Hunter's Transformation

Hunter 1 month old.

A true treasure.

6 months old.

14 months old......freshly diagnosed with AML Leukemia in December of 2007. This was one of his first smiles after being in the hospital for about 2 months.

and believe me......it was hard to get.

1st round of chemo.

Went with the mohawk after his hair started

falling out on the pillows.

3rd round of chemo, handling everything like a champ.

4th round of chemo

5th round of chemo........sometimes not so fun.

This was a really hard round.

In full remission after 5 rounds of chemo

and 9 months in the hospital.

Hunter 2 years old.

Obviously feeling pretty cool.

Enjoying life being cancer free.

Hunter right before he got his pneumonia.....

shortly after, he was diagnosed with his AML Relapse in January of 2009.

Hunter's cancer had returned

after 6 months of being in remission.

1st round of chemo...........

here we go all over again.

Feeling pretty good after 1st round.

Right after the 2nd round of chemo.....

there were still traces of cancer in his marrow, so the doctors advised that we do another round to try to remove all of the remaining leukemia.

This is right after the 3rd round of chemo, the experimental Clofarabine..............

.....it didn't do a thing and the leukemia almost killed him.

The transplant was postponed........and the possibility

of now even making it to transplant was slim to none.

We did another intense round of chemo

with hope of saving Hunter's life.

Pretty sad and scary times.

But so far it was the right decision.........we were on our way back to transplant.

Transplant day........and happy to be there.

On his way to healing.....

Cat scan of his chest to check for a possible virus due to his low immune system.

Short bump in the road with severe Graft vs. Host disease in his gut, upper stomach and skin.

Another horrible side effect of the Bone Marrow Transplant that could have and can still take Hunter's life.

Kicked that and was on his way again to living a healthy life.

Even though he is finished with his transplant.......we still get constant infusions of certain medicines, platelets, red blood, calcium.........whatever his body is lacking during this whole process.......you name it......there's a supplement.

This was us two weeks ago rushing to the emergency room

with swollen cheeks and a face bleed

that wouldn't stop. Turns out he only needed platelets.

Thank goodness he recovers so nicely..........

this was last week on the morning of his birthday party.

Happy as a clam to still be alive and turning 3 after 2 years of fighting.

So..........almost a full 2 years later, Hunter finally had his Bone Marrow Transplant. And all he had to do to get there was 9 rounds of chemo, a whole butt-load of bone marrow aspirates and biopsies, tons of x-rays and numerous cat scans, 5 picc-line surgeries and 2 broviac surgeries, a bronchoscopy once or twice, a colonoscopy, pneumonia, a bunch of bone scans, mri's, echocardiograms, graft vs. host disease, cedif, myositis, typlitis, hmmmmmm...........what else..................oh yeah........and a whole hell of a lot of tears, heartache, deep.......deep seeded pain and fear...........and life changing emotions that will forever change the way we approach life, appreciate life and live life. We can't help but to sometimes feel as if we are on borrowed time with Hunter and that all of our sweat and tears and accomplishments can be taken away at any given moment. Just like that. So we live life now with Hunter's best interests at heart. And however long he has on this planet..........we are going to make sure that he has the best possible life imagined. I can't think of anyone who deserves it more.