I haven’t made a blog post since last January. Well, 2020 took me for a loop and I never did get my legs back.
My family’s life, like so many, was changed drastically by the quarantine edict which passed last March. School closed. My free time all but evaporated.
Then, on June 9, one day before quarantine ended, my son was diagnosed with Leukemia.
My world was upended.
We left the ER and were immediately admitted to the PICU were my son underwent 3 days of dialysis, numerous procedures involving IVs and the incertion of a PICC line into his forearm.
We spent a total of 7 days in the hospital immediately following his diagnosis. I don’t think I ate more than a few meals. I only got about 2-4 hours of sleep every night. I had a panic attack in the hospital. That week was probably the most traumatic of my life. I had a whole new world of terminology to learn, procedures to allow, and fear to manage.
We were racing about 100 miles an hour, just trying to save my son. He was considered critial when he was admitted. His white blood cell count numbered above 300,000, and I believe, he was only a week or two away from dying of Leukemia. Leukemia is one of those fast moving cancers. Patients–if left untreated–usually only survive 4-6 months. He had already been exhibiting symptoms for 2+ months–it just took us a long time to get the doctors to take us seriously.
The good news: the survival rate of children under 10 with Leukemia T-Cell ALL is 95%. My son is doing well, responding well, and we are marching towards our main goal–our milestone in treatment–Maintenance. Once we hit Maintenance, life will start to look normal again–over time. But baby steps. Small steps towards his being able to act and play like a kid again.
So, I haven’t blogged. I haven’t tweeted. I poke around Instagram a few times a week. I am not writing much and haven’t written more than a handful of times over the last 6 months. But with 2021, I’d like to get back to writing. My goal will be 20 minutes per session, 2-3 days per week. If I can accomplish that, I will be in a good place to pick things up maybe over the summer.
I do not plan on blogging until then, but if you’d like to keep in touch, you can follow me on Instagram. I post there a couple times per month. By Fall, I plan on getting back to my old ways, with a focus on my writing passion including all the things I have dropped this year: short stories and my scifi ms.
So, please don’t unfollow my blog. I will be back. I will have more to share. I just have to focus on my family right now.
I hope you all have a happy new year and a prosperous 2021!