Some Sad News

Dear Friends & Family,

As some of you are already aware, last night we received some unfortunate news. Our sweet little Rylee was diagnosed with Leukemia. She will be 18 months this Friday.

We were life flighted to Primary Children's last night and have been preoccupied with tests, blood work and trying to learn more about the new journey ahead for us.

Since it is difficult discussing things over the phone, we decided to do an email to let everyone in on what happened, what we know so far, etc.

Rylee hasn't quite been herself for about a month or so now. It's mostly been typical child illnesses: diaherra, fever, cold, etc. I took her to the Dr. about 2 weeks ago and was told by the P.A. that she had a left ear infection and was sent home with an antibiotic. The antibiotic didn't seem to be helping her & when we returned from Greg's wedding in Portland, she didn't look so well and my mom said that she had ran a fever, etc. Yesterday I took her back in to have the Dr. look at her & he agreed that she looked very pale and ordered some blood work at the hospital.

A couple of hours after the blood was tested, we received a call from our Dr. saying that her white blood cell count was high and the red blood cell count was way low (hers is at a 12, normal is 35). Her plateletts are also low. Her heart was over-compensating to help her body make up for what it's not doing naturally. Therefore, it was necessary to admit her to the E.R. immediately and for the Oncologist/ Hemotologist to take a closer look at her blood. He then confirmed that it looked like Leukemia.

At this point, they have started doing a blood transfusion to get her red blood cell level higher so that she is able to do additional testing, which will include a spinal tap and bone marrow testing. We are also waiting on the results that will indicate what kind of Leukemia she has specifically, which will tell us more about what kind of treatment will be necessary. At this point, we know that Chemo will be necessary and that full treatment/remission could be as much as a two year process or more, but most intense in the first six months.

It is breaking our heart to see her have to go through this, but she has been so good! Right now she is resting and Jus & I are just trying to take it all in. We have several concerns and a lot of details to work out still. For now, we know it will be necessary to be in the hospital for about 5 days and then we'll most likely do treatment with outpatient care- we may do it here or there could be a possibility that we can do some in Rexburg.

We know of your concern and prayers on our behalf and appreciate all of your support. We both have our cell phones, but we are also meeting with several people, so it may not be possible to get to calls. Visitors are welcome, but in limited amounts and your health must be good. I wouldn't recommend children visiting right now. Please call before you visit, we have a security code and some specifics for visitations.

This is certainly not what we expected, but we are doing our best to trust in the Lord and know that things will all work out according to his plan. The best thing the Dr.'s have said is that Leukemia is certainly curable and treatable, which gives us a lot of hope.

I'll try to check in on email here & there- they have access for parents close to the room.

Keep us in your prayer,

Nat & Justin