01 - The day that only happens to other people...... or does it....

Introductions should be first I guess on my first blog ever. So, hi to all, and thanks for visiting. Read on for an opportunity to a peek in my life.

My family consists of my wife (Jill), daughter (Ella) & me (Rob) and then there's the baby on the way (still rooting for a boy though really I already know better :-). It's Monday afternoon December 3rd, '07, just brought my dad to the airport, he was over for a quick visit from Holland (where I'm originally from) to see his granddaughter (and us to I guess), who will turn 4 in January. Mom stayed home, she truly hates to fly, and we will be moving back to the Netherlands next year anyway, so we're letting her off easy. All in all life is grand, we're all in super good health and then rings the phone...........

It's my doctor with whom I've scheduled a minor elective surgery for tomorrow, he tells me he has to cancel due to an abnormal level of white blood cells that showed up during the routine blood check that was done a week prior. I should get a call to come in later that day to see the hematologist. I get the call and they tell me to come as soon as possible. OK, sure, whatever..... Let me just quickly Google what that means before I go in.......... Google: High white blood cell count.... Result: Leukemia........ Knew I shouldn't have done that, everybody knows you should stay away from the Web MD type sites, you'll only get sicker. Better quick go to the doctor though!

So, wake up my daughter from her nap, (which is an absolute no no in our house, shows I was a little concerned anyway), and head of to Kaiser. When I arrive the nurse starts talking to me about doing a bone marrow biopsy, and I, still a little unsure about the urgency of this all tell her this unfortunately won't be possible since I have my daughter with me. Why don't we do another blood test before I do anything that sounds that invasive, I am at Kaiser after all, and bigger mistakes have been known to happen ......... (I'm actually very happy with Kaiser so please don't sue based on that quote :-)).

Anyway, we do another blood test, results come back pretty much instantly and the good doctor really wants to do that bone marrow biopsy today, since as he tells me he really thinks I have Leukemia and wants to find out ASAP which kind it is. At this point I really have no idea what Leukemia is, besides some form of cancer, and all I feel absolutely horrified, truly (almost) like being hit by a bus. So I call my wife and ask her to come and pick up Ella at the hospital, which, as I have found out, is definitely not a good way to start a conversation.

My wife arrives a short while later, I tell her the news, we are pretty emotional for a while, and off I go to have the biopsy done. Takes about 30 minutes an definitely not something I'll be looking forward to doing again. The getting the needle through the bone took the hardest effort (though was not at all painful, thanks to the injections), the sucking out of the bone marrow however, was really freaky feeling and definitely more painful. Now it's time to go home, have the news settle in and wait till we get the results. There's always a chance that they're just mistaken right.........