Christmas Time!!

I wanted to write and let everyone know how Ben is doing!!! WONDERFUL! Our Phoenix visit so far has been awesome and God is blessing us with daily protection of Ben's health. He has not caught the horrible congesty (not a word) cough and cold that is going around! I got it and recovered quickly and so did Ollie Rose. We are having a blast visiting all our amazing loved ones that we have been missing. The kids did superb on the 30 hour car ride!! They are amazing kids and I love them. Thank you all for your prayers and "We wish you a Merry Christmas"


Jamie

P.s. I will not be putting up a new Shirt of the Month for December!

Ben woke up today sick from his Chemo. He is such a big boy. He tries so hard to get to the bathroom on time, but right when he wakes up is the hardest time for him to get there quickly. His nausea came and went today. It was bad in the morning, then it let up for a while then came back around three o'clock. I think he will be feeling better by tomorrow but pray that he will have some relief.

November

Wow! We are really looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas! It is getting pretty cold here. It was 23 degrees last night.


Matt and I are taking Ben and Olivia to Mississippi for Thanksgiving to celebrate Christmas. We are going to meet his Mom and Dad and Brother's family at the family cabin. The kids are really exicted to go and have that time with their cousin.
I am still hoping to come to Phoenix with the kids in December. Ben has been really wanting to go and see everyone that he misses so much. I am hoping to find someone who wants to fly here and drive with me :) so I don't have to go alone, but I will come out either way as long as I can manage to make it work with our schedules of Dr. appointments and other things.

Ben's last appointment went well. His ANC dropped down again, but not to an alarming rate. He had Vinchristine in his port and he is due for a spinal tap again on November 30th.

I would love to ask for prayer for me. I am in a pretty agressive disagreement with Ben's Oncologist right now. I have been asking for paperwork to be signed to allow Ben to be able to recieve "Home Hospital Education". This is a program that would send a teacher to our home 2-3 hours to help with Ben's school. However, because the Doctor does not "believe" in homeschooling he is unwilling to sign it. I believe his reasons have nothing to do with anything medically reasonable, but instead has everything to do with this Doctor being personally against homeschooling. He even went so far as to tell Matt and I to our faces that "kids do not spread germs and diseases, they only get sick from bacteria from our own bodies." I have spoken to the hospital administration and I am pursuing this because I feel that they are violating my right to choose how to educate my own son. Anyway, Please pray that God will give me wisdom in this and that he will continue to guide me to resources (He has already provided so much help) that will help me state my case to the administration.

All my love Jamie

Ben's Doctor Appointment

We went for Ben's visit in Louisville today and it went really well. Ben received Vinchristine in his port IV. I really love the nurse he had today. He had her last time too, but she is lightning fast at accessing his port. Normally he screams and we have to hold him down, but she is so fast and gentle that he barely made any noise the last two times!! Thank you Jesus for Tammy!!
We saw Dr. Cheervo today for the first time and I really like her. She seems really interested in the natural supplements Ben is taking. Most of the Dr's have just kinda turned up their noses at us, which doesn't really matter because I know they are working but she took the card of the Naturopathic Dr. that we work with at Cancer Treatment Centers of America so she could follow up with him. I called the Naturopathic's office a few hours after I got home and she had already put in a call so I am really happy to see that she is genuinely interested in it.
Dr. Cheervo said that Ben does have a really bad cough and she thinks it is due to drainage from his congestion so it should go away soon.
Ben has not had a fever since the ER. PRAISE THE LORD!!! I am sure it is bound to happen again but I hope and pray that it doesn't.

I love you all. Thank you for your prayers.
Love Jamie

Thank you everyone so much for your prayers this last month. I have really felt the Lord by my side lately.

