Jackson’s got jokes!

Jackson is on the upswing and starting to feel more like himself. He is still requiring some morphine for pain, but much better than the previous few days

ANC is still Zero. No Fever in 3 days and no new infection has grown. So he continues on his antibotic for the current bacterial infection until his numbers recover.

Yesterday he received his last blood transfusion. Hopefully forever!
Grandma and Papa came to visit. He enjoyed the books Grandma read to him.

By last night after a dose of morphine he was out on another mission to scare all the nurses with his rubber snake!

I just love his laugh!

Today Mark Myerscough and his company hosted a blood Drive in Jackson’s honor and they collected 53 units of Blood! It truly is amazing how such a simple task can save a life!

Thanks for all the Love

#JacksonStrong

Hills and Valleys

The last couple days have been busy. I also struggle to keep updating because it’s just a terrible cycle from one day to the next and I feel like I am telling the same story over and over. One day he feels good and then bam he doesn’t.

By now we expect it even though we try to be optimistic. We know the signs of when he is going to spike a fever, we know when the mucositis is brewing, we know when his pain starts to creep back in, and unfortunately to the nurses and doctors if those things didn’t happen then they worry. The have explained that if he didn’t get sick they would be more worried that the treatment wasn’t working.  So in some weird way I guess this is a good thing.

Jackson’s Numbers tanked to zero on Sunday the 18th by Sunday night his pain had returned and he spiked a fever Monday morning. The last two days he has battled vomitting, mouth sores, neck pain, and high fevers and tested positive for a bacteria infection. So as always he is on 3 different Antibotics. We are praying that the Antibotics do their job and that he doesn’t pick up anything else along the way. He received platlettes yesterday and will have a blood transfusion today. His ANC is still at zero. Praying his numbers rebound healthier and stronger than ever and in a timely manner.

He woke up still in pain but the fever has been gone for 18 hours. We are praying he is on the upswing. We have about 2 more weeks.

Thank you for all the messages checking in on our little guy. He is hanging in there and of course “he is Fine” according to him.

100 days

Today is the ONE HUNDRETH day that Jackson has slept in the hospital. (Not consecutively) he has gotten to go home for a total of 39 days out of the last 5 months.

I am still in awe of how he handles “living” in the hospital for weeks at a time. He has never once thrown a fit about wanting to go home. He tells us all the things he misses from home but he knows he is sick, he knows he is getting better here. If you ask him he will tell you that his “Bones and Blood” are almost healthy again. He amazes me.

Today is day #10 we are 4 days out from Chemo and he is still doing okay. He had a rough night a couple nights ago when dad was with him. Vomitting and mild pain. But since we have been able to stay ahead of the nausea and the pain is at bay. He hasn’t spiked a fever yet. The doctors say it’s not “if” he spikes it will be “when” he spikes.  Jacksons ANC was at 70 yesterday so he is almost to Zero and then we will wait for the climb back up! We are still praying each day is an easy day for him!

He is still eating like a Champ and weighed in at 49.9 pounds this week. When we brought Jackson in on March 29th he weighed 35 pounds. Seeing him eat and not throw up is a great feeling and I know that means he is feeling so much better than he has in years.

He hasn’t been up to much just hanging out in his room, sleeping, eating, watching videos, playing with legos, the residents came and hung out with him one day, and visiting with Ruby one of the pet therapy dogs. Jackson loved that Ruby could play dead, and give high fives.

The prayers are working and our little guy is powering through!

Much love 🧡

#JacksonStrong #FinalRound #kickingcancersbutt #iseeavictory

Happy 6th Birthday!

August 10, 2019

Day #4 of Chemo. So far he is tolerating things well. Minus being a little irritable, emotional, and tired which is to be expected. Doctors say the effects  with this round is expected to hit on days 8 - 10.

Today we celebrated his birthday @ Riley’s and he is officially Six! He told everyone all week he was already Six!

The nursing staff sang happy birthday to him and brought him a gift. Daddy and Colby made the trip up after football to bring Cupcakes and love on our boy!

Last night I was flipping through the pictures of him and remembering the exact moments the pictures were taken and where we were. Some pictures made me laugh, others made me smile, some made me sad because he is growing so fast. Then it set in... my mind started racing and looking for signs of cancer in each picture. Trying to remember if I could recall if he complained that day, if he was sick around that time, if he had any bruises on him.  The tears started falling as I laid holding on to Jackson. I so badly want answers that I know I will never get.

I want to know when he got cancer. What caused it? Was his life long health issues tied to Leukemia? Or is it not connected at all? How do I ensure this evil disease never comes back if I can’t have answers to these questions.

I’m sure this is part of the process and I will learn over time to stop questioning everything. But it isn’t easy.

Here’s what I do know. Cancer has no rules! Cancer doesn’t care who you are, it doesn’t care how much you love your babies!

As I laid there holding Jackson as he slept on my chest. I thanked God for his unwavering love. I thanked him for leading us to Riley’s, for giving us the best doctors and nurses. I thanked him for Jackson’s remission and for the fact that we have made it this far. I thanked God for allowing us to be by his side every single step of the way! I prayed for peace and understanding and I will continue to pray. Each day that passes I feel more at peace and I know the day will come where I am fully at peace.  In the hardest season of our lives, we still have so much to be thankful for, so many blessings. Blessings that you don’t even realize until you are here and are forced to see things you don’t want to see or hear things you wish you hadn’t heard.

Today we are thankful for another day, today we celebrate our little hero for all the things.

Thank you all for the kinds words and wonderful Birthday Wishes. 🧡

#HappyBirthdayJackson #JacksonStrong #CancerSucks #Rileyschildrenhospital

Arrowhead Family

Jackson Strong Benefit @ Arrow Head Camp Ground!

Words continue to fail me, but the love and support from near and far have not.

The love that we felt pulling into the benefit and seeing so many people wearing the #JacksonStrong shirts brought tears to our eyes. So many family members who traveled to be there, friends that showed up and strangers. Strangers we have never met and some we did get to meet.

From the beginning we have tried to put the financial worry to the back of our minds. Because regardless of the cost our baby boy could not live with this ugly disease and was going to get the treatment regardless.

This benefit, the T-shirt fundraiser, and the donation site has allowed that burden to be lifted. It has allowed us to pay the medical expenses as they have came in. Which is a huge blessing and there are no words how much that means for our family! Without these donations our current life could be much different. Words can’t describe how much we appreciate what you have all done for our family!

Yesterday was amazing and we didn’t get a chance to talk to or thank everyone! So Thank you to anyone who came out to show your love in support in any way shape or form! It means the world to all of us!

The benefit total raised yesterday was $9400.00 and we are still in shock at how you all opened your hearts to our family! We have the very best support system and God knows we couldn’t do any of this without it! The prayers, love and support is what gives us the strength to have faith and hope. To get up each day with a grateful heart and positive attitude as we march into this final round!

Special Thanks to Sherri Sauder for organizing it and hosting at the camp ground! Thank you to Jeff King for Cooking the food and the generous donation🙏🏻. Thank you to Jeremy Myerscough, Kevin Cindy Myerscough, Tiffany Lyn, Aimee Rezabeck Repking, For all your help! Thank you to all the auction item doners without you this wouldn’t have been possible! Thank you to those of you that gave a donation. You are all a blessing and we plan to pay it forward as soon as we can!
#ifyouareblessedbeablessing

#JacksonStrong #Loveyouall #thankyouisntenough