PunchkinPatrol
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2013
- Messages
- 16
DISCLAIMER!
Hi everyone! Im brand new to the DisBoards so please bare with me. My friend, Ana~n~Joseph introduced me to the boards years ago and I often lurked but now that Im actually writing a trip report, I figured I might as well get my own username. I know Ana often wrote about my youngest son, Holden, on the Make-a-Wish thread so I wanted to follow up on that. Hopefully I get this thing right the first time.. hehe.
WHO ARE WE?
Well, this is my beautiful family.
Quick introductions&
Me Im Traci, mother of 3 wonderful kids and wife to my amazing husband, Dave. I am a huge Disney fan and try to go to Disney World as much as I can (once a year).
DH Dave Former Army Special Forces, two tours to Afghanistan but now he works in the civilian world. Amazing dad to our wonderful kids, soccer coach for our middle sons team and well, the biggest Houston Dynamo fan you will find. He is not a huge Disney fan but he finds the magic whenever we are there.
DD Jordie My beautiful, lovable, drama queen. The best big sister her little brothers could ask for. She is a Disney Princess and went to Disney World for the first time when she was 8.
DS1 Trey My little read head who is going into 2nd grade! He loves his siblings and playing soccer. He visited Disney World for the first time in 2010, the year Holden was diagnosed. It was supposed to be a trip with mommy and daddy but unfortunately, due to the circumstances, mommy had to stay back so he went with Daddy and his Aunt Ana and her family. I have to say both of my older kids have been amazing through this ordeal. Such beautiful, loving and amazing kids/siblings.
DS2 Holden aka Holdie Holden is our Wish kid of course. Its amazing how much he has been through in such a short time. But hes a fighter and a survivor. August will be 1 year of remission. He loves all things Disney and is so excited to go on the mickey boat! . He loves to play with his older brother and is addicted to iPad games (educational ones, at least). He is truly a ray of sunshine and can light up the room with his infectious smile. He is also very good at keeping me on my toes!
HOLDEN & Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia
So where does one begin on this one? Ill try to make it short.
It was August of 2010, Holden was 6 months old and I was in Italy for a friends wedding. Holden was at home with dad and the kids (and of course, Granny would stop by daily for her visit). It was a usual evening when Dave noticed the baby felt hot . He was running a fever. There were also two bruises on his legs but he was high-energy, he had probably bumped into something, right? Daddy decided he best take Holden to the local ER for the fever and he did. There, he was told it was an ear infection but daddy just had a feeling in his gut that told him to check further. He asked them to run blood tests and immediately called our pediatrician (thank goodness for 24 hour hotline!). Once the results came in, Dave read them to our pediatrician over the phone and he immediately said Something is not right, get him to Texas Childrens ASAP . Without a second thought, Dave grabbed Holden, put him in the car and drove as fast as he could to the Texas Medical Center.
The diagnosis at TCH came out almost immediately. His first blood work there came back showing him as anemic with a white blood cell level of 348,000 (normal range is 5,000 to 10,000). Within the first few hours, the wonderful team at Texas Children's administered platelets and blood, as well as leukopheresis which brought the white blood cell level down to 120,000. This also started an 23 hour journey to get mom home as fast as possible. My friend, Ana, was actually the one who broke the news to me on the phone. She called the hotel and after telling the nice Italian man that this was an urgent matter and an emergency he transferred the call to my room in the middle of the night. Ill never forget her words, Traci, you need to come home . I was with a group of friends in Italy and between all of them, they found me a way home. It was the longest plane ride possible and the feelings associated with it are impossible to put into words.
I arrived at TCH at night and that was the start of a two year journey of countless stays, chemos, surgeries, infections, etc.
Hi everyone! Im brand new to the DisBoards so please bare with me. My friend, Ana~n~Joseph introduced me to the boards years ago and I often lurked but now that Im actually writing a trip report, I figured I might as well get my own username. I know Ana often wrote about my youngest son, Holden, on the Make-a-Wish thread so I wanted to follow up on that. Hopefully I get this thing right the first time.. hehe.
WHO ARE WE?
Well, this is my beautiful family.
Quick introductions&
Me Im Traci, mother of 3 wonderful kids and wife to my amazing husband, Dave. I am a huge Disney fan and try to go to Disney World as much as I can (once a year).