Ben had quite a time last week. He is still sick and we seem to be dealing with a really tough virus. Ben spiked a temperature on Thursday night of last week. When I took his temperature at home it was 103 degrees. We called the on-call physician and he had us go to the local ER so Ben could be checked out. By the time we got there his temp was 105.2 and climbing. They could not give him Tylenol until his blood was checked. They had to be sure he did not have some specific problems that the Tylenol would interfere with. Finally they were able to bring his temp down to a normal range. He still had a horrible cough, so they x-rayed him again. The x-ray came back clear. They aloud us to go home that night, but we were instructed to watch him closely for fever again.
So far this weekend he has not had any trouble with fever but his cough has gotten really bad this morning. Every time he coughs he says it hurts really bad. Poor guy.

Ben has an appointment with the Oncologist on Tuesday morning so I will update you on his situation when I get home.

Love you all

Jamie

This has been quite a month. I am sorry that I have not been able to keep up the blog as much. I still have limited access to the internet right now. I appreciate everyone's patience in this!!

Ben's appointment was on the 31st of August and it went well. He was scheduled for a spinal tap. They tested his spinal fluid for leukemia cells and injected chemo into his spinal column. This went well and so far has reacted well this time to this treatment. He also recieved another chemo drug in his IV port.
I had to take both Benjamin and Olivia into the primary care physician because two weeks ago they started having cold syptoms. Ben, Olivia, and I all had ear infections in both ears and had to be on anti-biotics. They are still having syptoms of this nasty cold and they also caught a viral infection that had them both sick with vomiting and diarrhea. We had to take Benjamin to the hospital on Tuesday night. We got there and he was dehydrated so they gave him IV fluids they also checked his blood for infections and found the gastroenteritis virus present. He had a bad cough from the cold so they x-rayed his lungs and they came back clear. Finally at about three A.M. on wednesday morning he kept down food and water so they released us to go home. He is doing better today and although Olivia is going back to the Doctor tomorrow because it seems that her ear infection is worse, at least Ben has not had the same problems continue.
On top of all of this I am dealing with Olivia having lice. We are not sure how she got it because we don't go out much around other people, maybe church or somewhere else, but we are dealing with and seem to have it all under control. The local news station just recently reported that not only is lice going around the schools and daycares really bad it seems to be that they are not getting this outbreak under control with over the counter options. Even though my kids are not in school or daycare it seems that this outbreak is pretty extensive for this little county. I feel like we have been through the ringer this month but here is the amazing news. Even though this has been a tough couple of weeks this is the FIRST time in over one year that Benjamin has gotten sick at all and I can only PRAISE GOD for this miracle. I find it amazing that a normal four year old not being sick in a whole year is really rare, not to mention a immune suppressed one!! GOD IS SO GOOD!!

THank you all so much for your support. Please keep us in your prayers!!

Love Jamie

1st Anniversary

I think it would be easy to be sad about the one year anniversary of Ben's diagnosis but instead We choose to Praise God for all the wonderful things this year so far!!

Lord we want to praise you for our beautiful son. We praise you for your plan and We are excited for Ben's future and the people that he will be able to share this awesome trial with. We hope and pray that you will use Ben as a vessel for spreading your name and awesome gift of salvation!!

Thank you Lord for controlling every second of the days before Ben's diagnosis and for having your angels in place to get Ben to the hospital on time. Without your mercy Lord we know it would have been too late and words will never express our gratitude as parents for you protection over him.

Thank you Lord for showing us your awesome power in drawing together so many people in prayer for our son, the best we can tell are prayer supporters are more than 150,000 strong!! PRAISE GOD!

Thank you Lord for all the wonderful people we have met this last year who have shared their amazing stories of hope and healing!

Thank you Lord for all our supporters who have joined the bone marrow donation list hoping for the chance to save lives. Bless John, Kate and Anne who have been called to donate and gave three babies their marrow!!!

Thank you Lord for our growth as a family!! Learning to lean on God for the strength to get through the bad days! And for the energy for the good ones :)

Thank you Lord for the opportunity to move closer to both sets of Ben and Olivia's Grandparents. They will forever be blessed to have such close relationship's with them.

Thank you to all our supporters for your prayers and love and encouragement.


Love Jamie and Matthew


P.s. Ben's next appointment is on the 31st so watch for the next update!!!!

