We have so much to be grateful for!  Andrew’s scans came back all clear, infact his appointments have been pushed out to every 6 months now.  He continues to get stronger, and proves everyday that his fight with cancer will not keep him down!  The time passed since his treatments have shown us that the weakness he has experienced in both his hands will most likely continue the rest of his life, which does cause writing to be an issue.  Thank goodness for computers!  He is loving being able to participate in gym and working on his “hoop” skills, and yes that is a quote from him.  He had a psych evaluation this week to see how the radiation and chemo affected his cognitive learning, and we have learned a lot just with meeting with the doctor about some of the issues he has been dealing with at school.  The radiation he underwent was very extreme, and has caused him to have delayed processing and difficulty with multitask memory, and some short term memory.  Although a challenge, Andrew is aware of his issues and we have been working to help him with task lists, and lots of reminding.   

We are preparing for St. Baldricks shaving event this Saturday the 12th.  Andrew will be speaking about his experience fighting cancer, and I will be shaving my head along with the 4th floor moms.  A wonderful group of people we have met while Andrew went through his treatments.  We are very excited and will be posting pics and video after the event.  If you would like to donate to St. Baldricks please visit:  http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/donorlist/participantid/413480

Thank you for all the support and kind words!

November 28, 2010 a good friend of Andrew’s, Matthew Wilkins, lost his battle with cancer.  Matthew was the first friend Andrew made on that 4th floor oncology wing.  He had a dark humor that Andrew enjoyed so much.  They attended school together and gave each other company while undergoing treatment.  We ask that your prayers and thoughts go out to his family, and remember this boy and the friendship he so freely gave.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/matthewwilkins/journal

Andrew went in for one of his regularly scheduled MRI’s and unfortunately it showed some spots on his spine. There’s not much more to report right now, since we have to wait three months and see how he looks at the next MRI. The spots could be cancer, but they could also just be shadows, we will have to wait to find out.

It’s scary business, but everyone is trying to stay positive and hope that the scan is clean.

We visited the eye doctor today…and Andrew’s surgery was a SUCCESS!!!!  It looks like his eyes are almost perfect, and he is even walking better now.  He read 4 chapters of Percy Jackson last night, we could not be happier!  Thank God for miracles, we have had many!

Andrew is able to open his eyes now, but they are watering a lot, and he does have pain so they don’t say open for long.  It looks like the surgery was successful, but we won’t know for sure until he can keep his eyes open.  There is blood in his eye, but other than that everything looks good. 

Bloody eye, gross

Andrew had the surgery to correct his crazy (lazy) eye.  They moved the muscles on both eyes to try to make them both work together.  He is not able to open them yet, and therefore we don’t know if it was successful but we are hopeful.  His eyes do hurt, but he says he is okay, just like always!  He has slept a lot and is getting pain meds every couple hours.  We are hoping he will be able to open his eyes tomorrow and I will update once he does!

It is way overdue for an update, but no news has been good news.  Andrew is going to public school full time, and is absolutely loving it.  He is still eating well, in fact he eats a ton, but isn’t really gaining much weight so obviously he is still healing.  He has a full head of hair now, it is kind of bitter sweet no longer being able to call him my bald boy.  He still has some balance problems, but he also still has his crazy eye (lazy eye).  He will be having surgery this month on both eyes to move the muscles around and hopefully correct them.  With that, we are hoping he will have a little better balance.  He has successfully taught himself to write with his left hand and it is amazing you would ever guess he wasn’t left handed all along.  His fine motor skills are getting better as well, he was bragging that he didn’t need my help to play his DSi anymore.  He will be having his port removed on the 27th, right before we leave for Colorado.  Some friends and family are running (and supporting) the Bolder Boulder in honor of Andrew and his fight with cancer.  His quote is “Yeah, I had cancer…but I beat it.”  He still has an amazing attitude and we could not be happier with the ways things are going.  Thanks for all the love and support!

I am so sorry for the delay in updates, but no news has definitely been good news!  Andrew has been doing wonderful!  He is eating really well, not gaining weight, but not losing, so his body is still stealing a lot of calories to heal.  He is still bald, but we are beginning to see some little hairs starting to grow on that cute head.  His balance is still very wobbly, but we are working on getting him to exercise more and get his strength back up so that he can go back to school hopefully by April.  He was able to go on a field trip to the Boise Philharmonic with his class from Monroe in January and he was so welcomed and had such a good time, he is so excited to be a part of the class soon.  We have not had to go to the doctor’s office since the first week of January, and will be going in on the 25th for a psychological evaluation.  We are beginning to see a great improvement in his reading and comprehension abilities, and he is loving reading the Percy Jackson series.  I will try to get a webcast from him this weekend so he can share some of his own sweet thoughts and humor for everyone following his story.  Thanks!

Andrew had all of his post treatment scans yesterday and I met with the doctor for results, and it is time for celebration, they all came back clear!  He has not had any more hearing loss, MRI looks clear, everything looks good.  He also gets to take out his feeding tube tonight!   We discussed him going back to school and the doctor says it will be 3 months at least before he can go back.  So we will be pushing physical therapy and he will get an MRI in three months, still see the dr very frequent and his counts are still not so fabulous, but things look good!