He grows and develops by the day - and hard to believe that in just a year he has gone from this to this...
But getting here has been a tough and long journey for our poor little boy, as he wasn't even 6 weeks old when we took him to the doctor and hereafter the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) for what we initially thought was just because he'd poked himself in the one eye! It turned out he had a life-threatening auto-immune disorder, and consequently he ended up staying at the next 4.5 months undergoing strong steroid and chemotherapy treatment, that made him feel so horrible and not to mention made his poor little body and face swell to scary proportions. (It is only just now that he is starting to return to normal size).
Hereafter he had an more intense 'conditioning therapy' a chemotherapy that essentially wiped out all of the existing bone marrow and thereby the defect immune system, He then had a bone marrow transplant in the end of September, which in time will give him a new immune system.
This however takes quite some time to kick in, most often a year before it starts, and several years before it is fully functioning.
Throughout the whole process our little boy has been such a fighter. He still needs to take more medicine several times throughout the day that a little boy his age should ever have to, yet he takes them all without a fight. And he has had to endure more procedures including lumbar punctures, MRIs, scans, operations, blood transfusions, to just mention a few, than any adult will experience in their entire lifetime. All before he was 6 months old, and now at 1 year old, it is still not over, he continues to have checkups and tests, and will have to for a very long time to come, years, though as time passes they will hopefully become further and further apart.
Needless to say that it has been a tough ride for the whole family, including our other little boy who had only just turned 2 when his little brother was admitted to hospital., and mum 'disappeared' as I had to stay at RCH with Jake. And for several months he couldn't even visit Jake at the hospital as he was in a special vacuum-sealed isolation room, but he too has taken the whole thing extremely well. The moment the two brothers were finally united again was absolutely priceless as they so adore each other to bits.
Due to being so sick for so long, little Jake is several months behind development-wise, and he is also still very little, approx. the size of an 8 month old, but he is slowly catching up, and have such an appetite for life, so happy and excited about everything, and clearly is so determined and has such strong will power to kick on and catch up.
He is such a such a happy smiling boy – and it is not just Mummy and Daddy being biased and saying this, even all the doctors and nurses who usually only prod and probe him, say that they’ve never met such an easy-going, happy and loving little boy.
He deserved a huge birthday party, but with no immune system, sadly it was just not possible to have the house full of guests, but regardless, he had a fantastic day, spoilt with pressies which he clearly enjoyed.
Love you so much my little Jake, - and you will always be Mummy's little baby! xox
Twitter | Facebook | Bloglovin | Instagram |