August

Thank you to everyone who prayed for us all last month. Ben did not lose any weight last month and did so much better with his eating. He was 35lbs at his visit yesterday!!!!

Ben's appointment went well, he continues to respond really well to all his treatments. His ANC is 1400 and that is a great number to have before his steroid treatment starts. By the beginning of next week he should be well over 2000.

I am sorry I have not posted as much this month. Ben and Olivia were playing with the wireless extender and broke it. I am waiting for another one in the mail and in the mean time am trying to find time to sneak on to Dad's computer when I can :)

We are doing well right now and really appreciate everyone's prayer support.

We love you all and will post again as soon as we can!!!

Jamie

This week

Ben had his appointment two days ago. They gave him the Vinchristine in his port and he started this month's steroids yesterday. Matt's parents came to visit Thursday afternoon on their way to Missouri and the kids absolutely loved it. Ben had so much fun with his "B" and "Re". He was very sad when they left and he cried hard. It made me sad that he was so heart broken but also filled me with Joy that he has such a good relationship with both sets of Grandparents. He loves them so much and calls them all his friends. I love it so much!!
Pray for me as I am now struggling with Ben over his appetite and diet. It is getting increasingly difficult to get him to eat right. It started with pickiness, like only wanting to eat certain foods some good foods some not. He craved the bad foods when he was on steroids. Now even with the steroids it is hard to get him to eat at all. Not only is it completely frustrating I find my heart breaking every day with our battle to get him to eat. I feel so mean at times being so firm and hard during meal times especially when we have to punish him to get him to eat. I broke down last night and if it weren't for my mom being able to get him to eat I think it would have been so hard. I feel cruel at times forcing him to eat, but our other option is admitting him to the hospital. We have begun to supplement him with Pediasur ( which he doesn't like) because he is not eating good. If he loses too much weight than he will have to go to the hospital and they will put a tube through his nose down to his stomach to give him pediasure until his weight comes up and he eats well on his own. I have been told that they can be in there more than a month over this. I am also being told that this is only the beginning and can get much more difficult.
Anyway Thank you so much for your prayers and please keep it up. I am soooo sad lately but I know that we will get through this with the Lord and all our supporters.

Love Jamie

Our Mix-up

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go with my Mom and my Aunt to a horse weekend just for girls. Unfortunately Matt made a mistake and gave Ben his Thurday night Meds on Friday too. So he had two doses of his methotrexate and we called the Dr. Luckily the worst case scenario is it MIGHT lower his ANC for a week or so. Unfortunately it did make him very naseaus and he threw up a lot today. We will take him tomorrow to get his counts checked.

Otherwise we are doing well and Ben's next appointment is on the 6th of July so pray for us that it will go well and we will update you guys by the 6th if not sooner.

Jamie

Crisis averted!!!

We have kept our eyes on Ben this week and he is doing just fine. He got his color back, his apetite is great and he is not as sleepy. He will not need a transfusion after all!! Praise God!

Jamie

Test results

Okay so we took Ben to the local Hospital today and his Dr. called with the results. His platets were low but not too low and his red blood count was fine. He is not in a low enough zone that he needs a transfusion but if he is still looking sickly tomorrow they will probably have us come in so they can make sure he does not have an infection or virus. Please keep praying with us and I will let you know more as soon as we know.

Jamie

Uggghhhhhh :P

Why is it when you say something it comes back to bite you??

From my last posting:

"the Doctor let us know that Ben will no longer have to go to the local hospital in between visits to get his counts checked so he is officially going to be having once a month visits unless something significant occurs"

And of course we have to take him tomorrow to get his counts checked. He is really, really pale again and some bruising is showing up and he took a six hour nap yesterday and slept a super long time today too! His appetite is really bad...all of these are big indicators that his platelets and red counts are down. We will pray that he will not need to go in for transfusions but that's what ended up happening the last two times he was like this!!

Thanks for your prayers

It is hard to believe that it has been more than a month since I blogged last...I apologize to all our supporters that have been wondering what has been going on.


