Jayson's Back in Hospital

Jayson was taken to the hospital late Sunday night, September 8th, due to fever.  Labs were drawn and tests are being done. He was given medications and antibiotics to combat the fever and possible infection. His fever went up to 103.3 during the early morning, but his doctors were able to get his temperature back to normal.

Although his fever is gone, his doctor has other concerns.  His blood count from last night showed that his platelet level was low, but steady; his red blood count was down; and his white blood count had rapidly increased from last Friday.  He received a platelet transfusion this morning and is currently getting red blood transfusion. His doctor's main concern is with the rapid increase of his white blood cells.  It went from 2,000 to 78,000. This shows that his bone marrow was producing the white blood cells, but unfortunately, half of them produced were immature white cells. This can be caused by the presence of another type of cancer in his bone marrow.  His doctor did  a bone marrow biopsy and a lumbar puncture (removed some liquid from his spinal cord) before noon and the procedures went smoothly. We should get preliminary results later today. Jayson is currently sleeping and resting.

Jayson also underwent another PET scan this morning at 8:00. This was previously scheduled a few weeks ago and we hope to get preliminary results tonight or tomorrow.

We don't know how long he'll be in the hospital this time.  It all depends on what the results of the biopsy and PET scan. There's a lot of questions and uncertainty right now and only time will reveal the answers. So, we wait anxiously for the results and pray harder for good news.

Jayson has been trying to live as normal of a life as possible.  He had attended regular high school for the first week, but the new chemo treatment was leaving him too tired to make it to school on a regular basis.  We are now looking at other alternatives for his education.

He has been very active in the Youth for Christ (YFC) ministry in Murrieta.  In fact, during the youth camp retreat last Aug 23-25th in Corona, which was hosted by YFC, he shared his story, his battle with cancer, with the participants.  During his testimony, he talked about his conversations with God. He had asked God "Why?"  However he didn't ask "Why did I get cancer?" as we might expect, instead, he asked "Why was I surviving?"  His conclusion was that the answer to this question was because of God's love for him.  He further explained that God loves all His children, no matter what circumstances they may be in or how they may be behaving.  He wanted the other teens to always remember that God loves them and will always be there for them. His testimony was obviously coming straight from his heart and brought many of us there to tears. He was a living testimony of God's love for us and an inspiration to the other youths.

Please continue to pray for Jayson and our family.  May God continue to bless and have mercy on us. Thank you.