Happy Birthday Leo!

Most of you already know, but Leo's birthday is coming up this Sunday (10/25). It's been such a crazy year since he turned 40 last year and we had to cancel our family trip to Disneyland because he was hospitalized, but we're here. He's doing better, not great, but I'll take better. I just keep hoping that his counts continue to go up and that he doesn't pick up any infection or sickness. It will be extra difficult now with the colder weather coming up and all this Swine Flu scare. What's important is that he is at home here with us and getting better. I cannot wait for him to make a full recovery so that our life can get back to semi-normal. It's been difficult, but with the support of friends and family, Leo has fought to get out of the hospital and get better. The girls are so happy to have him at home, even though he can't play with them like they're used to. Claudine has been telling her teachers at school that she is so happy that her daddy is home. She says, even though he just stays in the bedroom and rests, I can go there and talk to him. When I hear stuff like that, I really know how important it is to the kids that Leo be home.

If you want to get hold of Leo on his birthday, he doesn't really have his cell on him much, but if you message him through Facebook or send him an email at leorivera25@yahoo.com , that would probably be best. Have a great weekend everyone!

Detour

Leo has been doing really well. As of last Friday, his WBC went up to 5.6! Over the weekend, though, he was feeling exceptionally weak and could barely get out of bed. When he went to his usual appointment at U of C on Monday, they almost admitted him because his blood pressure was so low. In addition, his WBC had dropped to 3.1. Luckily, his pressure came up a bit and he had no fever, so they let him go home. They ran some blood tests on him to make sure he doesn't have some kind of bug, but we haven't heard back form those yet.

Yesterday at Sherman, he was better and his WBC is creeping back up, and was at 4.2. So we're hoping the episode on Monday was just a little detour and things will continue to go up after this.

Leo's birthday is this Sunday and we were thinking of having a gathering of friends, but since he's not feeling great, we'll postpone to another time when he will be able to enjoy everyone's company.

There is a donor drive today at NIU in Dekalb if anyone is in the area and has not been able to register. I've emailed the details to my regular distribution list, but if you need them, please contact me!

Have a great day!

5.0!!!

More great news today! Leo's WBC is up to 5.0! What's important is that the doctor has also requested that he stop his neupogen injections, which are supposed to help him produce more WBC. So that pretty much means that he is increasing his counts on his own! This is so exciting-I can't even express it properly on this blog. I just feel like we kept getting bad news after bad news and then this week, it has totally turned around! More good karma everyone!

Have a wonderful rest of the week! :)

4.1 !!!!!!

You read right! Leo was at U of C today for his regular appointment and transfusion and his WBC is up to 4.1!!! The nurses are doctors were all so surprised! This is the good news that we've wanted and needed for so long! Originally, the doctors said around 23-30 days is the magic time for the WBC count to start to go up, so when Leo had hit the 60 day mark and there was not yet any improvement, the outlook wasn't looking good. Now that he's past the 70 day mark, I don't think a jump in his WBC was really what everyone was expecting, but here it is! Science is definitely powerful, but I'm telling you, there's something beyond that. Just the comfort of Leo being home has helped him to heal and recover better and we couldn't be more excited about this development! Let's hope this is the start of a whole lot of good news!

I also want to send another thank you to everyone that participated in the Light the Night walk in support of team Hope4Leo! Thank you to everyone that walked with the team yesterday-it was cold, but so worth it! It was so much fun and I will certainly lead another Hope4Leo team next year! A HUGE thank you to everyone that donated funds to the team! This was the first year I joined the walk and through everyone's generosity, Hope4Leo was the third top fundraising team at the walk this year! Thank you all for your kindness-although you were not there with us in the 40 degree weather walking (brrrrrrrrrrrrr), we felt your support there as our teeth chattered the whole 2 miles! Leo is totally overwhelmed with everyone's kindness and sacrifice....I think the success of team Hope4Leo has contributed to Leo's recovery!

I hope to post even more good news soon-it will be a great week! :)

Light the Night Walk - October 11th - Glenview

Hi everyone-many of you know that I have created a Hope4Leo team for the Light the Night walk coming up this October 11th. The walk is to fund the effort of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society that is a great group that provides assistance to families like ours that suffer from blood cancer. To those that have already made a donation or joined the Hope4Leo team, thank you! If you're interested in making a donation or joining our team and walking together to raise awareness of this organization, please visit www.lightthenight.org and at the top, search either for my name, Bernadette Rivera, or our team name Hope4Leo and follow the instructions for donating or joining the team. It would be great if we could get a big group together to show Leo that we're all standing behind him and supporting him though this difficult time.

Join us!

U of C through day 63

63 days. Amazing. Leo has been in the hospital over 2 months. His doctors requested to do another biopsy on his last Friday because they wanted to see how the cord blood cells were developing. We got the results yesterday and it was not good. There were no cells remaining from either of the cord bloods that were given to him. At the last biopsy a couple weeks ago, they saw at least a few cells from one of the cords. Now there are none. Because of this, his doctors have determined that the transplant was a failure. At this point, they don't have an alternative plan in place because honestly, they didn't think Leo would make it this far. They have bounced around several ideas, including trying another transplant with his mom's cells, trying another cord blood transplant, or they have started to talk about testing the girls to see if any of them can be potential donors. They just aren't sure at this point what to do.

The good news is, they are letting Leo go home today and surprisingly with no IV's, all oral medications. He is still very weak and his legs are extremely swollen, but he is glad to be going home and being in his own bed. The other good news is that they didn't see any cancer cells in his marrow, which is great.

Leo's doctors think he may be home for a couple weeks or so until they get another plan in place. I will be sure to keep everyone updated as information develops.

Take care!