Bloody Noses

Oh.. the nose fountain. Jose's nose has been bleeding on and off for three days! Poor guy can't get it to stop. His hemocrit dropped from a 28 to a 21 in two days because of it. He was throwing up blood clots. It was horrible. He couldn't eat or drink anything. The doctors upped his platelet count to 75,000 from 50, 000. They also took him of the Lovenox which is a blood thinner to prevent blood clots in the legs and lungs. We hope it helps.

House Full

Ana came to help with the kids. While Jose is in the hospital. She brough baby Liam.

What a fat little thing he is and so cute!

Valerie also came this week. Eight people in my little house make for a house full!

It was crazy but i'm super grateful for the help right now.

American Family Insurance

I can't say thank you enough to all the great people Jose works with. All the American Family Insurance agents pitched in to donate to us. Thank you! It means so much. While Jose isn't able to work in the office. His secretary Carmelita has been taking care of things at the office. I don't know what we would do with out her. His district manager Mark and his assistant Ashley have coordinated it so that things are monitored and taken care of. They have been so great to check in on us and make sure we have all we need. So Jose can rest easy knowing his current clients are taken care of. The rest of the American Family agents have just been amazing. I can't tell you how much this has meant to us. 

Thank you. It's not an adequate enough word but THANK YOU!

Flowers from American Family!

Step Forward.

Today was the first day Jose showed no myeloblasts and promyelocytes in his blood. This is a great sign. He's still not in the clear yet. He needs to get his own cells and immune system back. But, we are stepping in the right direction. YAY!

Jose's day at the hospital.

I wanted to write kinda what goes on for Jose each day at the hopsital so we can remember.

8:00am- get breakfast (usually all fruit). CNA comes in to weigh him and do vitals and nurse comes in and does an assessment and gives him his morning pills.
9:00am- The PA comes in and gives us a run down on numbers and what's going on.
10:00am- shower and walk
12:00pm more vitals from CNA
1:00pm- One of the Docs comes in and gives us an update on any orders they have changed or meds they have started.
4:00pm- Blood draw to check numbers.
6:00pm- Dinner and walk.
9:00pm- night assessment and meds
4:00am- nightly blood draw.

Briella's Big Girl Bed!

With everything going on. Today at nap time. I went to get Briella up and found her pinned between her wall and her crib. Well that was that. Off to Target we went. I put together the bottom bunk of the bunk beds and bought her a lady bug comforter and we started her first night in her big girl bed! It was a lot of walking back and forth but she was SO SO excited to sleep in her bed. Next up potty training! She's so cute!

She was so excited! Stuck her vinyl lettering on her wall!

Naptime day two. As you can see she already mangled her letters!

She's so cute!

First Round of Chemo is Finished.

Today was Jose's last chemo treatment while in the hospital. He's tolerated it very well so far. Other than a little nausea, headache and just plain being tired. He's doing fantastic. Now we just wait for his levels to zero out. The nurses probably hate the site of me because i'm always asking for med lists and how his labs are. They have mostly been great though about giving me the information. It makes me feel better to be educated about what is going on. The chemo given was idarubicin this first go around. It was done in a 15 minute IV push. I sure hope everything goes smoothly. I'm axious to get him home.
For now we wait. We are looking at another three to five weeks of him in the hospital. He needs to get his immune system back some what before they will allow him to go home. 

Jose's last chemo treatment. Today. At least while in the hospital.

Jose's third chemo treatment. By nurse Nan. Afterwards he was feeling a little nauseous so they she gave him something and knocked him right out. He may kill me for these photos.

Facetime!

I am so greatful for technology. Even while their dad is in the hospital the kids can see and talk to him everyday. They miss him a lot. At least they are able to feel closer to him with the help of facetime. I can see and talk to him as well when i'm home with the kids.

Or at the hospital able to call and check on them.

THANK YOU

THANK YOU!!!!

I don't know how else to say it but thank you.

Thank you to my Mom.

Thank you to Jose's family.

Thank you to American Family for making sure we are taken care of.

Thank you to the amazing staff at LDS hospital who are patient with my annoying questions.

Thank you to my friends, (too many to name each one), for thinking of us.