Last month Ben's counts stayed low until last week when they came up to almost 1500!! We were blessed by his higher numbers and took the opportunity to meet Matt's parents in Springfield, Missouri where Matt's Brother and Sister-in-Law live. They have a daughter who is six months younger than Ben. Ben and Olivia had such a blast spending the weekend playing with their cousin Kennedy and seeing their Aunt's & Uncle's (Matt's Aunt and Uncle where with us as well) and their Grandma and Grandpa too!!
Ben had an appoinment in Louisville this morning. His counts were still holding steady at 1500 so the Doctor let us know that Ben will no longer have to go to the local hospital in between visits to get his counts checked so he is officially going to be having once a month visits unless something significant occurs.
Ben had a lumbar puncture today with chemo injected into his spinal fluid. He did get sick right after he woke from the procedure so he had to stay at the hospital longer than normal until he was able to keep down fluids and food. By the time he got home he was feeling much better and even got to go to church to VBS. It was the best medicine for him to go play with his friends and sing and dance and do the crafts and to learn more about God. He is really excited to go back tomorrow!!
We did have one scare during this last month. We had to take Ben to the hospital because I thought that I had dislodged his port by picking him up and accidentally pushing on it at a weird angle. It turned out that the ripping/popping sensation I felt when I picked him up was scar tissue and did no damage to his port. So aside from not getting home from the emergency room until 1:30am we were blessed that there was not any serious damage done.
We are continueing to be blessed by all the prayers and support from everyone and please keep our prayer cover strong. We love you all and will not wait so long until the next posting!!

Jamie

Wonderful Day!!

Hello Everyone,

We went to the park today and had a great time!!!! The kids ran around and Ben did really good!! It was hot so they were very red and had to cool off when we left so we went to get Superman Ice Cream (Ben's new favorite).

Ben's counts were checked on Tuesday and are still low. They were about 925! We are praying they will get above 2000 by next wednesday so we can make a trip to Missouri to see Matt's Family!! We will pray that God will help us so we can go!!! Ben really wants to see his Grandparents and his Aunties, Uncles and Cousin too!!!


Ben has his next appointment on the 6th of June. He will be having a spinal tap this time. We will be sure to update you again.

We love you all and still Thank the Lord daily for the prayers you provide!! :)


Love Jamie

The Longest Day Ever!!

Oh man!! I am really looking forward to tomorrow and hoping that it is a much happier day. Matt took Ben to the Dr. today for his monthly visit and man is he grouchy today!! It is VERY apparent that this is Chemo caused grouchiness. This is not my normal little guy. Pray with us for a quick recovery.

Ben's ANC is down again...it is 900. This is quite a drop from his previous 1600 so we will continue have blood tests to make sure he does not drop below 750. If he does then he will have to discontinue his daily 6MP Chemo until it comes back up.


Otherwise he is doing well...Poppy is working on a lovely fenced in play yard that the kids are already very excited about...so am I....a very safe place to play. This play yard is huge and even has a newly planted orchard!! Poppy is going to build a big playground for the kids and I know they will love it!! Ben loves to be outside and we took him to the park yesterday but having his own playground will be much safer for him at times like this when his numbers are down.


We love you all

Jamie

National Marrow Donor Program - Be The Match Marrow Registry

National Marrow Donor Program - Be The Match Marrow Registry

2 Timothy 1:7

"GOD HAS NOT GIVEN US A SPIRIT OF FEAR, BUT OF POWER, AND OF LOVE, AND A SOUND MIND"

I realized I had this little ball of fear that was growing in the pit of my stomach that Olivia would possibly also get sick!! Her chances of leukemia are higher because of Ben's diagnosis. AAAHHH.....It is amazing how fast our fears can grow...I found myself obsessing over her appetite, every bruise, her coloring...everything.

All that to be said God is in control of her and me so I am praying that these fears will cease!! Pray with me everyone!!

