Because Andrew is such a big fan of Harry Potter, we made him his own newspaper, like in the movies. We called it The Not-Daily Prophet, have a look:

http://andrewvanderploeg.com/news/

Andrew has been feeling much better lately, so he and Taylor posed for some photos:

So to summarize this week….Saturday Andrew felt much better and was determined to beat all of Taylor’s scores on the Wii Fit (pictures below sorry for the fuzziness, he was moving fast).  The funniest was when I came in and found him sitting on the board and I asked what he was doing and he said “snowboarding,” I pointed out that don’t you usually stand and he replied, “no, I can’t do it standing so I can sit doing it.” Too funny!  On Sunday we realized that his nose hose was out of this intestine again when he threw up formula so knew we would need to replace it once again.  So Tuesday we went in for his Vincristine chemo, we found out that he droped 2.5 pounds in a week :0(  We are starting a new medication to help digest the food he is eating and hopefully less throwing up.  After we finished with his doctor we went to our family doctor and Andrew was able to reunite with his family doctor, Perry Brown, and update his favorite nurses on his progress.  While were were there I found out that I have a strep infection in my kidneys how does that happen?  I mean really?!  Then we went to pool therapy, which was a first for me.  Andrew was an animal!  I think he did more exercise with more enthusiasim then I ever have.  Then we went back to the hospital for the tube placement.  He really is getting to be a pro at it.  He has had rough mornings, and is more fatigued during the day but other than that he is still smiling through it all. 

Yesterday we had some sad news, a very good friend almost family member, Nadine Stewart was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She has been such an amazing support for Andrew as well as Taylor and myself.  I ask that you please include her in your prayers.  Once again thank you so much for the love and support from all who follows Andrew’s fight against this monster. 

Wii Step Class

Check out his balance!

All by himself, it is wonderful!

Yesterday was a rough day, in fact probably the hardest since his surgery stay. He was so nauseous he was on the verge of tears most of the day.  He threw up a great deal of this feeding tube and needed to have an xray to ensure it was still in his stomach after we pushed it back in.  Thankfully it was!  Most of the day was spent just miserable trying to sleep.  Towards the end of the day we were able to find a medication that seemed to help, but by that time his feeding tube became plugged.  We attempted to unclog the tube with coke but alas it will not budge.  He will be getting a new tube put in by this afternoon.  He also woke up nauseous this morning and threw a lot of the tube up, so he wanted to remove the “nose hose” (I have documented it below).   He was given some medication to silly him up and he went to work, and I have to admit, he is hilarious on Ativan.  Now he is pretty loopy which is a welcome change. 

Ugh

Throwing up makes nose hose escape

Evil Scientist

Working Hard

Gross!

Almost Out!

A Break from the Nose Hose

Andrew had his checkup today.  First the good news, his blood counts looked reasonable which means that he is producing blood cells pretty well right now.  We want this to be happening during his “rest” weeks since the chemo will make them drop when he goes in on the 23rd.  The not so good news is that he has lost 2.5 pounds in one week.  We are starting him on some new medications that will hopefully stimulate his appetite, but looks like we are continuing his nightly fluids until he can keep his weight stable.  He is still in high spirits and keeping a positive attitude even after he throws up.  He is amazing.  He is so strong and continues to help me along too. He wanted to know about some children who have passed away from cancer and after talking about it for a while; he took my hand and said “we will get through this.”  And we will, one day at a time.  Thank you for the continued support and prayers.

Monday morning Andrew still had a lot of hair on his head, but after a shower and getting combed it really started to thin out. So, it’s official, Andrew has lost his hair. His head ended up needing to be shaved because he was leaving so much hair everywhere.

This post will follow through his Wednesday routine. Wednesday he has radiation and chemo, so its a busy day and fairly taxing for him.

Andrew tries to sleep in, but its hard for him when his sister is bouncing around getting ready for school. Some days he likes to eat breakfast but on this day he didn’t have much of an appetite. His spirits were still high as he wrapped up in his prayer shawl to watch some morning cartoons.

After a couple cartoons he took a shower and got dressed for the day.

Just in case Wednesday wasn’t busy enough, Andrew had to take two math tests, work on a word search and study for a spelling test.

After he aced the math tests he got to play Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Wii for a while before lunch.

After lunch it was time for Andrew’s radiation appointment. Idaho is starting to get cold, but he didn’t want to wear a hat just yet. His head is tender from the radiation too, so a hat may hurt a little.

He got some business cards for his website, and he really enjoyed handing them out to his doctors and nurses.

Here he is on the radiation table, before the put his mask on.

And with the mask.

After radiation he talked to the Dr. Smith, then headed back upstairs for his chemo.

Accessing his port still hurts him quite a bit, but he’s getting better at it. The other problem is they push a lot of salt water through his port and he can actually  taste it, which he hates. When they’re done setting up the port he gets to pick something out of the treasure chest. This little red smiley face caught his eye.

After they set up his port he got to go back to the lobby and play Nintendo 64 until it was time for the chemo. Luckily, since the lobby had emptied out he was able to keep playing and get the chemo right there. Having the distraction, he didn’t even seem to notice the taste when they flushed his port for a second time.

After the treatment he headed home, where he played video games for a while then had dinner. He felt a little sick later that night, but not too bad.

All in all he’s doing great. His spirits are high, which is awesome. He really does like the attention he’s getting from his family, and doesn’t spend any time feeling bad for himself. He loves hearing about the different people who send him notes on this site or through the mail.

People seemed to like Andrew’s video, so hope to get Andrew to start doing them on a weekly basis.

Thanks for everyone’s love and support!

First off, in case you haven’t heard the awesome news, the spinal tap, marrow test and MRI all showed the same thing, the tumor didn’t spread!!! This is the best news we could have hoped for. The pathology test showed the tumor was a Desmoplastic Medulloblastoma, which is just a sub-category of the previously mentioned Medulloblastoma, it was not metastatic. To be honest as I’m writing this I don’t know if all Desmoplastic aren’t metastatic, or just in some cases like Andrew’s. Either way, it’s great news for Andrew.

Treatment is scheduled to start early in the week of October 27th. He starts with 6 weeks of radiation and chemo. During this time he’ll be in the hospital for treatment, but allowed to go home at night. After the first ix weeks he’ll be given a 3 week break before he starts the full chemo treatment. We’re working on a schedule to let people know when they can help, and should have something up here in a few days.

Chemo treatment will be 3 days in the hospital, follow by 3 weeks home. This will most likely be the much harder part of the treatment, but were going to worry about the radiation now, and start planing for Chemo when it gets closer.

Did I mention that Andrew got a Wii? Well, he did, and he’s super excited about it. His motor skills are still really far off from where they started, but were hoping that between physical therapy and Wii Sports he’ll start getting back a lot more control.

Hope to post more photos and stories soon. Thank you to everyone who’s signed the guest book, sent cards and letters and generally had Andrew in their thoughts and prayers.