Thank you to my family.

Thank you to our ward and neighbors.

Thank you to Bishop Bailey and Shane for coming to give us a blessing. 

Thank you all for the calls, messages and texts.

Thank you for the prayers they are definatley felt.

We are so lucky to have all of our in our lives.

Love,

Jose, Jessica, Alyssa, Dominc and Briella. 

Jose has Leukemia

 Tuesday, February 21st-Wednesday, February 22nd-
Jose had been suffering from bloody noses and bruising easily for a about a week. I finally told him he needed to go in and see a doctor. He went into the UVU clinic because we currently don't have insurance. The doctor looked at him and then decided to do a CBC or blood test. They sent him on his way and told him they would get the results to him the next day.
At 10:00 that night, he got a phone call from the nurse practitioner at UVU saying that we needed to get to the ER immediately. Jose's platelet levels were at 8,000. Which means his blood wasn't clotting. Which was causing the nose bleeds. She was thinking maybe he was having a problem with his spleen. Jose didn't want to go he wanted to wait until morning and go to an instacare. I called Alaina who called the ER doctor she works with and then before she had a chance to get back to me she had to head on a call for work. After thinking about it for a minute I thought to myself the nurse practioner wouldn't haven't called from her house at 10 pm if it wasn't an emergency. So I called my brother told him to come sit at the house and off to Utah Valley Emergency Room we went. When we arrived and were admitted they came in and retook labs. They came and told us they were not sure what was going on but they were going to start platelets and do a CT scan. They did the CT and it showed he had a small brain bleed in his head, yet they rest of his organs where fine. They suspected Leukemia.

They called an ambulance and told us they were transferring us to LDS hospital's leukemia wing. At this point it was 4 in the morning. They wouldn't let me ride in the ambulance. So, I drove up following the ambulance.
We were admitted to room E840.We got to LDS hospital and Jose was swarmed. Taking blood hooking up this and that and test and cat scans and all kinds of tests where going on. All the doctors and nurses and staff were fantastic. The pathologist came and told us he couldn't tell what was going on by blood only. He was sure it was a type of leukemia but they didn't know which one. They needed to do a bone marrow test. At this point it was 5 in the morning. While waiting I text my bishop and another good friend asked them to come up and give Jose a preisthood blessing. They arrived by 6:30 am. Around 9:00a.m they sent the nurse into do a bone marrow test. Jose slept through the whole thing. The bone marrow test came back and told us, yes he had Acute Promeylocytic Leukemia. Dr. Asche came in and spoke with us and even drew graphics on the door explaining what was going on. The aides held my hand and hugged me why I cried. Then they put a plan into action. He'd start his chemo right away and we were looking at a 30-60 day stay in the hospital.

T-normal and Jose's bone marrow. B-FISH test

I started researching this type of leukemia. Acute Promeylocytic  Leukemia. This type of leukemia has a chromosome abnormality called t(15-17 translocation). This chromosome abnormality makes this type of leukemia extremely susceptible to certain medications, one of which is called retinoic acid (ATRA). Studies have shown that when ATRA is given with standard leukemia chemotherapy, there is a much greater chance of resulting in a cure than any of the known leukemia's.
The treatment will be done in 3 phases. The first is induction. He'll have 4 chemotherapy treatments and take the ATRA 2x a day for 30 days. He'll have 2 bone marrow tests to see if the the leukemia is in complete remission.
The next step will be consolidation. We are not sure what consolidation consists of. Because it'll depend on the bone marrow tests. Most likely it will consist of two more rounds of chemo treatments. Where he has chemo for 3 days and then 3 weeks of rest. Plus the ATRA for that same week. After this he'll be on maintenance therapy where he will have oral chemotherapy for a year. It's going to be a long process. But, all in all things look good!

