and again on Friday..
so you never know things could change even tomorrow..

Today is the day

Well we have been home for over a month and it still doesnt seem long enough. We go in today and get settled and start on fluids as well as a slow continual heprin drip. Then tomorrow we start chemo for a week then April 8th or 9th is the day of transplant.
Jasons liver is still elevated so we are doing reduced intensity chemo and a stem cell transplant.
We are hoping that the Tcells in the transplant kill any remaining Leukemia that the chemo didnt get.

We did find out an interesting fact about Jasons donor. She is from Europe!!! Jason is so special we had to look world wide to find the right person :)

I will keep everyone posted on his progress. He is strong and i have no doubt in my mind he will be ok just getting through this is all so hard. You have no idea how i feel inside. My whole world is turned upside down. I just know when we land again we will be even better off than we are today!

Jasons levels are coming down as of Friday of last week so that is a good sign.
We go in again today to check his levels again to decide on what chemo regimen he will be getting. Cross your fingers his counts are good and he can get the high dose chemo as that has a better long term cure rate. Not that the lose dose doesnt ( that is the kind that adults get when they have transplant because they cant handle the high dose) but we all know Jason is strong and will be able to take it.

Tomorrow is a half day for Austin so when he gets out of school i am taking the kids mini golfing with some friends so we can have a little fun.

We go back in one week from today. Man how time flies when you are home.

Will update you all on what we here today

Nothing new to report here. Jasons levels are still high so we will continue to keep him off meds to see if that helps. We go back Wed for another appt to check the levels. He is still doing great.
We did family pictures in the backyard yesterday. That was like pulling teeth. Boys can be so stubborn.

The plan is so far to be admitted on March 30th to get ready for transplant. Everyone pray his Leukemia stays gone until then and this little cold he has is just that. A cold and nothing else~