Adventures at the Abels

|I have not written in a long time, mostly because I couldn't face the pain of all the difficulties still happening. When we came home there was hope for a problem free recovery, but it has not been so. Shortly after we came home, Michael developed severe swelling in one of his testicles, which they attributed to an accumulation of leukemia cells. Feeling a little crushed here and uncertain what that means. Radiation, radiation burns.... with the hope that they got all the leukemia cells. Then his eyes and mouth developed some problems, severe mouth sores, red watering eyes, even bleeding from the eyes. The verdict GVHD. Back on the immunosupressants - cyclosporin and steroids- the word that we never want to hear. The worst of all the drugs, but what choice is there. Then his liver again not functioning the way it is supposed to. First assumption is Graft Vs Host disease, but after the steroids and cyclosporin still no improvement in the liver enzymes, so here goes another biopsy. The verdict Hemochromitosis - iron overload from all of the transfusions- causes liver damage, as well as heart, pancreas and kidney damage. That is the physical, but what of the rest of our souls in this journey. There has come a point where watching what others are doing in their seemingly normal lives is shocking and I just can't even process the seeming trivialities. It really hit all of the family - the stress and not being able to go on without being totally overwhelmed and not even being able to see how to act or what to do. Well, it became time to regroup and get some help. The problem was, or has been that to others the crisis is over, but we are just getting to a place where we can look at the emotions and the impact that this has had on our family and how we are functioning together.