Ben is doing well since his visit the week prior. For some reason though I cannot get his results of his last blood work-up...This is very irritating to me!! Last week our phones were down for several days because the phone line was accidentally damaged. And so far this week I cannot get an answer from the nurses....so far no one has returned my call!!!! UGGGHH... so goes life I suppose...at least no news is good news...we can pretty much assume that if they have not called then his numbers are in a good range and he is not in need of any transfusions.

I am so proud of my son and all he is accomplishing with this battle. I never would have thought that a three year old could touch so many lives and inspire so many people, but the feedback I get through my email and the blog is incredible to me. Ben touches me daily with his strength and I am falling in love with who my son is becoming.

I love you all and value your prayers beyond words!!

Jamie

Hey everyone,

Ben had an appointment at the Doctor yesterday and all went well!!! It seems that maintenance is getting off to a good start. We were finally able to get ALL of Ben's medicine in pill form and he is a happy little boy. I was shocked at the size of the antibiotic pill but he swallowed it with no problem.
Ben had Vinchristine in his port and his ANC was 1673 which has dropped since Easter but is still a reallly good number.

Love you all.

Daddy's Birthday!!

Ben was very happy to find out that it was Matt's birthday today!! He really thinks every day is his birthday no matter what we tell him so he was very excited that today is Matt's "too".
Ben asked me for a cracker today and I got down the box of cracker's and he said "No Mom, I need to play with Uncle Daniel's 'Poker Crackers'....I laughed hard and then I let him play with the poker chips.... I love my boy.

We go to the Doctor on Tuesday so Ben can have his next visit. This means another round of steroids and he will have Vinchristine in his port. Should be an easier day since we will not have a spinal tap!!

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend. We were able to take Ben on his first trip since getting here to Kentucky. We drove to Matt's Mother's house to visit for Easter. The kids had a blast and we drove home tired but fulfilled. We got to go to lunch with Matt's Grandmother and visit with her.
Savanna was happy when I came home and the kids were thrilled to see her. I started Babysitting Savanna ( my niece) during the week when my brother is working and the kids and I are already super attached. It broke Ben's heart that she couldn't come with us on our visit, but she was going to see her mom on Easter Sunday.
Ben did wonderful on the trip and despite a small cold that we initially thought was allergies he is doing well. So far Ben's first month of maintenance has gone well. His counts have stayed up to good levels. They will continue to monitor him over the next few months to be sure that they will stay up and we are praying they will. He is in a wonderful mood and very energetic most days!!
We miss everyone in Phoenix but we believe we have finally found a good church to go to!!

Ben's next appointment is next Tuesday the 13th!!! I will post again as soon as we know the outcome of the tests that day!!!


Love you all,

Jamie

March

To everyone who so faithfully follows our blog I am sorry it has been a while since I posted. In February we found out that Ben was through with the introduction phases of his treatment and ready to begin maintenance. To begin maintenance Ben's ANC had to be at least 750 and it wasn't until last monday that his counts went up high enough. On Monday last week his counts were 2465. This is a good number and the highest Ben has been in a while. He went to Louisville on Tuesday last week to start his maintenance treatment. He had a lumbar puncture and the administered the methotrexate into his spinal fluid. He also recieved Vinchristine into his port. This will be repeated every three months. Initially we thought it would be every two but they let us know at the appointment that it would be three. He has more Chemo that he will be taking at home. Every day for the next three years he will be taking a Chemo pill called 6MP every night before bedtime. He will also be taking Methotrexate (the same that has been given into his spine) every Thursday except when he has spinal taps because he will recieve it in his spine those weeks. He will be taking Steroids the first five days of every month as well. He has taken Steroids and 6MP before so we have a good idea that he handles these drugs pretty well. He has never taken the Methotrexate orally before so we will be giving him that this Thursday for the first time and are praying for God's blessing that he will do well with this too.

Ben is very excited that his hair is growing back! He takes off his baseball cap and shows everyone the new growth with a big smile on his face. It is growing in very dark brown which is different than how it used to be. They told us that Chemo can change the color of your hair, the texture, and some kids even get super curly hair when it returns. So far it seems to be as straight as ever but just quite a bit darker.

