Simon's Update, Friday Evening

Today has been another long day for our family. Simon had an appointment with the specialist at 11:15. They took 2 more vials of blood and compared his blood counts to yesterday's counts. The 3 things they are looking at are his white blood cell count, red blood cell count and platelets. All three levels have dropped in less than 24 hours. Dr. Cook explained that there are things that affect each of those individually, but aplastic anemia is the only thing that affects all 3. There is still an off chance that it could be leukemia, but that seems remote at this point.

Bob just received a call from Dr. Cook and it is definitely NOT leukemia. Simon has aplastic anemia.

On Monday afternoon, Simon will go into the doctor's office and receive a port because of all the IVs in his future. At that point, he will more than likely need a blood transfusion. His hemoglobin was 10.2 yesterday and was down to 8.8 today. Below 8 and he needs blood. Dr. thinks he should be able to make it through the week-end.

Immune therapy will begin on Tuesday. Some of that will be done on an out patient basis and some will be done in the hospital. That will continue for 30-90 days. If he is improving, they will continue for up to 6 months. If he is not improving or getting worse, he will need a bone marrow transplant.

Once Simon has his port and is stabilized, the other 4 children will be checked for a bone marrow match. Siblings are the most likely candidates for a match.

Simon will have to stay out of school for at least the next 2 months. That is one more thing we will need to figure out.

Simon is doing fairly well. He is sore from yesterdays procedure and he is so very tired. We need to be watchful of infection or illness since he has no defenses. After today's visit, he began to realize the seriousness of the situation. He is understandably scared. We are trying to comfort him and also reminding him that our God is bigger than the boogie man and He is certainly bigger than this!

Any Bible verses that have provided strength to you and might encourage Simon would be greatly appreciated.

Also, some of you have offered rides for the kids and I am going to need to take you up on that. Life is going to be far from normal in the coming months and I want to keep up the normal routine for the kids as much as possible.

Thank you for your continued prayers. John 16:33 tells us that in this world we will have trouble, but to take heart, because He has overcome the world. I cling to that and am reminded that God is indeed bigger than this.

Part of me wants to rail at God and asks why Simon? Isn't life hard enough for him? Why does he have to go through this also? But God continues to wrap his arms around me. As with the footprints in the sand, it is now that God is carrying Simon and Simon's mom as well.