If only I could remember...

A number of years ago I read a book, it could've been one of those Reader's Digest books with a collection of stories. For the life of me I cannot remember what the story was called or who wrote it, but all I remember was that it was about this doctor who one day noticed strange bruises on his kid's legs and he asked his kid where the bruises came from and she said that she didn't know. Turned out that this child was diagnosed with leukemia. I can't remember anything else, I can't remember if it was based on a true story or even what the outcome was, or anything.

Of course at the time I had no idea that eventually leukemia would become our reality. I do remember one day (probably somewhere in 2005), that we were at the shops paying for our groceries and I noticed all these bruises on Bianca's legs (she's always bruised easily, and for most of it we just assumed that it was as a result of playing at daycare or playing at home and I do remember always just praying that these bruises would never look like finger marks because that would be hard to explain...). On that day, for some or the other reason, I felt a bit worried about the bruises and I remembered reading this book where bruises were the significant aspect. I turned to Terence and with tears in my eyes asked whether he thought it could be something like leukemia. I don't know why, but in that moment I felt a bit scared. Terence looked at me and said that there was no way it could be. And so for a while we shifted it to the back of our minds. The reality is that even if we did do something about the bruises then, we wouldn't have known way back then. Once we asked our one oncologist how long before diagnosis would a blood test reveal Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and he indicated that perhaps 2 months before diagnosis, but before then, it would not have revealed anything.

Ever since then there will be times when I wonder about that book I read so many years ago and it actually bugs me quite a bit. I would very much like to read this book again, but of course unless I am able to remember more or less who wrote it or even what it was called, I can't see myself finding this book anytime soon. And today was no different, as we waited at the Ronald McDonald family room in between getting Bianca's blood test done and waiting to see the doctor, I noticed they had a stack of Reader's Digest books and I searched a bit, but I couldn't spot the particular story I would very much like to read again. But anyway...

Our hospital visit was a good one and Bianca's counts are great! Her neutrophils are sitting at 2.46 which is just a bit higher than where they would like it to be. As a result Bianca's chemo dosages have been increased to 75% and if all is still well in 2 weeks' time when we are due in for our next monthly appointment, I think they might increase it again, but we'll just have to wait and see. The timing of the good counts couldn't be better because tomorrow Bianca starts school again and the good counts certainly is a blessing!