Where were you.....

It has been a number of weeks (months) since the last update on our blog. We figured now would be a good time to start back up.

For many years, I have listened to and enjoyed the song by Alan Jackson - "Where Were You When the World Stop Turning". Every time I hear that song I think about where I was on 9/11 when I first heard what was happening. I can relate with a number of feelings that are shared within that song. Today, the title of this song has brought a different meaning to my life.

Jacob went into the Doctor on 5/14 with the expectation of being diagnosed with pink eye. He did in fact have pink eye, but he came away with some much larger. They drew some blood from him and did some additional tests. The next morning we received a call from the doctor asking us to take Jacob into the ER so that they could run some additional tests. These tests confirmed the tests from the previous day. Jacob has acute lymphocytic leukemia. I am not sure how, as a parent, you can ever prepare yourself for this news. Especially when you are taking your child in for pink eye, but other than that he has been an exceptionally healthy child. Sure, looking back we can see some signs that there may have been an underlying issue. But kids get colds, kids get the flu, kids get fevers.

There have been many tough days in my life, many of which I would give anything to have changed the outcome. This one has now taken over the top spot. To have your day go from sitting in meetings at work, to driving across town to a hospital as you can hardly see straight because the fear of the unknown has caused the tears to pour out faster than you can wipe them away.

Tomorrow - May 16th @1:00pm MT, just more than 24 hours after being diagnosed with leukemia, Jacob will be taken into surgery as they perform a bone marrow biopsy, a spinal tap, and they will also insert a tunneled catheter in his chest that will be used as they start his chemotherapy treatment. The surgery is expected to last about 1 1/2 hours.

Tanya and I have received an incredible amount of support from our family and friends, we are doing our best to try and keep people informed as to what is going on and what we know. It has been a difficult day, to say the least. Our plan is to try and update this blog on a regular basis so that anyone interested in an update will have a place they can check and it will also allow us to get the information out in the open.

I ask that you continue to pray for Jacob and his family as we continue on our new journey.