Calvin's Family Autism and Cancer Journey

Hi everyone, I'd like to tell you a little bit about my family. My husband Patrick and I have been married for 10 years and have two wonderful boys: Calvin (5 years old) and Andrew (20 months old). When I was 7 weeks pregnant with Andrew, we got a diagnosis that our older son, Calvin, is autistic. We proceeded with special care to facilitate Calvin's needs as my pregnancy progressed. We had our beautiful baby Andrew later that summer and were in such joy of having our 2 little boys in our home.

When Andrew was 4 months old, we got another diagnosis for Calvin. This time, it was leukemia. This diagnosis threw our world completely upside down.....

For us, it's been a whirlwind of the following:

-Chemo Procedures

-Hospitals stays (sometimes very lengthy)

-Blood draws

-Speech therapy for autism

-Occupational therapy for autism

-Physical therapy for both autism and cancer rehabilitation

-Behavioral therapy for autism

All of these different aspects of our lives take an enormous amount of time to undertake. My husband Patrick has had to cut back working hours to somewhere between 4-10 hours a week (if even that), given cancer circumstances. Patrick's financial losses are substantial because of all of this and have taken a great hit to our financial stability.

Our 20-month-old is mostly within my care because of this (beyond his daycare, of course). Since he was 4 months old, he has incurred a myriad of different illnesses, especially being in daycare, and has had to be home with me to recover numerous times. They are normal infant/early childhood ailments but require him and an adult staying home, nonetheless. I still try to work full time to make the only substantial income my family has right now, and to also maintain the medical insurance needed for Calvin's cancer and autism needs, along with Andrew's sicknesses, and along with mine and Patrick's well-being. The amount of time I have had to take off of work to be with either one of my kids has been staggering this past year.

After 16 months of cancer care and over 2 years of therapies for autism, our once decent family savings has become completely depleted. We are soon possibly going to struggle to pay our mortgage, which before this cancer treatment was easily taken care of.

We are not in a position to hire a nanny given our financial situation and health situation, and to hire someone to come in to take care of a 5yr old autistic cancer patient and a (if he's home then he's sick) 20-month-old toddler, doesn't seem feasible.

The prognosis is very good for Calvin's recovery, but he continues to encounter health issues with recovery, as he is currently in the hospital (again) for a fever and possible infection for the umpteenth time. We are just currently trying to make our way through the process. It's been very tough. It's been extremely emotionally draining, mentally draining, physically draining, and financially draining.

Any help would be so greatly appreciated.