Day 19: Got Prayers?

Prayers are powerful…your prayers are powerful…Everyone’s prayers have taken Ethan, and us, so far…thank you.

Extra prayers? The past few days my mind has been filled, and my heart heavy, many emotions…thrilled that Ethan’s doing well (ANC 620 today!!!), over the hump, and starting a long recovery process. But along this journey, we’ve met many others. Some home now, hopefully cured, others over here receiving a transplant. Three families are constantly in my mind this week:

An older Chinese couple, living in America, adopted a 6 year old boy from China that was abandoned by his family after learning of his disease. His new parents, perhaps saints, got him the best medical attention in America. Ethan was on 6 North while Charlie was over there. Charlie always looked well, and always had a smile on his face. And while we have the best doctors and modern medicine, it couldn’t help Charlie. I learned that Charlie passed away last week. I think of his family every day, and how they provided such love and comfort to a young, innocent boy, when he needed it most.

On July 27, two days after we got home with Ethan, the transplant doctor called our home and told us they needed to do further testing on Eliot. We needed to rule out that Eliot didn’t have the same disease as Ethan. It’s EXTREMELY RARE… Just when you think it can’t get any worse, you realize it could be worse, a lot worse. The next 10 days of waiting for the procedures and results were an emotional strain (understatement). We finally learned that Eliot’s bone marrow was healthy…he was healthy…Thank You God.

Last week, I introduced myself to a mom here, a very nice woman, and found out that she is here with her 16 year old son, who just had his transplant. He was supposed to be the donor for his 18 year old brother in January. They decided to do the same test for him, the one they did for Eliot…different outcome. Not only did they lose the matching sibling donor for their 18 year old son, they found out their other son had the same disease. So, the 18 year old brother had his transplant 5 months ago, unrelated donor. Their 16 year old son just has his transplant last week, unrelated donor. The parents are very nice, and seem very strong. I think of this family every day. Oddly enough, they live only 30 miles north of us in Maine.

And the other family I think of every day lives less than 5 miles away from us, in the town below us. Their daughter has battled cancer for 6 years, two-thirds of her life, and received her transplant in the beginning of July. She is still here on 6 West, recovering as best as she can. She had lung surgery yesterday, faced additional complications in surgery, and needs extra prayers today and tomorrow while she’s in the ICU. She’s a fighter, and will get better, but more prayers will help.

It’s been a journey, seems long sometimes. But then you meet “the other family”…it makes you feel “lucky”…Everything is warped here. Normal here, is not normal outside of here…

No additional news about Ethan…medicine wise, we’re doing lots of preparations…taking off, weaning off, adding new ones that he’ll be on for a long time, etc…Today he’s battling nausea, vomitting and diarrehea…maybe due to his counts coming up, maybe withdrawl from morphine. No one knows for sure. But he’s good…quiet weekend ahead…Ethan and Mommy hanging out, while Daddy finishes work on the house (basement) before we come home next week.