Andrew was able to go to the Stealheads Hockey Game this Friday – and loved it! His favorite part was when the little kids played, he said he could watch that all night long. He was exhausted by the second period so we cut out early, but it was well worth the time we were there.

Saturday he was running a fever, and by the evening had gotten up to 101.2, so we had to go to the hospital. We had numerous tests to confirm that he did not have an infection in his blood, or that he had the flu. The doctor was pretty sure it is viral and he got a dose of antibiotics and we were able to go home. He has still been very tired, which could be contributed to the after affects of radiation as well as a little from whatever is causing his fever. He still has enough energy to pick on Taylor, so we aren’t too worried. We are reminding him to think cool thoughts, so we don’t have anymore hospital visits before January.

Thank you for all your support and love!

December 14th Update from Dave Vanderploeg on Vimeo.

To celebrate the completion of the radiation, we took a weekend trip to Sun Valley.  Andrew and Taylor were very excited to go!  It was a winter wonderland up there, and we enjoyed the beautiful snow, hotel, and warm pool!  The kids were given permission to get anything they wanted from the candy store, and what do you know. . . Taylor got a sucker and Andrew sour candy spray.  I had to beg them to get more!  Crazy children!  We enjoyed the cold weather in the outside heated pool, while fighting over the only toy available, a plastic cup.  Our wonderful friend Amy took us to a restaurant were we tried escargot for the first time.  Andrew liked it and said it reminded him of Indian food.  After 5 minutes of toying with it, Taylor got the courage up and tried it herself, she said she liked the sauce but could have done without the snail.  The favorite activity of the weekend trip was bowling in the hotel.  Both kids did very well with those bumpers!  Andrew loved keeping the score for everyone.  We also fed the swans and ducks, while freezing ourselves in the process.  Sunday morning Andrew woke up ready to go tubing, but shortly after he felt nauseous and we decided that maybe we had enough fun on Saturday and that we should take it easy today.  He agreed, and we came back to Boise.  We are happy to be home, and also very happy to have had such a great time with our weekend get-a-way.

Today was Andrew’s last day of radiation forever! He is very excited and is trying to think of ways of destroying the mask he had to wear for the last six weeks. Although we will probably end up keeping it as a reminder of what he has completed. He attended the MISTI Christmas party last week and had Valdemort painted on the back of his head – that way we can blame his bad actions on someone else. He went to his cousin’s choir concert yesterday and had a very good time, even though he had to wear a mask since he was around so many people. When the audience was invited to join the choir on stage to sing the Hallelujah Chorus, Andrew happily ran up. He dropped a little bit of weight this week, but we are still hopeful that he will gain more this week. He will begin his first chemo cocktail around January 7th, but we are happy for the break.

Thank you for all your support and words of love, we greatly appreciate it.
More pictures soon to come.

Andrew is still plugging along.  He is very excited to be going to the St. Luke’s Hospital school, and is already enjoying goofing off with Matthew another young boy with cancer.  His sores are healing on his head, which we are very grateful for.  He is continuing getting his “boost” radiation treatment, and it looks like the 10^th will be his last day of radiation and his first round of chemo.  He is quite a bit more pasty but enjoys laughing about it, and he jokes about looking more like Gollum from Lord of the Rings.  He has lost 3 pounds in one week, so we are trying different things to help add calories to keep his weight from dropping too much.  He is looking forward to Christmas, and the festivities that come with it.  We will try to update again this weekend with pictures and hopefully another sweet video.