Recent History

I find it very difficult sometimes to update all of you about what is happening with Chet. Everything seemed to happen so quickly in February... the new diagnosis, coping with the new treatments and prognosis factors, new doctors, new worries, new fears: it is really overwhelming at times. I thought I would start this blog about what is happening with Chet to serve a multi-fold purpose. It lets us keep a record of what is happening that Chet can follow along with now, and in the future look back and see how far he has come. It lets us keep our friends and family updated with the most current info even when we haven't been able to make all the phone calls or update everyone. (It might also help avoid having inaccurate information inadvertantly being passed around.) And it gives anybody who wants to a chance to leave comments or messages for Chet to read.

Chet was diagnosed with severe aplastic anemia at 2.5 years old. It was devastating, but as time went on we learned to deal with things as we needed to. We knew the limits and guidelines - not enough platelets? no rough housing and avoid bruising - not enough red cells? boost the iron intake, eat extra veggies, and rest - not enough white cells? avoid crowds, wash your hands even more often than normal, take airborne. We got used to living with aplastic anemia, and although he wasn't really cured (his platelet counts never did return to normal) we found that we could all find a way to live with this disease until he was either cured or had a remission.

In June of last year, we took him back in for yearly counts, and realized that he had lost over half of the platelets he had maintained for several years. The doctors here began to watch his counts more regularly, and within a few months it became apparent that his counts were rising and falling in an irregular pattern. He still hadn't become so low that he needed transfusions, but it was obvious that something serious was happening again. In December he was referred to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. When we got the phone call that all of the arrangements had finally been made and his appointment was set, the reality really began to sink in deeply. Once again our little guy was really sick, but we had no idea what was ahead.