The One Week Mark

It has been a week since John's initial diagnosis. We are doing our best to keep him as comfortable as possible, to run "defense" when needed so John can get much needed naps, to comfort him when he has to get "pokies". It can be easy to feel discouraged, but we are trying to stay positive. We are as focused as ever on getting John back to his healthy, active self, ready for more surf lessons with Uncle Brian.

John is doing very well from a medical stand point. But, the reality of his condition is also starting to hit him. He had many tears last night when he realized he was going to lose his hair.

We start our intensive training today for John's home care. We don't want to get our hopes up too much, but the hospital really does try to get patients home as soon as possible. They have to wait until we are comfortable administering the chemotherapy through his broviac line, and John needs to continue doing well. We have lots of faith that he will....

John's New Room

John is now comfortably situated in his new room. He continues to amaze us with his spirit and sense of humor. Although his medicines have not yet made him sick, this past weekend's Cal game may be another story. In truth, John is still a loyal Cal fan and has total faith that his Bears will pull through this weekend.

Having our own room has allowed us to spend a lot of wonderful family time together, which has been a blessing. During this time, John has been showing off his new ability to swallow pills to big brother Jimmy, who has not yet mastered this skill. He has big sister Caroline busy giving him foot rubs.

Jimmy and Caroline have made us so proud. They have stepped up to this new challenge with courage and conviction and have taught us so much in the process. Jimmy has a way of making John laugh that absolutely brightens his day. Caroline has stepped right in as "jr. nurse" and is practically running the show over at Children's. We're worried for some of the nurses' jobs.

We are getting every one of your phone messages, emails, and notes and are truly feeling all of your support and prayers. We talk to John a lot about the team of people helping to get him better. He knows this team consists of our family, extended family, church, school, sports, friends, doctors, nurses, etc. When we told him today that he had 35,000 of daddy's colleagues cheering for him, he was a little concerned that his team was getting too big. We told him it can never get too big.

Treatment Begins

We thought you would enjoy some pictures of John in the hospital. Here he is doing two of his favorite activities, listening to music on his ipod and exchanging emails with all of you.

We have had some great news since we last posted.

John was administered his first round of chemotherapy last night. We were worried about how he would take it, but he seems to have handled it very well. Initial reports from the hematology group show that even with just this initial dose of medication, there are signs the tumor is already breaking up, which is very encouraging.

Our other piece of good news is that John will finally be moving out of ICU to his own room on the oncology floor. This is very exciting for John as it means he will have his own space to move around, including a play room to visit. We will get to fill his space with some special things from home, and decorate his walls with all the notes, posters, pictures and cards that you all have so thoughtfully sent. This is also great news for our family because we can finally bring Jimmy and Caroline to the hospital to see their little brother. This will be a very special reunion for all of us and we are so grateful for it.

In closing, we wanted to share one funny story to show that John's sense of humor has remained intact throughout his hospital stay. One of the medications he's been given has a side effect that turns his urine red. The nurses were concerned this might seem scary to him, but his only complaint was that it was a Stanford color. He wanted to know if it would be possible to switch to something which turns his urine blue. A true Cal fan.

We continue to be overwhelmed by your love and support and will be in touch soon with more news.

John's Diagnosis

We are creating this blog to keep everyone informed on John's journey to get well.

On Monday, September 21, we took John to see his pediatrician because he was having trouble breathing. When his breathing didn't improve the next day, his doctor ordered an x-ray where they found a mass in his chest. He was immediately admitted to Children's Hospital in Oakland for further testing. On Wednesday morning, he went into surgery where a team of 5 doctors removed fluid from around his heart, took biopsies of the mass in his chest, removed bone marrow, spinal fluid, and inserted a broviac tube which will be used for administering all of his medications. It was a miracle that they were able to assemble this team of doctors so quickly to do all of the tests at once. He stayed in ICU for observation and monitoring.

On Wednesday evening, doctors gave him the preliminary diagnosis of lymphoblastic t cell lymphoma. They assured us that this type of cancer is very treatable and very beatable, and they expect John to make a full recovery. However, he still has a long road ahead. He will remain in the hospital for about 3 weeks. Doctors have already administered chemotherapy into his spinal column and will continue to give him chemotherapy during this time.

We are hopeful that he will be moved to the 5th floor which is the Oncology Floor where he will remain for the duration of his hospital stay.

Once John goes home, he will continue with his treatment. He has a broviac line which will allow us to administer his medicine from home. Doctors predict John's course of treatment will last 2 years. He will not be returning to school this year.

John has been incredibly brave throughout this process. He is excited to get out of ICU into his own room, where he'll be able to move around more and we can have a home base at the hospital.

Communication is often difficult in the hospital so we welcome any messages on this website. We will continue to post information on his treatment and progress. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family and we appreciate the overwhelming outpour of love, prayers, and sentiments from all. This weekend we are going to spend lots of family time with Jimmy and Caroline at the hospital to get them more comfortable with seeing John and the days to come. Hopefully, we will get into a better routine in the next week, but for now we are taking it moment by moment.

With Gratitude,

The Ricksen Family