Well, where do I even begin? It’s been on my heart for a while now to have a place to jot down my feelings and experiences. I wanted an opportunity to document what we as a family have faced. For those who are not familiar with our family, hi! I’m Michaela. I am married to my best friend, Drew, and we have 6 amazingly loud children.
In November 2018 our son, Lucas was having some weird health issues going on. After 6 weeks of urgent care visits and misdiagnoses by his pediatrician, we took him to another urgent care location. I felt ignored for weeks by every provider we saw. They all brushed me off as an overly concerned parent and sent us home. This provider finally agreed to draw labs and realized something was off. Lucas’ white blood cell count was triple what it should have been, and he had little red dots all over his body. The provider pulled me out of the room to talk to me privately and shared her concerns that Lucas may have leukemia. He was just 4 years old at the time.
After being transferred by ambulance to Children’s Hospital Aurora, Lucas received surgery to place a port in his chest. This helps make treatments easier and avoids the need to find a vein every time he has labs or procedures. Lucas then started chemotherapy that same day. He spent a total of 9 days there receiving treatment, and we learned his official diagnosis- Philadelphia Chromosome Positive Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. (That’s a doozy).
We had a long road ahead of us to get Lucas through treatment. He went through 2 years of intense chemotherapy, lumbar punctures, and bone marrow aspirations before getting to finally ring the completion bell in December 2020. Unfortunately, only 5 months later, Lucas relapsed.
A bone marrow transplant was the best treatment option, so we began the search for his donor match. We didn’t have to look far because his little sister, Luna was a 100% match. Deciding to use her as his donor was complex. We wanted the very best odds for Lucas, but knew it wouldn’t be an easy process for Luna being so young. She ended up handling the cell collection beautifully. After Lucas had 3 days of total body radiation, he was able to receive her cells. It was faster than a blood transfusion, and he napped almost the entire time!
One month later, Lucas’ bone marrow showed no cancer cells. We were grateful that the side effects he faced were minimal. Especially considering what these children go through. He then got to come home and move on with this season of his life. I wish that was the end of this chapter in his life, but the story continues. 10 days after his one-year transplant anniversary, Lucas had another bone marrow biopsy performed and cancer cells were found again. This time cancer cells had crossed the blood-brain barrier and were found in his spinal fluid and brain.
The plan was to move forward with chemotherapy to get Lucas back into remission. They would then try Car-T Therapy- a procedure that uses Lucas’ own T cells. The process included harvesting cells directly from Lucas and then genetically modifying them. This would teach them to seek out cancerous B cells and destroy them.
It’s been a little over 8 weeks since he received his T-cells back and he is still in remission. Their hope is that these T cells will live for at least 6 months in his body. If not longer. He has a good chance of being cured of this disease if they live that long. If not, we look for more options.
Through this journey, Drew and I have had two more children for a grand total of 6 kids. We’ve moved a few times, and lost family members. You name it, we’ve probably faced it as a family. My goal for this blog is to have a place to not only express some of the heavy parts of my life but share the exciting parts, too. Sometimes it’s hard to see, but my way of coping is by trying to find the silver lining.
At some point, I may go into further detail about all the things Lucas has faced and will continue to face as we navigate this scary diagnosis, but for now, I just want to say thank you so much for being here. I really am a grateful mom, and I hope that is evident in the posts, videos, and ridiculousness that I choose to share here with you all.
Thanks for being here!
-M
This site may contain links to affiliate websites including Amazon. I may receive an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you through Amazon or other potential affiliates and no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.
February 5, 2023 @ 8:43 pm
Not only all of these miracles, but you are a survivor yourself. Having a child as a young teenager and starting your family at such an impressionable age, you have never skipped a beat. You are truly one of the best moms I’ve ever known.