Posts by Suzanne Sawyer-Espinoza

Let me start by saying that Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) in and of itself is not that rare...in children with leukemia. It's much less common in adults, and apparently there are several things about Kendall's manifestation of his particular B-cell ALL that are incredibly unique. Enough so that Kendall has already given permission for articles to be written about him in several medical journals (and possibly textbooks).…

I've started this update several times but haven't known exactly what I wanted to say. We've been adjusting to our new "normal" of having Kendall home. It's been a learning curve for sure. There have needed to be a few more trips to Salt Lake than we'd expected because of some lab results and other schedule changes (so thankful that Kendall's sister has been able to help…

Kendall was able to check out of Huntsman Cancer Hospital and come home this afternoon. He will spend the next several Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays up there (outpatient) doing labs, rounds of chemo, imaging, and possibly transfusions. Apparently Clara (our youngest) mistakenly thought that Daddy would have to go back to the hospital after just a visit at home. I wish I had a picture of her…

There hasn't been a lot to report the past few days. Kendall got through the chemo on Tuesday really well and didn't seem to experience a lot of side effects. Things hit him more the next day, but he didn't have any really severe symptoms. We've been told that the effects will be cumulative, so we'll see how things go. Kendall is scheduled for more rounds of…

Everything seemed to go well with the chemotherapy today. They will be watching him very carefully for the next few days, but so far there haven't been any bad side effects. Tomorrow the sutures come out of Kendall's incision. Isn't that an impressive scar? (Promise that this picture is PG and well above his waistline - Kendall just has an unusually long torso.) The kids think it…

Kendall was all set to do his "rough" chemo today, had been prepped and taken his pre-meds, when they noticed that the chemo drug was actually expired. This isn't a common chemo drug that they regularly have on hand, so looks like this treatment won't be able to happen until tomorrow. So mostly just another day of waiting. On a positive note, Kendall's incision from the surgery…

Can you tell I was excited about that visit today? Seriously, it was amazing. I should probably do an update on the whole cancer thing too, though. Kendall hasn't had any negative side effects yet from the chemo he had on Friday. We were misinformed about how often he would be receiving which drugs, but after our treatment planning meeting we now have a much better idea…

I've mentioned before that one of the hardest parts of this experience has been that I am not allowed to visit Kendall at the hospital. This has actually been the longest we have ever been apart (well, since we've been married - there was that whole two year mission thing....). I know we've been very spoiled in that regard, but man have we missed each other! We've…

Not sure why it is listing the post date as 9-12-20, but it is actually about 9:00 p.m. on 9-11-20. I'm here typing at the computer while a Duo video call with Kendall is open next to me. He is doing his first real round of his first chemo regimen. It's good to be making progress! Kendall will do a dose every night for a week of…

So far my updates have focused on what's happening with Kendall at the hospital, but I wanted to take a minute to acknowledge some of the MANY blessings and miracles we have seen throughout this experience. I won't get to them all, but here are a few: -My mom has cancer and has been in poor health for the past several months. About a week before all…