Around 11:00 shortly after the discussion with the doctor they came and took him for a few different things. The first thing to happen was Jose was taken down to cat scan to see if the brain bleed was bigger or smaller after starting platelets, the next thing to happen was they put in a central line. So they can draw blood directly from his heart and not have to poke him so many times.
Then the waiting began. Before they could start treatment we had to wait for a specific test called FISH. This test specifically identified the chromosomal problem. While waiting for this test result and since I hadn't slept in 24 hours I decided I would go home and see the kids and let them know what was going on. I left around 8 or 9 on Wednesday night. Jose's sister Rina stayed with him. So I could go see my kids.
That was the hardest thing I had to do. Tell my kids their dad was sick. They took it fairly well and the social worker had told me that they need to see the progression and be informed. So I made sure to try and tell them on their level what was going on. Alyssa was very worried. I was so exhausted I probably didn't handle it the best but, I didn't want to lie. I couldn't sleep. I was freaking out and my mom finally came over and gave me a sleeping pill. I don't remember anything else.

Thursday, February 23rd

Alyssa's countdown and artwork for Dad.

I slept for 14 hours and had a whole new perspective the next day. I knew everything would be alright. I got the kids dressed and ready. I took them up to see there dad. They seemed to be a lot less worried afterwards and Dominic was very excited his Dad could walk. I took them back home with my mom who had been watching them this whole time. She has been amazing I don't know what we would do with out her. After the visit with the kids I ran them home and came back to the hospital to wait for the FISH test results. As we suspected it came back positive.
Once the Fish test was back the chemo was ordered and for some reason they had forgotten to do a heart echo. So then we had to wait for a cardiologist to read that. Here it is Thursday night and finally all was done and they told us we would start the chemotheraphy first thing on Friday morning. Jose has a terrible night. Moaning, whining, his head hurt.

Friday, February 24th 

Jose's port,first chemo treatment with Sam

Friday morning we had to do another CT scan to make sure his bleed wasn't larger. Because of the night before.They took him down for that and we waited all day for the Neurologist to come in and let us know. Around 4 o'clock she came in and all was well the bleed had actually gotten smaller. They came in and gave him some Zofran for nausea and administered his first Idorubicin treatment at 6:00 on Friday night.
Idorubicin is the type of chemotherephy Jose is recieving. He'll have four treatments this first round every other day. It is injected directly to the central line. It looks like Mountain Dew code red. It takes 15 minutes to administer. After it is administered he can have symptoms for up to 2-3 hours after the treatment. The biggest side effects of this type of chemo is hair loss and nausea. Each treatment will be different as his immune system drops. The nurse that administered it Sam has been our favorite so far. She comes in to just hide in our room.
After his treatment. I ran home to shower and get some clothes so I could stay for a while. Checked on things and came back. We both had an uneventful night and slept.

Saturday, February 25th
Jose's platelet level was holding and the neurologist came in to let us know that not only had the brain bleed not gotten bigger it had actually gotten smaller. It was also in the sub-arachnoid space of the brain in what is called the blood brain barrier and not actually effecting the brain. That it should resolve itself as long as his platelets stay up.

Dominic's get well card, his awesome fire bug!

Jose's boss Mark also stopped by to let us know that everything would be fine at Jose's office. They would take care of things until he was back on his feet.
Jose was in a negative pressure room that is for patients who are in isolation. It was all they had open when we arrived. Because of him being on the chemotheraphy they moved us rooms to a positive pressure room. We are now in Room E808. My mom brought up the kids and Alaina had spent the day helping out at my house. She printed a bunch of pictures to put around his room.  Jose had a really good day. It was an exhausting night though with nursing staff bugging him every 3-4 hours for blood or other things. It is like having a newborn.

Sunday, February 26
Today has been exhausting. Jose had a good visit with his Aunt Elizabeth this morning. He has been having chills and a little big of an upset stomach. From the Atra i'm thinking. He's also starting to get grumpy just from not feeling good which is understandable. He had his second chemotherephy treatment at 6:00. He will have two more and 3 weeks of rest. If things look good afterward he'll get to go home as an out patient for the next phase of treatment. Consolidation. I sure hope things look good soon. I'm ready to take him at home. Although i'm sure i'll miss the help at the hospital when we are gone.
We had a great nurse today named Nan. She was so great about printing me a list of his medication and what is prescribed and what is just PRN or as needed. It's so nice to know a little bit of what they are giving him. It's crazy a person can go from taking just a multi-vitamin to taking. Two pages of medication.