Not the Birthday We Hoped For

This past Tuesday was Liam’s 6th birthday. Last year, he started chemo on his birthday. This year, he had to leave his birthday party early to go to the ER and was hospitalized for pancreatitis. Apparently, his unhappy pancreas is experiencing an uncommon side effect from one of his daily chemotherapy drugs. Emily jokingly told the doctors to add it to our list of abnormal and rare complications. Thankfully, Liam has been responding well to the supportive care his team has provided. If he can get enough nutrition and fluids in orally (pancreatitis makes eating and drinking difficult), he’ll hopefully be able to go home on Monday. And while his steady improvement is comforting, larger issues are now looming around his ongoing treatment.

1. How can Liam move forward with a chemotherapy drug he needs to fight cancer—but which may also be causing pancreatitis? His care team is still looking into whether the chemo is, in fact, the cause. The way forward may involve lower doses of chemo combined with a medication that targets the cancer cells more precisely but will also lower Liam’s immune system (which is less than ideal in this phase of treatment).

   
   

2. Recently, Liam’s new oncologist at Seattle Children’s reviewed his original bone marrow tests in more detail. They found that his leukemia has some rare features. One of them is a change in a gene called ABL1, which can affect how leukemia cells grow. Another finding was that his leukemia cells had very low levels of a marker called CD1a, which makes his leukemia a bit unusual—but not the most aggressive type. They’re still doing more tests to understand if these factors raise his risk of relapse while also opening the door to more targeted treatments in the future.

   
   

3. We’re confident that moving Liam’s care to Seattle was the right decision. Still, this past week has shown us the added strain that the distance (with traffic, it can take over two hours from our house) puts on our family and on Emily and I as we take shifts at the hospital with Liam. We’re thankful to be here, and yet—for many reasons, including the distance—it’s an adjustment for us.

   
   

   How to Pray:

   • Pray that Liam would heal from pancreatitis and pray for his joy. He is really uncomfortable. Also, after spending more than 6 months in-patient this past year, he (and we...though you probably guessed that) is over being in the hospital.

   • Pray Liam could come home on Monday.

   • Pray for healing from leukemia and his ongoing fungal infection in his liver and spleen.

   • Pray against further complications or infections (hospitals, in one sense, are not safe places).

   • Pray that his new medical team would have wisdom in charting a path forward with treatment of leukemia and his fungal infection.

   • Pray for stamina for Emily and I, and our kids.

   • Pray our greatest joy and contentment would be found in Christ.

     
     

Thank you for tracking with our family and praying for us. We're grateful for your care and support.

Below are some pictures of Liam's party and from our time in the hospital this past week