huzzah!

The Three Year Treatment

Thought I would add a note that in 3 years from today Charlie will be finished with Chemo therapy. That is providing everything goes to plan and his body reacts to the drugs as anticipated which so far has been the case. The doctors told us in April that the treatment takes 3 years. What they later told us was that the three years begins on the first day of the third phase. Reminds me of the way OBGYNs "count" the months in pregnancy. Note that I am 9.25 months pregnant and still 3 weeks from the official due date.

Phase Three

Charlie starts the third phase of chemo tomorrow called Interim Maintenance. This next phase he has a shot in his port and an IV drip for 30 mins, more like traditional chemo. We went to the hospital this morning to have his blood counts checked to see if he was strong enough to start this next phase. Luckily Charlie's favorite baby sitter and our neighbor Abby came to the hospital with us this morning to help out a very pregnant Mommy. His ANC is 1200, less than the cut off, so we have to be a bit more careful about him being exposed to illness. We are thinking that with this new medicine we will have a whole new round of side effects and he will continue to be more vulnerable to infection. This new drug,over 8 weeks time will most likely cause more hair loss as well. we are happy to have had the past 4 weeks of "normal" Charlie. He is walking like a champ, and most of the steroid weight is gone. Even the testy three-year-old disposition is in full swing. Be that good or bad :)

Vim, Vigor & The Unused Gift

Well, as you can see from the video Charlie is feeling quite well and today was full of you know what. He was quite literally bouncing off the walls today. We started the day off at the hospital for a lumbar puncture. Charlie wasted no time in charming the nurses. This is the first they have seen the real Charlie. You would think that being put under and having a needle in his spine would slow him down a bit, but you'd be wrong. Charlie wanted no part of being carried or catered to. "I can do it!" he would exclaim.

After lunch we decided to take Charlie to see the new Shrek movie, Charlie's first movie going experience. Little did we realize that all the showings were in 3D and through a fabulous display of marketing genius, they don't have kid sized 3D glasses . . . for a kid's 3D movie. Figure that one out. I would have demanded our money back, but I don't think they charged us for him anyway. Despite that, Charlie enjoyed watching a very blurry Shrek and we got out of the house for a couple of hours.

Charlie and Daddy in the theater


Afterwards, Charlie was still going like the Energizer Bunny so Dad pulled out "The Unused Gift". For Charlie's 3rd Birthday, Grandmommy and Granddaddy, through no fault of there own bought Charlie the most untimely of gifts. A jumping trampoline. Remember at the time we were still treating an ingrown toenail (Uh yeah, we win The World's Worst Parenting Award for that jewel). Well, he finally got to use it and we captured video to show that it turned out to be a winner.

It's getting close to bedtime and Charlie is still going strong. He ought to just crash which is good because the plan is to send him to back to school tomorrow for as long as he can stand it. If today is any indication, he should easily last the whole day. We are hoping to get him back there for two days a week at first and phase him in towards every day he's not at the hospital. All of his numbers were great today, so we are not concerned about germs. We are concerned about returning his life to some normalcy and saving some of Mom's sanity before new baby arrives. As he enters different phases of his chemo he may not be able to go to school, due to side effects and low immunity, but we will take it as it comes and be grateful for the stint of "good days," while we have them.

Colgate Block Party 2010

Charlie had a great time at the neighborhood block party this afternoon. He tired out pretty quickly but went back outside and sat with us again towards the end of the day. Nana came over and hung out with Charlie inside the house when he started to feel punky. I posted a few more pictures here Colgate Block Party and will add more as I get them.