Merry Christmas - Parker's Second Christmas

I would first like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season. Secondly, I have to say that we had one of the best couple of days in a long time. Dr. Aiuti emailed us Christmas Eve to let us know the results of Parker's six month follow-up of his gene therapy. The results were positive with some numbers increasing and other decreasing since September but in the end he said that Parker is pretty much inline with the other patients that did well. For now, we will continue going to Sick Kids every two weeks for IV and to get his latest numbers. His most recent results had his lymphocytes around 600 and his neutrophils still close to 1200. Parker's liver enzymes were very slightly elevated and just above the normal range so we will be looking for those to decrease at his next examination. If they continue to increase they will do an ultra sound to see if there is anything abnormal. Most likely (and hopefully) it is just a fluctuation.

On Christmas morning Parker opening his gifts. This year was much different that last year in the sense that it was less about the paper and more about what was inside. When he would get to a gift he really liked he would repeat "I want, I want" instead of going to the next wrapped gift. Parker loved all of his gifts and daddy is still putting things together the next day.

We followed the gift ceremony with Brunch with Auntie Katie, Uncle Michael, Jett, Nana and Gaga. It was another reason to stuff ourselves with food. After that, it was off to Auntie Katie's families for Christmas dinner. I have to say that the meal was absolutely incredible and it was nice being able to spend Christmas with family and friends. Parker also really enjoyed himself. It is nice being able to bring Parker with us when we do things like this. With no one sick it made it much easier for us.

I have uploaded quite a few images for everyone to see. Lastly, thank you to Canada AM for doing such a wonderful segment on Parker and his immunodeficiency. We really appreciate the time you took to share Parker's journey with others.

Parker and Jett working together to open up another one of Parker's gifts.

A Great Christmas Holiday.

Parker absolutely loves the Backyardigans!

Christmas Brunch. Yes, we have left overs this morning.

Parker going through his stocking from Santa Claus.

I think the Leafs could use another good player.

Parker and Gaga watching the movie "Cars".

Mommy and Parker on Christmas morning.

Parker and Jett's First Christmas together.

A Gift From Auntie Natalie and Uncle David.

Parker Update

I know. It has been over a month and I have not written. I do apologise but I have been doing my best to try and make life as normal as possible. When I am not studying I try to spend as much time with Parker and my wife as possible. That said, I did write my exam about a month ago and scored 97% so I guess my studying has been paying off.

I am sure that most of you have been wondering how Parker has been doing. Well, his neutrophils have started to increase again. They are still under 1500 but they have steadily been rising the past month. But, more exciting is that Parker's lymphocytes have been increasing since we have come home. Most recently they hit 700. Normal for a toddler would be close to 4000 but since we know that Parker is making the cells himself and they were usually 100 – 200 while in Italy we are quite excited to see him recent results.

We are currently waiting for Parker's six month post gene therapy results to come back from Italy. To be honest, it has been three weeks since his blood samples were sent to Milan and I was planning on waiting to update the blog when we got the results but my wife has been giving me a hard time for not writing that I decided to sit here while Parker watches “Cars” and I cook some focaccia.

Mom is currently with Nana and Gaga in Brampton. Parker's great grandmother broke her leg a few days ago and she is having surgery tomorrow to attempt to fix it. I am sure everyone knows that anytime a 90 year old undergoes any type of surgery there is a good chance it may not go as planned. I ask everyone to place Nana's mother in your thoughts and that she pulls through tomorrows surgery.

As soon as I have more information about Parker I promise to update everyone.