Andrew is getting his last chemo!!!!!!!  Woo hoo!!!  So far so good, he is trying to eat as much sugar cereal and crap as he can since Momma says no more empty calories and junk food to eat after he is recovering.  I will update again tomorrow.

I apologize for the lack of updates, I had to have my gallbladder removed and other issues but am better now, and ready to give you an update!!!  Andrew is scheduled for his last chemo session in the hospital on Wednesday!  He will get chemo at the dr’s office the following week, then all done.  It will take him a while to recover from it, but we are hoping for a drama free recovery and a return to a normal life relatively soon. 

Andrew had a great Thanksgiving with friends and family.  Although he did not consume a ton of food, he is keeping his weight up and we have not used his feeding tube since November 17th!  He is pretty wobbly but it will probably be like this until his body can get recover from the toxicity of all this darn chemo. 

Thank you everyone for all the love and support, we are getting so close…so close!

We had a fabulous, drama-free weekend!  Andrew is feeling so much better.  He does not have his full appetite back yet, but is still eating and loving it.  He is loving it so much he thinks he is allowed to eat Almond Joys and Reese’s Pieces Butter Cups all day and I would let him.  No worries, I set him straight, moderation in everything.  His hair is growing back so thick and full, we are kind of bummed it will fall out one more time.  But just one more time!!!  Woo Hoo!!!!  He is significantly weaker, but we attribute this to so much down time, and hope that now that he is up and about it will get better.  We are hoping for a great week, and staying strong to the end!

Andrew was released last night!!!  Finally!!!!  He was feeling much better, his neutrophil counts are at 600 but with him feeling great we think they will continue to climb at home.  As soon as we got home he ran inside to get the rest of his birthday presents.  It was the cutest thing ever!  By the time I had brought all the bags inside he had his nice little pile gathered on the couch waiting for me so he could open them.  That boy ripped through the wrapping paper with more energy and excitement than I have seen in months!  I did take a bunch of pictures which I will post soon.  He is still on track now for his last chemo the first week of December, keep those fingers and toes crossed that nothing interrupts!  Thanks for the sweet comments and support from all.

Sooooo Excited!!

So Andrew has been having ups and downs the last couple days.  His neutrophil counts have been going up then down every other day as well.  The doctors say he can be released when his counts look like they are just going up, and he is feeling well.  He is having abdominal pain again, it could be the Vincristine chemo he received the last two weeks, a virus, or just healing from being sick.  He has a patch on to help with the pain, and is starting to eat a little more everyday.  Cross your fingers for a pre-weekend release!!!

This has been such a great week!  Andrew, although feeling sad a little bit during the week, more than made up for it this weekend.  He won the costume contest at his school party, then attended Monroe Elementary’s Halloween Party where he won another costume contest and even danced a little but mostly from the wheelchair.  Then he went trick or treating yesterday as well.  He went as Nacho Libre, and Taylor was an 80’s girl on Friday and a zebra on Saturday…which was a lot of work but sooo worth it.  Enjoy the pics!

Wednesday night Andrew was released from the hospital with a clean, well as clean as Andrew gets right now, bill of health.  Do to his injury on his heel from last Friday, he tripping more so we are needing to keep a close eye on him.  He is still able to nibble on food through the day, but is not digesting most of it, so it is still limited and he is still getting IV nutrition and feeds from a feeding tube.  He is scheduled to get his vincristine chemo (part of the session on Monday as long as he continues to do so marvelously.  I will share more as the time goes on.  Thank you for the love and support!

Andrew met his homeroom class at Monroe on Thursday, and it was fantastic!  His classmates were very supportive and excited to learn about Andrew, and made him feel very welcome.  He can’t wait until the Spring when he can join them fulltime.  Thank you Mr. Walkers class! 

He was admitted to the hospital Friday the 9th because he felt really sick and when we checked his blood counts, they had dropped in half from the previous day.  This usually means he has caught a bug, so he got lots of antibiotics, and we hoped his counts would recover by Monday for chemo.  However, his counts have yet to recover, but he is feeling much better.  He was released last night at 8:00pm and we will continue to check his counts and when they reach 1,000 we will do chemo.  He is very excited because he has been able to eat small, lowfat, snacks and have been keeping them down…WOO HOO Botox!!!  I will update soon, thank you for all the support and kind words!

Sorry for the delay in an update!  So Andrew was released on Thursday with an “ok” bill of health.  He now only has one nose hose – the feeding tube, which had to be replaced on Tuesday since he threw the other one up at school on Monday.  He has gained 7 pounds since he was admitted to the hospital last month, all this weight cased us some issues with his port.  We were unable to get it to flush and kept reaccessing to no avail, the good thing was it was just that we needed a longer needle – phew!!!  We went to the doctor today and his blood counts look pretty good and we are on track to get chemo on Monday.  This is number 8 of 9!!!!!  Only one more to go after that, we can hardly wait!  He has started counseling to help him cope with all that has been happening to him.  He is trying so hard to get through things, but has been having a lot of breakdowns and gets upset very easily.  His poor sister, Taylor, only needs to open her mouth and he is ready to attack her.  Bless her heart she is so understanding and is doing all she can to try to help him not be mad at her.  Thank you for all the support and kind words, and I will update soon.

Today is the one year anniversary of Andrew’s resection and diagnosis.  Wow…one whole year.  So he is still in the hospital but hopefully will get out in a day or two, it was three weeks on Wednesday.  The procedure done on Monday, injections of Botox in his stomach, seems to be a success!  He is only throwing up once a day and his jello and drinks are not coming up.  We are so excited!  He is still having abdominal pain and the doctors are sure it because his nerves are raw and we will just have to wait it out.  He is also having colon spasms which are attributed to the nerve damage and we are hoping are short lived.  However, if we can get his pain under control he should be able to leave in a day or two.  We are still on track for chemo on the 12th, yay!!  He has done a webcast to thank everyone who has sent him little notes and cards, he wanted to answer some questions he has been asked so look for it later.  Thank you so much for all the support!