Please Pray for Garrett....a letter from his mom....
This letter is from Michelle Berry.
For anyone that does not know this family, Michelle Berry is the daughter
of
Gary & Sharon Countz that own Radio Shack here in Wynne. (Written July 24, 2007)
As many of you know our lives were turned upside down yesterday after
taking
our precious litte angel Garrett Hayden to the doctor for what we thought
was
a little infection in his finger and because we thought maybe he had a
virus.
The doctors told us they wanted to check his blood. I mentioned to them
that
although he had no other signs, I'd like for them to check him for anemia
since he seems to bruise easily. The doctors came back to give us the
diagnosis and immediately took Garrett from the room.
They informed us that Garrett was very highly anemic and that our sweet
sweet
baby appeared to have leukemia. All of his counts were very low so they
called
for a CBC to be taken to the hospital and we'd have the results in an hour.
In
about 20 minutes they came back and told us we needed a shot of antibiotics
and we were to head straight to St. Judes. I won't go into all of the
details
since we've been here, just alot of pain, alot of tears and a terrified
baby
and family. Because of the infection we were unsure when we could go to
surgery but the doctor scheduled him for today and the results are back.
The
diagnosis is Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL).
Although we definitely
don't
want any form of cancer, if we have to have it, from everything we are told
this is the kind to have. We started chemotherapy today. We have a long
road
ahead of us. We'll be at St. Judes for inpatient chemo for a week then
we'll
either stay at the Ronald McDonald House or a condo here in Memphis for the
next 5 or 6 weeks where he will be brought in everyday for more chemo.
After
that we will hopefully be back home but will make many more trips (probably
once or twice a week) and treatment will continue over the next three
years.
The doctors are giving us lots of hope. However there are still many many
risks with the chemo and no guarantees. Many of you have called and asked
what
you could do for us. From the bottom of our hearts, we sincerely thank you.
The one thing we need right now is PRAYERS!!! Many prayers for him have
already been said. I also ask that each one of you please send this email
to
everyone you know, and I ask that each one of them do the same and so on. I
hope this reaches many people. If you know him, pray for him, if you don't,
please pray for him anyway, and if you don't normally pray, please for my
baby, pray now. God will hear you. God does answer prayers.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Philippians 4:13
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