Team Alex - Kicking Cancer's Butt

Alex was diagnosed with T-cell leukemia in October 2011 and put on an aggressive 38 month treatment plan.  3 months shy of the end of that treatment, Alex was diagnosed with AML, another form of leukemia, which was caused from the treatment of the T-cell.  When you get cancer from the treatment, it is very hard to get to remission.  Never do you imagine hearing once that your child has cancer but really never do you imagine hearing those words twice.  The treatment is completely different.  We have month long stays in the hospital.  The first round of chemo did not work and that was gut wrenching.  But we picked ourselves up, found the strength to look down other avenues and knew that God would take care of Alex.  Round 2 of chemo is done and after a month in the hospital we are still here waiting for his body to recover.  The chemo takes everything out of his system.  It wipes out his immune system and then you wait for his body to recover and start making it's own stuff.  Slowly his platelets and white blood cells are rising and we aren't sure when he can go home but his body is recovering and that's a blessing.  Alex will be going in for a bone marrow transplant and he will get this from his sister.  Julia was tested and is a perfect match.  We had to wait two weeks for that test to come back and we had every hope and prayer on her that she would be a match and she is.  Julia will go in for surgery to extract the bone marrow and then it will be like a transfusion for Alex.  Julia is so excited and happy that she can help to save her little brother.  Alex will need to stay in the hospital for another 6 weeks and then in the Ronald McDonald house for 2 more months or so.  It is an extremely long recovery but we are ready for it.  Team Alex - Kicking Cancer's Butt