The Brands: This week at home (Caleb)

Thursday, August 5, 2010

This week at home (Caleb)

This is my dog. His name is Tucker. He's at Jim and Mary-Jane's and Abby and Jacob's.

That's my mom and dad. We are going to the splashpad when my nose was bleeding. We had to go to the hostibull and have a poke. They gave me beads (bravery beads) and I got to pick something from the treasure box.

I was building a train set with Sophia and Rachel with a crown on her head. We drived some trains and some trucks and some planes and a crane and a gas station.

That's my sister Nella and I love her very much. Now she's upstairs reading a book.

That's Emily and Sophia and me. Emily is giving me a piggyback ride and she is giving me a swim. She gave me a canoe ride too.

This is when we were taking out the zucchini plant in our garden. I made a pipe from the zucchini plant and put water in it to give it a drink.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: Hi Caleb. We seen how much fun you have with your Thomas the Train set. Now we have one too! Evan and Darren love to play with when they visit us. Their brother Liam is a little young yet but he will learn. I am glad that you like train sets....because now we do too!! Love Great Aunt Linda; August 5, 2010 at 11:56 PM
anya genevieve said...: hey Caleb, I'm so glad you're having such a good week and having lots of time to play, swim, help your mom and dad with the garden and spend time again with Tucker. I really love all your pictures and love to see you're smiles. I hope to come visit soon and I hope that when I do you can show me your bravery beads!! keep smiling kiddo!! love you! anya; August 6, 2010 at 9:39 AM
Anonymous said...: Congratulations with all those bravery beads, Caleb!
Brenda in St. Catharines; August 7, 2010 at 8:06 PM

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What is ALL?

Caleb has ALL, a form of leukemia. From what I understand (here's the dummy's guide to leukemia), leukemia means that something has gone wrong in blood cell production.

Blood is made up of 3 main parts, red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. The red blood cells do things like carry oxygen and nutrients through your body. The white blood cells fight infections and keep you healthy. The platelets glue it all together. (I did say this was the dummy's guide, remember.) Bone marrow is where these cells are made and released into the blood stream.

In Caleb's leukemia, his bone marrow is producing the 3 kinds of cells, but some of the white blood cells are being made wrong. These white blood cells are not maturing, they don't perform any function, and they aren't dying off. They take up space, and made it so that Caleb's red blood cells, functioning white cells, and platelets were having a hard time doing their jobs, and the production of the blasts was taking over. This is why before we were admitted to the hospital, Caleb was tired and pale. His blood just wasn't able to do what it should do.

Chemo treatments are designed to kill back the blasts. The only way to do this has a lot of extra damage (collateral damage) as well, which we see in side effects like hair loss and need for blood transfusions. Because chemo also knocks back regular blood cells, Caleb needs blood and platelet transfusions to replace what is being lost through treatment. White blood cells cannot be transfused, which is why he has nothing to fight off infections. We can't replace those ones. When the drugs are less intense and his body can gradually go back to doing what it should be doing, white blood cell production should return. We will have to be careful for a long time, though.

Hair loss occurs because cells that are replaced often in our body, like hair, can't keep up production. The cells die off faster than they are replaced. Other fast growing/often replaced cells are in our mouths and our nails. These are all affected.

I hope my dummy's guide to leukemia makes sense. It's the way I currently understand things. People in the health care profession may cringe at my descriptions, but hopefully it's accurate enough to explain what Caleb's going through. Maybe it will help you explain it to your kids. For now, we just say we're blasting blasts.

We are the Brands

We are three kids, two parents, and one dog. And too many fish. We love our city, time in the outdoors, playing soccer, camping, and making music. Our faith is central to our lives.

On June 23, pieces of what had previously been a concerning question about our son Caleb's health came together in a diagnosis of leukemia. It all happened rather quickly, after bringing him to the ER at McMaster hospital on Monday, June 21. We're absorbing this news, and trying to learn how to cope with leukemia and a young family. Our hearts are torn, but we feel the love of many.

This blog is intended to share with our loved ones and their loved ones what is happening for Caleb and the rest of us. I must say that it is possibly as much information-giving as it is therapeutic writing. Thank you for taking the time to share with us our experience. We find strength in numbers, and in shared experiences.