We went to the doctor yesterday for Andrew’s in and out chemo. He did well during the appointment and was cracking jokes the whole time. However, he lost one pound from Friday to Monday, not good. He is throwing up a lot more with this round. We are hoping a new medication patch behind the ear will help and we can get his weight under control. If by Thursday his eating does not improve we might have to put a feeding tube in his abdomen. It is safer than the IV nutrients he was getting before, less likely to cause an infection, and allows his digestive tract to be used. He is keeping up with his school work, and looking forward to watching Mom get her head shaved so is telling everyone about it. We will try to do a webcast later this week. Thank you so much everyone who is supporting us in thought, body, and spirit.
One more chemo treatment down! Andrew went into the hospital on Monday morning and was released Tuesday night around 7:30. He has been more nauseous with this treatment, but has only thrown up once. He is happy to be home and awaits the next treatment to continue his countdown.
So I promised an update on St. Baldricks and here it is.
I will be shaving my head in honor of my son, Andrew. He was diagnosed with cancer October 1, 2008. I was asked if Andrew could be an honored child in the St. Baldrick’s foundation “Shaving the Way to Conquer Kids’ Cancer.” The St. Baldrick’s Foundation makes grants to research institutions to find new cures for childhood cancer, and to find treatments to ensure a better quality of life for patients and survivors. As an honored child, Andrew will have people sign up to shave their heads in recognition of him. We both want to help and be involved, and shaving my head seems to be the best way to do it. The St. Baldrick’s Foundation Event is on March 14, 2009 from 12-4 at the Knitting Factory in Boise, Idaho. If you’d like to support this cause, or just want to see me bald, please pledge. If you are unable to pledge personally, please share this with your friends and family.Pledges can be made to me or through the website: www.stbaldricks.org and search for shavee Brittany Nelson
Andrew assures me that more people will like me bald as he has first hand proof, and I am sure that he is right. The sacrifice is well worth this now personal cause.
Andrew only dropped a little weight so we are able to keep him off the overnight fluids – woo hoo!!! He has started going to a chiropractor to help him with his stiff neck and he loves it – who knew? He has almost full mobility in his neck after only two appointments. He is very excited to get admitted again so that it is one more chemo treatment down, he is still keeping his hopes high. He is still throwing up almost everyday, however it is very little and he gets over it very quickly and is ready to go back to whatever he was doing. I will be updating again this week with details about St. Baldrick’s, a childhood cancer research foundation that Andrew and I will be participating in. Thank you so much for your love and support!
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.
We have had a busy week, here is a summary of everything. Wednesday Andrew was admitted to the hospital. We were first alarmed because he had a fever of over 101, and when we got to the doctor’s office they found that his blood counts were alarmingly low. So our number one concern was getting his white cells/platelet counts up. However, Andrew has not been eating either, and has begun to throw up everyday so we needed to give him more than just saline through an IV. He was released on Friday afternoon after his counts had increased from the medicine administered the previous days. I am now giving him IV nutrients over a 10 hour period every night to ensure he is getting enough calories. One of the IV treatments is like saline but with added nutrients, the other is fats and smells like baby formula – gross!!! We will be going back to the doctor on Monday to see if this will need to continue or if we will go another path to get him the nutrients he needs to heal. He is still having low grade fevers but nothing too scary, and we are hoping they will discontinue soon. Andrew wanted to say “hi” for this update to everyone. Thank you for your support and prayers!
Andrew was admitted to the hospital yesterday with a fever of 101. They’ve been giving him antibiotics and he seems to be improving. He’ll be released once his blood count improves.
We made it through the weekend and we were pretty happy that there was little to report. Andrew did have some gagging and a little nausea but nothing too bad. He had a great day Monday with his Vincristine Chemotherapy and Occupational Therapy and he ate very well too! However, today was not so great, Andrew lost his breakfast and didn’t really want to eat after that. We are going to try some new medication to help with his nausea so hopefully we have less gagging and vomiting. Amazingly Andrew is still as happy as ever after his nausea is gone, and wants to get back to whatever he was doing. He has such a great attitude!
I have received an updated schedule from the doctors office, so it looks like without any illness getting in the way, Andrew will get Vincristine Chemotherapy next Monday and then 2 weeks off and admitted on February 23rd for his next round of Chemo cocktail.
Thank you for the wonderful notes you leave and for checking in, we will update soon!
First some great news, we got Andrew’s MRI results back and they said his scans looked good and showed no signs of residual cancer.
Andrew had his first round of chemo cocktail of Cicplatin, CCNU, and Vincristine. Some of the side effects from these are low blood cell (which will happen), hair loss (he is waiting to lose his eye lashes and eye brows), kidney damage, jaw pain, weakness, pain in fingers, and nausea/vomiting or diarrhea. He was admitted on Monday around 1:00 when the fluid administration began. To protect his kidneys they need to hydrate him for quite a few hours. He got this chemo around 10:00 at night and he was up more than once an hour to urinate which was to be expected but made sleeping impossible. The chemo finished at 4:00 in the morning but he had to continue to get fluid for another 10 hours. Luckily the anti-nausea medication they gave him was perfect and Andrew didn’t have any nausea while we were at the hospital. Mind you he only ate a little breakfast early in the morning and nothing the rest of the day, but he was still pleasant as ever. He was very gassy today and a little fatigued but other than that he is doing very well. We have been incredibly grateful for his low side effects thus far, and are taking things one day at time.
Andrew has taken all of this with such grace and with such a positive attitude it has made me see that there are angels here on Earth. Andrew will almost never admit that he does not feel well, is in pain, or needs anything. He almost always meets everyone with a smile no matter what time of day. He still loves cuddling, doing well on his school work, playing with his cousins, and beating up his sister. We try to live as normal as we can, and funny enough he leads us in that. He is an amazing soul, and I can’t express the joy I have to be his mother. I am hoping that I can be as positive as he is dealing with this cancer, but until then I will just marvel.
We love getting notes from website and we know that Andrew has touched many more lives through this experience. Thank you for your prayers and keeping up with his story. He will update soon.
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.
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.
This site is a resource for the family and friends of Andrew Vanderploeg. Andrew was diagnosed with a large brain tumor, medullablastoma, in October of 2008. If you're new here please start by reading Andrew's story and signing his guest book.
