Hart to Heart

Part 6

The day of Jaxon's bone marrow biopsy, I'd thought it was one of the worst things that could happen.

I was wrong. So, so wrong.

Don't misunderstand...that day was awful. Of course, the second round of intense blood work didn't show anything we didn't already know. So, while Addison and I anxiously sat in the parents' waiting room, Jaxon had a gigantic needle shoved into his hip bone so they could get some bone marrow out of him. Sure, they gave him laughing gas since he had to be awake for the procedure, for whatever reason. But he still cried and kept asking us to take him home after it was over. It was miserable.

But that was nothing compared to the overwhelming anxiety of this day, because this day we were finding out the diagnosis and all our treatment options.

Addison and I were ushered into a giant conference room, where it seemed like dozens of people were already waiting for us, including Adam and Judy, the team PR representative.

I looked over at Addison, who seemed to be thinking the same thing I was... This many people in the room wasn't a good sign.

A stout, redheaded woman stood up and came toward us.

"Mr. and Mrs. Hart, my name is Debbie Benton," she said, introducing herself and shaking our hands. "I'm going to be Jaxon's nurse practitioner. Won't you have a seat and we'll make introductions."

Addison and I took a seat by Adam and looked around. Fortunately, Adam came prepared and had a notebook in front of him. I had no idea how much of the information we were about to get was going to be retained, and I had been too nervous to even think about it until now.

"I'm going to quickly introduce everyone to you," Debbie said once we were settled in. "We don't expect you to remember everyone's names today, but everyone here will be on Jaxon's diagnostic team."

Jaxon's diagnostic team. He didn't even have an official diagnosis yet, and he already had a diagnostic team? Being in this room already felt surreal.

"This is Dr. Don Bates," she said, gesturing to a man in a white lab coat sitting next to her. "He is Jaxon's new pediatric oncologist. He's head of the department and is one of the best oncologists in the country." She then gestured to the woman on her right and continued around the table. "This is Kristina Lowe, Jaxon's research nurse; Elizabeth Dalton, Child Life Specialist; and Ruth Davis, head of the hospital's PR department."

"Why does the hospital's PR department need to be involved?" Addison asked

Debbie smiled at her kindly. "We'll explain all that in a minute. But first, I know you guys have been waiting for the results of Jaxon's bone marrow biopsy."

We nodded nervously, and I grabbed Addison's hand.

"Dr. Bates can give us more information on what they found," Debbie said, once again gesturing toward the doctor and then sitting back in her chair as he took over the conversation.

Dr. Bates appeared to be in his mid-forties or so. His dark hair was thinning on top, and he looked tired. He spoke as he glanced down at a medical file in front of him. "Mr. and Mrs. Hart, when Jaxon's white blood count was done, it was extremely high, which, of course, indicated an infection of some sort. It was just a matter of figuring out what, exactly, it was."

I could feel myself holding my breath as he spoke.

"The part of the puzzle we looked for is a certain type of white blood cell called neutrophils. His neutrophil count was about three hundred, which is well below where it should be. That led us to the bone marrow biopsy to determine what kind of infection is causing all of his symptoms." He looked away from his file and took his glasses off, looking at us directly. "In short, Jaxon has what's known as Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. It's essentially a cancer of the blood. In fact, it's one of the most common forms of cancer in children. But it is still cancer."