We love you all very much and I will continue to post every couple of weeks unless something changes. Please continue to pray for Ben that God will continue to heal his body and that he will not come out of remission. Thank you all for provide to us in your prayers. We can see God working in our lives every day.

Love
Jamie

Great News!!!

We got good news this week. Ben is in "maintenance"...this is such a great thing for him!! Maintenance is 3 years long as long as their are no delays and it starts on March 2nd!! Maintenance cycles are 57 days long. Ben will only have to go to the Dr. once every four weeks now! On Day one of the cycle Ben will have a spinal tap and Methotrexate(Chemo) will be injected into his spine. He will also have Vinchristine(Chemo) in his port on day one as well. He will have to take steroids on days 1 thru 5 each month. He will also have different take home Chemo drugs in pill form to take through the cycles as well. It sounds like a lot but this is actually much less than we have been doing every month so far.
When Ben had the ERRI-C treatments they did warn us that his ANC would probably hit zero. This has happened so we are being very careful about exposing him to anything. They also let us know that his hemoglobin(red blood) and his platelets (the cells that make blood clot) could get down to dangerous levels requiring blood transfusions. This did happen this week and Ben had blood transfusions on Wednesday and will most likely have to have more on this upcoming Tuesday. He did well during the transfusions and about twenty minutes into the three hour process he was feeling much better. When his red blood counts are low he feels very sluggish and grumpy. We can tell that they have lowered again because he is pale and low energy again.
This has been a very encouraging week for us and we are excited that we can now begin new plans for visiting Matt's family and allowing Ben to do more things that we had to restrict until now.

Thank you once again for all your prayers and support. It has gotten us to this point!!! PRAISE GOD!!

Jamie

Ben's Letter

Today it is snowing at Poppy's house. Grammy got a new horse for Daddy. His name is Matt ( haha he is telling you Daddy's name not the horse). I went to the doctor and I got tubies ( his port IV was accessed today). Sissy's name is Olivia.



Ben

Good Day

We went to the Louisville this morning and found ourselves to be the only appointment that day for the doctor's because it was snowing so not many people came in. So we zipped right through and were home before noon. Ben is doing well and is an extremely happy little boy because I got the Dr. to rewrite all his prescriptions to pills instead of liquid. THANK THE LORD that he has learned how to swallow pills because his Zofran which is anti-nausua medication actually makes him throw up. To his credit I tried just a little bit on my finger and I threw up too. Also his Zantac is now in a pill too. These two prescriptions really were very difficult for him and us. We felt like Giant jerks making him swallow them. We would sometimes have to hold his nose and mouth closed so this is such a blessing and answer to prayers. The Dr. & the pharmacist said that it is really abnormal for a three year old to be able to swallow pills but we are counting ourselves blessed.
We are doing one more week of the ERRI-C treatment so four more days of Matt or my Mom giving him his Chemo. Next week he will have another appointment but we are not sure when.

Pray that God will give Ben yet another good week. Dr. Bertalone said that the second week of ERRI-C tends to be very difficult he said we needed to be ready for bad nausua and vomiting, high fevers, and tremendous mood swings. We are praying that we are in the lucky few who do not experience this but we will have to wait and see.

Continue to pray for us, for peace, strength, understanding, and faith.

Love Jamie

A new week!!!

We were finally able to get Ben his treatment this week after a 3 week delay in treatment. Ben's counts were just high enough for us to get him treated on Tuesday. They introduced three new drugs to his system. The first Sytoxin required eight hours of fluids to protect his bladder from bleeding. He tolerated this very well and did not have any bleeding which is great. He did have a spinal tap to check once again for bad cells in his spinal fluid and also the Sytoxin was administered into his spine. The second drug is called 6TG and it is a pill we will be giving him for a total of fourteen days. He is taking these just fine and has not had any bad reactions. The third is called ERRI-C and it is administered through his port IV for four days in a row. They administered the first dose to Ben at the Clinic at Kosair and we found out at clinic that they were not able to find any home nurses willing to adminster Chemo to a pediatric patient so Matt has given ben the ERRI-C the last three days. They will not always allow Matt to do this depending on the type of drug he is recieving but this is a safe chemical for him to give Ben. Ben has actually really liked that Matt is giving him his medicine this week. I am thankful that we mentioned that Matt is an EMT so that now we do not have to drive back and forth as much, because it is very exhausting for Ben. We are leaving for the local hospital shortly to do lab draws to check Ben's counts so we can determine wether or not he will continue this round of treatment next week.

