Clinic

Nick is feeling much better and back to himself again. The roller coaster of pain, emotions, sadness and then smiling seems to be a vicious cycle at times. You have to keep reminding yourself that tomorrow is another day. Which brings us to the past couple of days. Tuesday, we had fun playing in the snow and 4-wheeler rides with dad. Wed. was clinic day and Colby came with Nick and I. The boys were fairly good during the time there. They each made a Mardi-Gras mask and played the Wii together. Nick's counts were great:

WBC: 5.7
RBC: 11.1
Plts: 350
APC: 4800

Nurse Pat did notice that has thrush in the mouth and he will be on an antibiotic for 2 weeks. This can be painful for anyone, if not caught right away. Luckily, Nick just has minimal amount of the infection and no pain. It is just another pill for him. After clinic I took the boys to Dave&Busters for some games and food. Debbie, Michael and Maggie met up with us and the kids had a blast. Debbie (so bravely) invited Colby & Nick for a sleepover last night. The boys were so excited and I believe were well behaved? They came home this morning and talked about the sleepover for a long time. The imagination of 5-6 yr. old boys is pretty funny and keeps us entertained. Now the boys are off to the movies with Auntie Michele and ice cream after. These are the days we cherish and seeing the smile on Nick's face all morning makes me feel relieved. He is tough and we will keep fighting. Karen

On a side note, below is really good source for kids to understand Leukemia, the medicine, port and how the body reacts. It is simple and to the point. You can read the book online (no need to purchase). I know some of our friends have mentioned their kids had questions about why Nick is sick. Hopefully this can help answer some of them. I know I read this book (a couple of times) to Nick & Colby, during the beginning part of our treatment. It really helped Nick understand what was happening to him.
http://chemo-to-the-rescue.com/

Pain and Locks of Love

Hi All,

Just a quick update for the weekend. Nick did so well on the steroids and his emotions. I know it is hard and definitely uncontrollable at times, but handled the week very well. On Friday night he fell asleep in our bed and woke up screaming in pain. His legs hurt, which is typical for him right after ending steroids. It took us almost 2 hours to get the pain under control. We gave him Tylenol w/codeine and morphine. We explained to Nick that as soon as he feels pain, we need to give him medicine. He said he was in pain early in the night but felt he could handle it then. By the time we tried to control it, he was in so much pain. No matter what we go through, it SUCKS watching your child scream out in pain, knowing there is not much you can do. You just wait, sit with him and hope it goes away quickly. It was pretty much that way all weekend. The pain came and went and he would begging for more pain medicine. We decided to stick with the Morphine since it is working best. He feels better today, but still not at 100%. He is getting a running nose and we hope it is not another virus he is catching. The kids have a week off of school, so hopefully we can fill it with some play dates this week and have Nick feeling better.

On a side note, my sister (Amy) and I had 10 inches of hair cut off and donated to Locks of Love. We have been growing our hair out for almost 2 years and it felt so good to finally be able to cut it. Little things we can give back during this battle helps us feel good. As we said in the hair place, it feels like 10 pounds is gone. (If only it were true). Karen