Little Trooper

Well today was a long day. Andrew was scheduled for surgery at about 11am, but it kept getting pushed back until it was 1:45pm. The bummer part of this was that he had to fast from 7am on, which made for a long morning. During the morning they loaded him full of fluids and gave him his first of many blood platelet transfusions. We also had a visit by the ophthalmalic surgeon who let us know that the small amount of tissue in the corner of his eye from the surgery was normal and should recede soon. Unfortunately, it swelled up during surgery and is now large enough to prevent his eye from closing properly so they might have to do something about that.

So surgery time finally came around and Andrew had a plethora of procedures done to him. They did a bone marrow aspiration for biopsy, a spinal tap, a spinal injection of chemotherapy, a central line placement, and a testicular biopsy. While he was recovering they also did a heart ECHO. So he is a bit worn out and a little grump some of the time, but for all that was done he is handling it really well. The only other major procedures he has had today is a red blood cell transfusion which he is handling well so far (apparently some kids need blood transfusions every other day, so keep donating blood :) ).

We have found out a little news on his condition. He has M6 AML (it's on Wikipedia), which means that his acute myologenous leukemia has an erythroid (red blood cell precursor) origin. Essentially having M6 AML as an infant with a granulocytic sarcoma and possible testicular contribution means that Andrew is truly one of a kind.

We love him so much, and it's very hard for us to see him in pain, but it makes the times that he's interactive so much more meaningful.