Done

We are officially done with chemo and steroids. The feeling: Good! Nick has definitely given us a challenge on his last week of treatment. He bargained to sleep in our bed at least 6 nights, which we agreed to. He missed school on Thursday because he was feeling 'rotten', but the funny thing was, he smiled all day while he was home. This was an emotional week for him and he took a lot of frustration out on Colby. Colby even asked us what he was doing wrong and we would remind him: "Nick is on the cranky medicine, you have done nothing wrong." Now the week has ended and treatment is done. Again, I do not believe we feel completely settled, but more relaxed and a little less anxiety. I am sure the anexity will come everytime Nick goes for blood work, but we will deal with that to.
We are going to have a little party in Nick's classroom on Tuesday. I will bring in some cupcakes for the kids. His teacher has been wonderful and she really wanted Nick to know how much she cares.
I could not resist posting the picture of the boys at the water park at Give Kids the World. Take care and I will post soon. Karen

Feeling a Little Lost

Hello,
Yesterday, Greg, Colby, Nick and I went to clinic for Nick's last chemo through his port. It was quiet for us. The boys played the Wii together and then worked on beads. Greg & I usually go separately, alternating every other week and we bring our laptops to do work. We both decided it was a day to take for our family and be together, so the wait at clinic was uneventful. Nick was coughing all weekend and feeling a little tired so I was surprised to see his counts so high:

WBC: 8.3
RBC: 10
APC: 6,000
He received his Vincristine and Methotrexate through his port and we were done for the day. I really thought Greg and I would be crying the whole time, but neither of us did. I think as our Nurse Paula said.... "You both look like a lot of the parents do on their last day... Lost." "That's okay because your life will start to change and try to get back to normalcy." Of course I had a good excuse to go back to clinic in 2 weeks and check his counts. He will also need his second flu shot and one more dose of the Pantemine (antibiotic) through his port. After his port is removed or as Nick says "de-accessed for good", he will remain on Bactrim for 6 months, while his counts fully recover. We have scheduled his spinal and bone aspiriation on 12/16. He will recieve his sleepy medicine, check counts and they will take a sample at this time. He will not receive any chemo into the spine, which is good news. Then we wait a couple of weeks and schedule for his port removal with the surgeon.
Nick will officially finish with his medicines (steroids and 6MP) this Saturday, so we are not quite done, but almost.
We took the boys to Dave&Busters for lunch and games. We all had a great time and just let the boys be boys. A few more days to go........