Where do I even begin? Cancer - It's knocked the wind right out of me. My sweet baby boy forced to battle something so early on in his precious life seems so unfair. But, here we are, and battle it we will.
December 30th started out pretty early for us, as our son Sebastian was having trouble sleeping. He seemed to be having some gas pain (not unusual for him), and in the wee hours of the morning, we brought him into our bed to try to get him to settle. I rubbed his belly which always seems to help, but he was hard to get back to sleep. Once up for the day he seemed his normal, happy, curious self and we never thought anything of it. We were at my parents place for the holidays and that day we headed from Regina back to Saskatoon to Nathan's parents place. He travelled really well, slept halfway there, and then just chilled and played with his toys, never making a peep the rest of the way. That evening Bash seemed pretty fussy so we bathed him and got him into bed around 7pm. He woke only 45 minutes later and was very unsettled. He seemed to be having bad gas pain again, but nothing I did calmed him back down. I decided to change him as I thought maybe his clothing was too hot or he already had a wet diaper, thats when I noticed his abdomen was hard, but only on his left side. That seemed very odd to me as it was not noticeable that morning, and being a nurse I knew something wasn't right. I called Health Link right away. Health link recommended we go to Emergency to get him checked out, so we piled into the car and headed to the Saskatoon Royal University Hospital. Bash seemed to settle down while we waited and flashed his smile at everyone. The doctor finally came and assessed him, they took his blood, and they put in a catheter to get a urine sample. Around 3am, after what seemed like eons waiting, a couple doctors came to the bedside and asked us to come to a quieter area to talk. My heart sank. At that very moment I knew I was about to hear terrible news. They said we are sorry, but it looks like your son has Leukemia. We were devastated. That was the farthest diagnosis we could have imagined him having. They gave us some time alone and then hastily whisked us up to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit as Sebastian's status was critical.
A million things seemed to happen at once, life became a blur. The room filled with people trying to get IV's started and tests taken. My baby was screaming as multiple people poked and prodded him. My heart was breaking. The PICU doctor came and introduced herself and tried to explain what was happening. The most important thing they needed was to get a central line started on him. His white blood cell count was so high (520k -a normal number would be around 5k) that his blood was described as sludge or molasses - some of the tests they couldn't even do his blood was so thick. We were asked to step out so they could insert his central lines and try to get him stabilized. It was now 7am. We were still reeling from the news and in disbelief that this could be happening. We started calling family to tell them the bad news. And so begins our journey.....
December 30th started out pretty early for us, as our son Sebastian was having trouble sleeping. He seemed to be having some gas pain (not unusual for him), and in the wee hours of the morning, we brought him into our bed to try to get him to settle. I rubbed his belly which always seems to help, but he was hard to get back to sleep. Once up for the day he seemed his normal, happy, curious self and we never thought anything of it. We were at my parents place for the holidays and that day we headed from Regina back to Saskatoon to Nathan's parents place. He travelled really well, slept halfway there, and then just chilled and played with his toys, never making a peep the rest of the way. That evening Bash seemed pretty fussy so we bathed him and got him into bed around 7pm. He woke only 45 minutes later and was very unsettled. He seemed to be having bad gas pain again, but nothing I did calmed him back down. I decided to change him as I thought maybe his clothing was too hot or he already had a wet diaper, thats when I noticed his abdomen was hard, but only on his left side. That seemed very odd to me as it was not noticeable that morning, and being a nurse I knew something wasn't right. I called Health Link right away. Health link recommended we go to Emergency to get him checked out, so we piled into the car and headed to the Saskatoon Royal University Hospital. Bash seemed to settle down while we waited and flashed his smile at everyone. The doctor finally came and assessed him, they took his blood, and they put in a catheter to get a urine sample. Around 3am, after what seemed like eons waiting, a couple doctors came to the bedside and asked us to come to a quieter area to talk. My heart sank. At that very moment I knew I was about to hear terrible news. They said we are sorry, but it looks like your son has Leukemia. We were devastated. That was the farthest diagnosis we could have imagined him having. They gave us some time alone and then hastily whisked us up to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit as Sebastian's status was critical. 
A million things seemed to happen at once, life became a blur. The room filled with people trying to get IV's started and tests taken. My baby was screaming as multiple people poked and prodded him. My heart was breaking. The PICU doctor came and introduced herself and tried to explain what was happening. The most important thing they needed was to get a central line started on him. His white blood cell count was so high (520k -a normal number would be around 5k) that his blood was described as sludge or molasses - some of the tests they couldn't even do his blood was so thick. We were asked to step out so they could insert his central lines and try to get him stabilized. It was now 7am. We were still reeling from the news and in disbelief that this could be happening. We started calling family to tell them the bad news. And so begins our journey.....
Continuing to life you and Bash up in prayer. Praying for peace that surpasses all understanding and complete healing and recovery for your sweet boy.
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