The Shannon Family -- Waiting for the Snow

Hi All,
It has been a very busy week for Nick. Clinic on Monday and then school on Thurday. (previous blog). On Wednesday, school was canceled for Colby so all 3 boys went over to Nancy's house (a wonderful person who runs daycare out of her house). Tom stayed the whole day and I picked Nick & Colby up at lunchtime. They both had a great time. Nick was the one who really wanted to go and see his friends. We are always nervous about how much we should let Nick go out and do. On Friday we had Michael over for a playdate. Unfortunately Nick was feeling tired for most of the day, so Michael played solo for a little while on the Wii. Colby came home from school and they played together until he had to leave. (Sorry Debbie, we'll try it again). It is hard to understand how Nick is feeling at times. One minute he is running around and the next he sleeps all day. He was in pain on Friday night to but refused to take pain medicine so it was heartbreaking to see him just lie on the couch trying to deal with it. He ended up going to bed and had a better day today. Auntie Lisa picked up Colby and Nick and brought them to her house. Of course, Nick was excited to go and jumped in the without even saying goodbye to Mommy. I picked him up in the afternoon and he slept the whole way home. I think he is definitely feeling different. Between the steroids, which makes him cranky and irritable and the chemo, he just does not know how to act sometimes. I guess I can say this week was great for Nick to get out and have some fun, but challenging for us with the meds. in his body and dealing with the mood swings. We move onto another week......
Just on a side note, we do read this blog to Nick at times and we would love to hear from you all out there. Take care. Oh yeah, we are suppose to get 7-10 inches of snow tonight, so maybe we can go outside tomorrow and build snowmen!!!

Nick went to School!

Well we finally were able to send Nick to school today. We were very hesitant at first, but what are we to do. He is still a 4 year old boy. When I dropped him off this morning he was so excited, I was scared! We walked in and instantly one of Nick's great buddies jumped up and screamed in excitement. If you could have seen the look on Nick's face. He was so happy. Nick does not seem to care about what he looks like. He took his hat off and some of the kids were pointing and talking about the lack of hair on his head. He just stated, "I've lost all my hair because of the medicine I am taking". No big deal and the kids accepted that and though no big deal. Within 5 minutes he was just like all the rest playing and enjoying his morning. As I left I said goodbye...Nick didn't really care, "Bye dad" is all he said. Grammy picked him up at 11 this morning and I understand from talking with Karen that he had a great day. Only once did he complain that the kids were to loud (there has been some indication that the chemo will affect the ear drums). Not sure that is the case or if it was a little overwhelming at points. Either way we are ecstatic that the day went so well, now we will wait and see if he catches anything.

Bob from "The Gang from Maine" take care and we are praying for you!!

The Shannon Family -- At clinic

Hello. As Amy mentioned we made it to clinic yesterday. Nick even surprised me in the morning and let me put the emla cream (numbing cream for his port) on his skin before we left and he did not even cry. He understood he was going to clinic for the shot and maybe chemo meds. Nick is feeling more comfortable at clinic and has made a few friends. He played with Finn yesterday (another boy with ALL-T-cell), while I got to make ask many questions to his mom about the treatment and side effects she has seen with Finn. It comforts me to meet other people with cancer and learn how they are handling treatment with their child. I was very excited to see Nick's counts up so well in just two days. The first thing they always do at clinic is draw blood...this is what starts our day and determines if we can move with chemo meds or wait another couple days to continue. We are behind 1 week with the chemo meds but still up to date with the shot (5 down, 25 to go). I really think we have been lucky so far and have not seen too many side effects from all the chemo and shots. We expect to see him lose some muscle mass (that is the purpose of getting the shot in the leg, it is a protein blocker) in the next couple of weeks and he does complain about bright lights. The doctors seem to think that when kids lose their eyelashes, their eyes become more sensitive to light. I am not sure if I buy that one... I think it has something to do with the chemo or maybe the radiation. Nick does not complain a lot about pain or how he is feeling, so we try to ask him as much as we can. We hope for a good week and sick free for a little while.

From the Love's - Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone! As 2009 is now here,it will bring more challenges and changes for everyone. The cousins (Joey, Megan and Kendra) got to visit with the boys on Friday and had a wonderful time. We would never know that Nick's counts are low and had received numerous medicines. Everyone had fun playing together and sharing their new toys they got at Christmas. Thomas is almost rolling over, Kendra was trying to give him some pointers but ended up copying him. I know Karen and Greg would like to blog more often, but get very busy with the kids. So here's my simple explaination and Karen can elaborate in another blog:

Nick did make it to clinic today and received his Chemo treatment and shot. He also will be back on the chemo meds and steroids:( His blood counts were very good, surprising how quickly they went up, but it's a good thing. Since he missed last's week chemo, it extends the treatment phase another week. I guess through this 30 week (31 week) phase there will be setbacks.

Thanks to everyone who has helped the Shannon's in the past several months! For now lots of love, Aunt Amy