A New Day Dawning

I took the picture in this post earlier this week here in Kentucky, and it seems quite fitting as a new day is dawning for my family.  This week, our nineteen year-old son, Bradley, started his college education at the University of Kentucky.  It seemed like this day might never arrive.  We had no idea what we were heading into six years ago today – August 29, 2009.  On a Saturday much like today as we were rushing Brad to the ER, we did not know that he had leukemia.  We just knew something was seriously wrong.  After having taken him to the doctor on the prior Wednesday and even again to immediate care just the night before, I had been reassured that there was nothing seriously wrong.  I didn’t know what was up that next morning six years ago, but I knew Brad was in big trouble.

In the ER, Dr. Kim was straight with us.  He told us things were bad.  They called in the chaplain and told us that this was standard procedure, but I knew better.  I knew it was “standard procedure” when they expected someone to die.   We went from an easy life to one which we could not have imagined.  After three months in the hospital, Brad went home at Thanksgiving.  It was a long year to get Brad back on his feet and prepared for his freshman year of high school.  He rolled with the next three years of treatment and continued on to as normal as possible a high school life.  Treatments ended in the middle (January) of his junior year and we were ecstatic.

He spent the summer as a Governor’s Scholar and started his senior year with all the high hopes and expectations of any teenager finishing high school.  Then in October of 2013, our world was rocked again.  Brad had relapsed with leukemia in his spinal column.  Treatment would be restarting for another two to three years, and it would be worse than before.  That was hard to imagine – it had already been difficult.  Brad has developed three (maybe four – it’s hard to keep up with) more septic infections during this time due to the low immunity from treatments.  His life has been on a razor’s edge multiple times.  This is how we’ve lived for years now.  It has sapped us and left us dazed and confused at times.  In the midst of it, we’ve also experienced joy as a family.

Earlier this summer, Brad started the last phase of his treatments.  We had been looking forward to the lightened load as we were through the danger zone of treatment.  We were even told he was now considered low risk.  Then two weeks ago, Brad developed a fever and we checked back into the hospital.  His blood counts were unexpectedly very, very low.  The doctors feared relapse as there was no good explanation for the low blood counts.  After a very tense week of waiting and testing, we learned that Brad had not relapsed and we were celebrating. 

We also learned that the chemo had done its job so well that there was now fear that his bone marrow had been completely killed.  We were back into a waiting game to see if his marrow would start making cells again.  On the day he was supposed to be moving into his dorm at UK (a week ago), we were waiting to see if he would require a bone marrow transplant and another year of extensive hospital stays and no college.  Finally last Saturday, his marrow woke up and began to produce white blood cells again.  It will take some time for his marrow to strengthen, but we now believe it will regenerate.  In a week or so, we hope his immunity will climb to the point where he can move onto campus full time.  For this, we are grateful to God.

Brad’s leukemia has impacted us in many ways.  It has both challenged and strengthened our faith, sometimes at the same time.  We have learned to live one day at a time, as trite as that sound.  We have learned patience and dependence upon God.  You never know what is around the corner.  One thing I do know is that trouble is coming for us all.  It’s not a matter of if, but of when.  When these times come, they clarify what really matters in life, and it’s not what we spend most of our time worried about. 

When you or someone you love is facing crisis, the unimportant things reveal themselves.  Money, status, image, leisure, amusements – they all become very unimportant.  We come to realize that only one thing really matters – our relationships.  What I have learned is that our relationships to people and God (and the two are related) are all that really matter in this life.  I have to wonder why it often takes so much difficulty to help us understand that.  I have learned that if we work on our relationships while things are not difficult, those relationships will sustain us when things are.  I encourage you to learn from my experience.   Get right with God today.  Let him help you get right with others.  You will not regret it.