My 2 Cents!

I guess everyone was expecting Micaela to write another beautiful blog on how the Skira clan is getting along these days. Her thoughts combined with the colourful use of the English language made her blog entries well worth reading, as well as giving everyone much food for thought! Well, this time it’s a little different - a WHOLE lot different! Dad will be making his first blog entry and I suspect it will probably be the last. I think there were a couple of reasons why I never posted a blog: 1) Micaela does such a good job so why I should I screw things up! 2) The blog site was and still is her method of therapy and 3) She was the one who spent the most time on 8D during Ben’s 6 month stay. She was the person who could best describe what life is like in the Haematology/Oncology unit of a children’s hospital. Since we are no longer staying at the Children’s, I decided that this would be a perfect time to make my first blog entry.
First, a few words on the person responsible for keeping this blog up to date – Micaela. I sure everyone realized how strong Micaela was through this time but I wanted to show everybody how tough she really is. When we first found out Ben was diagnosed with AML, I broke down. I couldn’t believe this was happening to Ben. My wife on the other hand kept it together and was already prepared to move on to the next step. When I asked Micaela how come she didn’t break down she replied “I carried Ben for 9 months and I gave birth to this child. He’s not going ANYWHERE!” I certainly wasn’t going to question her conviction. She was totally convinced from the beginning that everything was going to work out well. That’s been Micaela’s MO throughout this whole ordeal – unflappable confidence and 100% optimism that Ben will beat this terrible disease. I’m privileged and forever grateful to have a wife like Micaela. Now most of my friends would argue what did Micaela do to deserve a husband like me, but I guess we’ll keep that discussion for another day!
Between Emily, Micaela and myself, Emily had the toughest time dealing with Ben’s stay at the hospital. One moment we are all together having a great time and the next moment our lives are turned upside down and all our focus is on Benjamin. Emily went from playing with Benjamin and Mommy all day long to being shipped from one grandparent’s home to another and not able to see Mommy, Daddy and Ben all together. Even worse, as Benjamin began his road to recovery, she couldn’t understand why we were still in the hospital when he looked very healthy. You can’t explain to a 3-year old neutraphils, low CBC counts, leukemia etc. As much as we tried to explain what was going on with Ben (“his blood is sick and he has to stay here so the doctors can fix it”), she couldn’t understand it. However, 6 months flew by pretty quickly and at the end she did pretty well. Now she’s extremely happy that everyone is at home together. She doesn’t like it when Ben pulls her hair or pokes her bellybutton or grabs at her.
And now we get to the man of the hour, Benjamin. It’s been a month since he’s been home and he is doing great. On January 22nd Ben had a bone marrow aspirate and lumbar puncture to make sure he had no cancer cells. Two days later the doctor told us everything looks clean. He’s a healthy boy!
At home, Benjamin is active, energetic, loves to play with Emily, goes up and down the stairs at lightning speed, drinks well, eats healthy, eats a lot (like his old man!) and is extremely busy. On the flip side, Benjamin doesn’t listen, makes a mess of everything, makes a mess when he eats, cries when he doesn’t get his way, destroys everything in his path, tries to kill himself every chance he gets and he has both mom and dad completely exhausted by the end of the day. You know what: We wouldn’t want it any other way!
Happy Valentine Day’s everyone!