Rick

This wonderful guy is Karen's husband, the kids' grandpa Rick.

He adores the kids and they adore him right back. We are so blessed to have him in our lives.

On Friday, Rick was diagnosed with Leukemia.

Last week he went in for some routine blood work and they found that his white blood cell count was not what it was supposed to be. They thought it was due to some medication he was taking so they discontinued that and retested his blood at the beginning of this week. It was still off so they did a bone marrow biopsy. On Friday they went in to get the results and he was admitted to the hospital that night and started chemotherapy yesterday. He will be in the hospital for about a month and after that he will have to be careful where he goes because he'll be very susceptible to disease.

There are a few good things. First, they caught it early and he doesn't have any other symptoms. Second, out of all of the types he could have, this is the best kind. It has a 90% CURE rate, which is much better than a survival rate. I talked to him on Friday and he seems to be in good spirits so far. It probably feels strange to just be sitting in the hospital, not feeling like anything is wrong, but not being able to leave.

We are all in a state of shock, especially, and understandably, Karen. One day life was normal and the next...BAM. I wish we lived closer so that we could be there to at least distract her from everything that is going on for a little bit. There are very few instances where a grandkid hug doesn't make you feel a little better.

So please, lots of prayers and good thoughts for this very special guy. We love you, Rick and I can't wait until I can tell everyone that you're doing great and completely cured.