More and More

The pink eye has spread to Isaac, so he is now the one fighting the 3-times daily eye drops. David ran a fever for three days last week, and is now on some pretty strong antibiotics. Yesterday his blood counts were extremely low. We are having to watch him to make sure that he doesn't run any more fevers, or that could get dangerous. Needless to say, we are staying tucked at home.

-Kim

Since I last typed at you, we've had a round of scarlet fever, a round of pink eye, several more cold type illnesses, and then a strange likely virus that caused several days of a high fever. Today is really the first day that there hasn't been any real problem, but I still have several kiddos on antibiotics, and now, I have a sore throat starting.

On the brighter side, though, today has been exceptionally warm, so I have had the windows open to air out all the germs. I have washed just about every single soft item in the house that is small enough to fit into the washer, and I have disinfected all the bathrooms, the kitchen, the dining room table, and sanitized many of the most favorite toys.

Needless to say, I look forward to Spring....when the cold and flu-like bugs have migrated to colder and more distant climates.

David is the latest to be stricken. He ran a fever for several days this week. His blood counts have been up and down and up and down as he has fought off each new bug. He has had several injections of an antibiotic called Rosefin (not sure of the spelling). Apparently this drug is a very systemic antibiotic to ward off anything that might be ailing him. This isn't the first time that he's had to have this drug, but I am hoping that it will be his last. He will continue on an oral antibiotic for the next 7 days, and then.....hopefully....we will be done with all the sickness at our house.

I still don't know when David's next exam will be, but I am assuming that it will be within the next month.

I'll update again soon.....I hope :-)

-Kim

Past Two Weeks

I can't believe that we are two weeks past this last round of chemo already.

David is doing remarkably well. His platelets gave us cause for notice this time, but so far, all we've had to do is watch them. They dipped to their lowest point yet, but hopefully since we are past the 14 day mark, they won't go down any more.

We have all had sore throats and runny noses, but so far we have been able to stay away from doctors, medications, and all that sort of thing.

David is now the proud owner of 4 pearly white teeth. He has enjoyed using them on anything small enough to get into his mouth - including his brother's and sister's fingers.

Tomorrow, we have a genetics appointment. I don't know if we will learn anything immediately. In fact, I really don't even know what to expect.

-Kim

Finished to Begin

Monday, David got his last chemo!!! We went in early that morning for the eye doc. to take some more pictures. Everything seems to be on track, so that was positive news.

The anesthisiologists at the Eye Center had trouble accessing his port. They assumed that it was blocked. The nurse at the Oncology department was able to flush the clot and access it. It acted differently than normal, but it didn't give us concern until David got very fussy and irritated. Sometime around 3pm I noticed that the front of his outfit was wet, and when I went to check what was going on, I realized that something was amiss. It happens that in moving around, the needle came out of his port, but not all the way out, so his IV fluids were running just under his skin. There was a lot of swelling all over his chest, and they had to wait for the swelling to go down before they could reaccess the port to try all over again. They also did a chest x-ray to make sure that it wasn't a problem with the port. All was fine, and we got underway sometime near 6pm. It was a long day, but we got the last treatment!!

One way that we were shown of God's love and care for us was that David's labs were taking an extremely long time to come back to the pharmacy. They will not mix his chemo until they have all the parts of the labs back. If they would have come back earlier, he would have had chemotherapy drugs leaking underneath his skin instead of just saline. This could have been very damaging. So, once again, God has protected us from what could be.

We have an appointment with the genetics people at the end of the month, and then David will have another exam in 6-8 weeks to see how the tumor responds after the chemo is out of his system. We have finished the chemo just to begin this next step of watching.

Thank you for all your prayers and generosity to our family. There is no doubt that we wouldn't have been able to survive this ordeal without the love and support of our Christian family. We love you all more than you will ever know. I'll update you more later

-Kim
David waiting for his exam


With Mommy in the Oncology waiting room


Tearing up paper with Daddy while we wait to go to the Day Hospital (where they give the chemo)


Getting chemo and drinking OJ - actually, just playing with the bottle


Finally - a nap

One Week

David's last treatment of chemo is scheduled for one week from now. Unfortunately, our whole family - including David - has caught the icky bug that has been flying around stinging people everywhere. David and the big kids all have really bad coughs and runny noses, and David also has an ear infection that he is now on antibiotics for. I am nervous that he is going to miss his chemo again.

I have been sick. Rob has only has very mild symptoms. I think that I am getting better as I have been drinking a whole lot of tea, orange juice, water, milk, and any other healthy liquidy thing I can find. This sickness seems to hang on and on and on and on.

So, that is where we are at. I am glad for the warmer temps that we are having today. We are all cabin crazy.

-Kim

New

"Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth.

Sing to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.

Declare His glory among the peoples."

Happy New Year!

I hope your holiday season was the best ever. Ours was wonderful. We stayed at home this year since David's counts were to be hitting their lowest around Christmas day. It was sad not being with lots of extended family, but I think this was actually a good thing for the kids. I think they needed a little more quiet, and one-on-one time with Daddy.

Rob was able to have 12 days off from work, and that was a blessing. We were able to get a few small projects done around the house, and we were able to do a lot of family stuff (aka: playing games, watching movies, playing in the yard, reading books). He goes back to work tomorrow. I think that Isaac is going to take this pretty hard since he seems to really need Rob right now.

It is only 14 days until David's last treatment of Chemo....if all goes well. We will be taking him in early (6am) for an exam by the eye doctor and then straight over to the Day Hospital for the chemo. It will be a long day, but I am glad that we get to do it all at once and get it over with. I am still unsure what the future routine will be, but I guess experience will be the best teacher.

The first thing that will happen is a genetics appointment on January 31. They will be trying to determine if David's retinoblastoma was caused by an inherited gene or if it was caused by a spontaneous gene mutation while in utero. This is important for us since each different scenario has different implications for David's future, and also for Hannah and Isaac. We are pretty sure that David's retinoblastoma was caused by a spontaneous gene mutation (which is the better scenario of the two) since we have never heard of this condition on either side of our family. But, we will have to wait and see. I think that this will probably involve genetic testing of Rob's and my blood as well as David's blood.

After that, we know that for several years, David will have to have extensive exams every 3 months.

But right now, we have one of the happiest little guys on the planet. He loves to be with the older kids, and just lights up the room with his smile. The big kids love him too! We have been spending a lot of time this holiday just being thankful for our little family and all that God has so generously blessed us with.

So, we start this year out right - with hearts full of praise to our God.

-Kim

Here are some new pictures for you.

Christmas Eve Eve

Two days to Christmas!

So far, this has been a hard round of chemo on the little guy, but in a few days, he should be at his lowest, and then the uphill climb. He is also cutting his top teeth which makes everything seem bad.

Rob has been home since Friday, and won't have to go back until the new year, so that has been fun and a blessing. It has made the hard round of chemo a little easier on me since I have an extra pair of hands (and arms).

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday with family and friends.

-Kim