Aside from the usual mood swings and food changes in taste for Ben we are managing well. Ben is still such a little brave guy every time we go in to the Doctor's. We love you all very much and still praise God every day for the amazing prayer support.

With much Love,

Jamie

We miss everyone and wanted to say Thank you to everyone who has been giving us such amazing prayer support!! We also want to thank everyone for their cards, emails, facebook messages, and gifts for Ben. It has been a tremendous blessing to our family to be supported by such an amazing number of people. We can see God working everyday to heal Ben and to open doors to starting our new life here in Kentucky!!

We love you all so much

The Beardens

Today's was Crazy

We had an appointment first thing for Ben this morning so we went to Louisville last night so we didn't have to drive really early because it seems to wear Ben out and he was scheduled for eight hours for this treatment. We had a wonderful evening that we were able to spend with some old friends that I know from Phoenix who live in Louisville now. Matt and I walked away blessed and encouraged from our evening with them and went to stay the night at the Ronald Mc'Donald House. For anyone who doesn't know the Ronald Mc'Donald House is a wonderful non-profit organization that provides hotel style rooms for a low or sometimes free rate for people who have family at the hospital who are far from home. Louisville is about one and a half hours to two hours away plus a one hour time difference so it is nice to be able to have somewhere to stay when we have the all day appointments because we have to be there so early in the morning.
Unfortunately when Ben got his blood drawn on Monday his ANC was 1200 but this morning it was had dropped to 735. His count has to be at least 750 to start this next round so we were sent home and we will try again on Monday. This is the first delay we have had in Ben's treatments and instead of being discouraged we are praising God for our blessing's he has provided because this is the first delay we have had so far. From what our Doctor said this morning this is very rare most families experience at least three or four delay's in the beginning phases so we truly are blessed so far.

We continue to try to take each day and look at the joy God is providing!! Pray for us that Ben will continue on this path that God has laid before us of healing and that we can grow stronger in Him each day.

Love
Jamie

Kentucky Update

The last three weeks have flown by at such an amazing pace that I am just feeling crazy. Christmas was a very nice time spent with Sean & Jo, Ben & Val and all the kids. Matt's parents came to visit and the kids of course loved their time with them. It was a full house for sure but we had so much fun. It snowed over the last few days and the kids thought it was great!! It was a really pretty sight.
I got a horrible stomach flu with a high fever last week and we were praying that ben would not catch it. He seems to have gotten a touch of it but nothing as bad as what I went through so we are blessed that he did not have to stay at the hospital.
Ben is doing well with this phase of treatment that he started three weeks ago. He finished his second round of steroids two days ago and his appetite is starting to go down again. Ben did not gain as much weight as the first time he was on them but he is a little chubby this time. Monday and today Ben had to have his ANC checked because his next Chemo session that was scheduled for this upcoming Monday could be done. Unfortunately his count was not high enough so he will not be having a treatment on Monday. We will have to get his count checked again everyday until it comes up high enough. It is sad that he will have to have his finger poked everyday but he is a little trooper. He also loves to get suckers, but he never forgets to bring one home for Olivia. Such a thoughtful little guy :)

I will be coming to Phoenix with Olivia on the 25th thru the 1st. I have some work to do to prepare the business for the tax season. I am sad it will be so short a time but I am hoping to visit many of our phoenix family and friends. We miss you so much and still feel so supported with all the lovely messages and emails and notes we get in the mail. We do have a new phone number and mailing address so if you want to update our info drop me an email at babybearden1@hotmail.com and I will send you our info.

Love always Jamie

Love you all Jamie