A lot of people have asked us if we saved his cord blood. Our primary hematologist/oncologist states that this would not be of help. He stated that new research has found that when they look at blood samples taken at birth from children that later developed leukemia, they have found primitive leukemia cells and there is a question now about using the cord blood of children that later develop leukemia.
A few people have also asked if he will be sterile from the chemotherapy. The doctors assure us that this is no longer true because the chemotherapy has become so specific and have much fewer long-term complications. He actually told us that one older patient actually became a father while on chemotherapy (I guess he was not feeling too sick).
I want to stress that this type of cancer has a great survival rate and this is long-term survival, not 5-year survival. But the treatment is really horrible. My loving, affectionate son now flinches when approached my strangers and this breaks my heart. I know that children are resilient and hopefully this can be undone. For now, he understands that everyone is potentially dangerous and he frequently puts his hand up and yells "no doctors" when he sees anyone in scrubs.
Thank you for your words of encouragement. It means a lot to both of us to know that people care for our little boy.