DH Dave Former Army Special Forces, two tours to Afghanistan but now he works in the civilian world. Amazing dad to our wonderful kids, soccer coach for our middle sons team and well, the biggest Houston Dynamo fan you will find. He is not a huge Disney fan but he finds the magic whenever we are there.
DD Jordie My beautiful, lovable, drama queen. The best big sister her little brothers could ask for. She is a Disney Princess and went to Disney World for the first time when she was 8.
DS1 Trey My little read head who is going into 2nd grade! He loves his siblings and playing soccer. He visited Disney World for the first time in 2010, the year Holden was diagnosed. It was supposed to be a trip with mommy and daddy but unfortunately, due to the circumstances, mommy had to stay back so he went with Daddy and his Aunt Ana and her family. I have to say both of my older kids have been amazing through this ordeal. Such beautiful, loving and amazing kids/siblings.
DS2 Holden aka Holdie Holden is our Wish kid of course. Its amazing how much he has been through in such a short time. But hes a fighter and a survivor. August will be 1 year of remission. He loves all things Disney and is so excited to go on the mickey boat! . He loves to play with his older brother and is addicted to iPad games (educational ones, at least). He is truly a ray of sunshine and can light up the room with his infectious smile. He is also very good at keeping me on my toes!
HOLDEN & Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia
So where does one begin on this one? Ill try to make it short.
It was August of 2010, Holden was 6 months old and I was in Italy for a friends wedding. Holden was at home with dad and the kids (and of course, Granny would stop by daily for her visit). It was a usual evening when Dave noticed the baby felt hot . He was running a fever. There were also two bruises on his legs but he was high-energy, he had probably bumped into something, right? Daddy decided he best take Holden to the local ER for the fever and he did. There, he was told it was an ear infection but daddy just had a feeling in his gut that told him to check further. He asked them to run blood tests and immediately called our pediatrician (thank goodness for 24 hour hotline!). Once the results came in, Dave read them to our pediatrician over the phone and he immediately said Something is not right, get him to Texas Childrens ASAP . Without a second thought, Dave grabbed Holden, put him in the car and drove as fast as he could to the Texas Medical Center.
The diagnosis at TCH came out almost immediately. His first blood work there came back showing him as anemic with a white blood cell level of 348,000 (normal range is 5,000 to 10,000). Within the first few hours, the wonderful team at Texas Children's administered platelets and blood, as well as leukopheresis which brought the white blood cell level down to 120,000. This also started an 23 hour journey to get mom home as fast as possible. My friend, Ana, was actually the one who broke the news to me on the phone. She called the hotel and after telling the nice Italian man that this was an urgent matter and an emergency he transferred the call to my room in the middle of the night. Ill never forget her words, Traci, you need to come home . I was with a group of friends in Italy and between all of them, they found me a way home. It was the longest plane ride possible and the feelings associated with it are impossible to put into words.
I arrived at TCH at night and that was the start of a two year journey of countless stays, chemos, surgeries, infections, etc.
. My daughter's MAW trip is July 20-26
I've been following Ana's posts about Holden's Wish process. 
Glad Holden is in remission, and is getting his Wish. 
I have only ever sailed Carnival...Ana tells me this will spoil me forever.
Anyway, I wanted to share that we told Holden about his Wish this past weekend. We surprised him in the morning with a giant box. In the box there were balloons that came out as soon as he opened it and one balloon read "Your Wish Came True" and the other said "Mickey Mouse Boat - August 18th". When his older brother, Trey, read them, he got so excited! We then had a small cake and a gift from Mickey for him to unwrap (it was underwear, I really need him to potty train!!!). We made it a family affair just us and the kids (and well, Ana was there too, she helped with everything). Here's a picture:
We learned that it was best for him to tough it out through the 1st night anxiety of meeting new people, because once he did he ended up with friends for the whole cruise. Our daughter who is 8 never needed convincing. She LOVES the kids club. It was funny because when she was younger on the cruise we would see some kids crying because they did not want to be left at the kids club, however my daughter would cry when we came to pick her up!! 
I haven't felt well, and haven't been on the DIS.
about the part where his line had been cut off. So glad that he's doing so well. 
