One Waddle at a Time- Wesley's Fight

04/06/2026

Hey guys, we are finally headed home. Wesley JUST got discharged.

He got 2 platelet transfusions and a blood transfusion. Woth one of those platelets, right before we left.

No, there was not any count recovery, but everything else looks okay, so the plan is to rest at home.

04/05/2026

I’ve not been the greatest at keeping everyone updated recently. I’ve just been so overwhelmed.

Wesley got readmitted Thursday night/early morn for another fever while neutropenic.

His labs were definitely coming down and his ANC was 0.
What we were concerned with was a possible blood infection as his sepsis number was high.
But we always start immediate IV antibiotics every time he has a fever, so we started that as soon as we came in.
We also started fluids since his intake also drastically decreased.

He also got tanked up with both blood and platelets last night.

We did think we were going to be able to be discharged today, but unfortunately Wesley’s body has not yet started count recovery.

He is feeling so much better so the hope is that the fever came from his neutropenia, maybe low platelets, we’re not sure since rapids came back negative.

Happy Easter everyone💛

03/31/2026

03/30/2026

Screaming, crying, throwing up….

Tonight, I counted all procedures, surgeries, overnight/outpatient stays, etc.

I am making his very own strand of his “beads of courage”💛

Each bead will represent things like:
Blood transfusions
Platelet transfusions
Overnight hospital stays
Surgeries
X-rays/scans/ultrasounds
Specialty stays (PICU)
Anesthetic procedures
Outpatient visits
Etc

Writing it all out, makes it all so very real and just makes my mama heart fill with such admiration for the strength my little boy has.

He’s fighting for his life against cancer🎗️

03/25/2026

Chemo 6!

We just got our room, waiting for pharmacy to get his 3 chemos ready, running 2 hours of fluids to start.

Thank you Shannon Wingo for the bag, it’s our favorite! We’ve gotten so many compliments🦆

03/25/2026

So grateful and thankful for our nurses here on units 41 & 42🤎

Bubba loves being able to have a smile and laugh when they’re around, they make these stays and chemos a little better🫶🏼

03/13/2026

Just a lil update on Wes:

He is still having fevers.
We weaned off the fluids to see if he can do any intake by himself.
We need to go 24 hrs without fever.
His hemoglobin was too low, so tonight will be another transfusion.
We had platelets done Wednesday, but they’re coming down low again, so probably will need platelets by tm night.

That being said, we’re probably not looking at discharge until after the weekend most likely.

Also, wanted to shout out josh. He’s been phenomenal help during this, being able to be here soothes my anxiety, and he’s just always holding down the fort.
I’m not sure we could do this without him being here, and bubba has really just bonded so well with his daddy, and he’s the first person he runs to when he’s scared or sad🥺🤎

03/12/2026

Please pray for Wes!!!
We got home this afternoon and he’s been having low grade fevers today while at his appt. His doctor thought we’d be ok riding it out at home but Wes has different plans and we took his temp and he’s 103.8.
They’re going to keep us, this I’m sure of per protocols.
I’m really worried and he’s not acting so energetic, his body is compensating for the fever.
Headed back to shands now, administered dose of Tylenol.

03/11/2026

Had our lab appt this morning, and it’s been a busy, different kind of day!

Wes still has the chest rattle going on from him being sick almost 2 weeks ago, although we were hopeful that this would’ve been resolved by his chemo 5 neutropenic phase.
We want to confirm this isn’t pneumonia or turning into it, so we did have to get chest x rays. Waiting on those results.

We got prelims for his bloodwork back and platelets were LOW, so were in the infusion center waiting on platelets to get here, so we can start the transfusion.

Wes got his premeds for this and our nurse offered us warm blankets, before his Benadryl (premed for one time having a reaction to platelets), and he passed OUT finally.
Before even the Benadryl😅😂

Hoping we’re able to go home!

03/04/2026

Got to see a familiar face this morning to kickoff chemo FIVE… (one of joshes well loved fire chiefs for his station)

We’re more than halfway done with chemotherapy.

We technically didn’t make counts this morning, his platelets were at 63, when they like them to be at 75.
Also, his ANC was at 730 when it needs to be at 750.

His team and us decided it was close enough, and that we’d go ahead and move forward with treatment.
This may cause a delay in recovery for next chemo.
You don’t want too much time in between chemo so the presumed leftover cancer cells don’t have time to metastasize and mutate, so this seemed the best option.

We have 3 days of chemo, so should get to go home by Friday afternoon.