After some scary moments with bacterial infections, Ben’s strength has once again prevailed. He has gotten rid of his infections and has started a maintenance protocol. This 8 week repeating cycle of chemo will go on for the next 2 years. This past Wednesday, Ben had another bone marrow biopsy to check for leukemia. He also had a spinal tap where liquid from the spine is removed and checked for leukemia (leukemia cells tend to “hide” in the spinal euid or in the brain). He al

Back in the hospital with another infection... After much testing, the culprit for the fever turns out to be the E Coli bacteria. It is present in the blood and is causing lots of trouble for our little Ben. His fevers have gone down with Tylenol but after 6 hours it spikes back up to 39+ºC. He is again given Tylenol and the fever goes down. This has been going on now for 4 days. All this time he has painful stomach aches, he has bouts of nausea and feels very tired most of t

One of Ben’s favourite pass times ... video games! Well, as we are unfortunately accustomed to constant “surprises”, we had another one Sunday morning. Ben woke up Sunday morning and felt a little more tired than usual. Other than the pale face and lack of energy, no other symptoms were present. He felt quite warm so we took his temperature. It was 39.6ºC (104ºF). So, as per protocol, we phoned Children’s hospital and drove down to emergency. He was admitted, blood was taken

Ben has had more chemo, again, and 3 transfusions since our last entry. On Friday, November 10th, he needed red blood cells and platelets. Since his counts were going to go down in the next couple of weeks, the doctors decided to give him a transfusion before he left the hospital. This will keep his hemoglobin and platelets at an acceptable level. His white blood count is expected to drop, which it has, and to bring those counts back up I am giving him injections of a drug ca

Ben receiving high-dose chemo, still with a smile. Ben actually did well with the chemo last week. He did not feel too much nausea as he was getting round the clock anti-nausea drugs. The injection into his leg last Friday was quite painful but he ended having only one which was fine with him. We had to give him a calming medicine before as he was quite nervous. His counts have gone down since last week as they were expected to. Since Wednesday this week, Ben has received mor

Ben listening to music while receiving chemo. Looks quite tired... Yesterday, Ben spent most of the day at the hospital to get his kidneys checked to make sure things are going through correctly and that they are strong enough to withstand the next round of chemo. Luckily, we were able to go out Trick or Treating for Halloween last night just after getting. Ben loved it and has enough candy to last at least a couple months. This is only Ben’s second time going out for Hallowe

Ben beginning high-dose chemo. He tends to rest most of the day. This week, Ben received a high dose of methotrexate. He usually gets about 20ml or so of this chemo drug which searches and destroys leukemia cells in his spinal Cuid which also surrounds his brain. On Monday and Tuesday, Ben received 5000ml (yes, the number is correct) of methotrexate throughout his little body. He felt sick most of the week but did not vomit as he was receiving anti-nausea drugs every 6 hours

Ben, as he does every year, visited with Betty Fox (Terry Fox’s mom) at the Terry Fox Hometown Run 2006. Betty keeps a picture of Ben on her desk. Ben stayed in the hospital for six days two weeks ago to received toxic chemo drugs that needed him to be hydrated. Things went relatively well though he felt like throwing up a few times. He has not eaten very much lately and his appetite has diminished. His white blood count has dropped to 0.1 where a normal person has between 6

Ben at Papi’s house (my father). He has recently lost his hair... Ben has had a positive attitude about all the medicines he's been receiving. Every Monday for the past 4 weeks, he has had two shots in his thigh muscles, which were very painful. He keeps saying, "How many more days until the pokes?". This is, of course, just part of all the other "pokes" and chemo drugs he's been getting. A positive sign, if there can be one, is that there seems to be no leukemic cells in his

Well, our worst fears have materialized (yet again). Benjamin's leukemia has returned. He has relapsed after 6 months of chemo. He has now started a more intense chemo protocol and we are hoping he will go back into remission in the next few weeks. He is a strong little guy who is very sensitive and empathetic to everyone around him. We are hoping that he will come out of this very soon. Little children his age, or any age for that matter, should NOT have to suffer like this.

Benjamin is our courageous little guy, who's been through a lot, like many cancer patients. On October 23rd, 2002, we brought him to the hospital because a fever that he had, accompanied by a cold just wasn't going away. Blood was taken from him, his Brst traumatic experience, and was tested. He had a ve ry high white blood cell count. We were told that he might have leukemia. Sure enough, it was conBrmed that he had leukemia (ALL). He has gone through 3 years of chemotherapy