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!!!

Sorry, it has been a crazy week!  Andrew did so well over last weekend, Halloween was fabulous, and he did well during his dr appointment Monday afternoon.  Then around 6pm he got a fever of 103.5…not good, so off to the ER.  He was admitted and his blood counts just kept dropping.  He was feeling ok, just tired. 

He was in still in the hospital for his birthday on Wednesday.  He had a fabulous birthday even though we had to celebrate in the hospital. All the nurses put on hats and pulled poppers at the door while we sang happy birthday (they couldn’t come in since he was in isolation). He got Guido’s pizza Tracey was wonderful and made a 4 layer German chocolate cake! He ate half a piece! His spirits are still high.  His counts finally came up just a tiny bit today so we are hoping to get out of here!!!  I will update soon.

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 was able to have is 8th of 9 chemo sessions Monday night.  Yay!!!!  He has been doing pretty well, and we thought was ready to go home this morning, but alas, his water pooh has returned.  It started last night right before chemo, so they want to do some tests before he is released.  We are hoping for him to be released tomorrow morning.  I will update again when we are free!!!!

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!

Andrew returned home after 3 weeks in the hospital just in time for a big weekend. Andrew’s Grandpa and I went out to spend some time with him last Wednesday. He came home to find a big box from the wonderful people at the Pinwheel Project. I managed to snap a shot with my phone, and asked him to wait until I could get a photo with real camera, but the temptation to tear in to his new toys proved too great. It really lifted his spirits to come home and find some new toys waiting for him. They also sent his sister Taylor some neat stuff, including body crayons, which make an appearance in just about every photo I was able to take.

Courtesy of the Pinwheel Project

We spent Thursday and Friday relaxing, watching movies, playing with his new DSi and assembling a Lego set he got from The Pinwheel Project. Andrew was feeling a little sick, and didn’t want to tell us, for fear of going back to the hospital. Once we figured out what was going on we gave him some more drugs and he cheered up quite a bit.

On Saturday we had tickets to got to the BSU vs UC DAVIS game at Broncos stadium. We were with the “Bronco’s Bunch”, through St. Lukes. Both Taylor and Andrew were excited, despite the fact it was only about 56 degrees outside. We spent about an hour getting ready to go cheer on the Broncos. After Andrew was all dressed he even tried to tackle me, a rare burst of pure energy.

(Be sure to take a closer look at this one)

As we got to the game we could tell it was cold, but didn’t really mind, since we dressed for the weather. Unfortunately, about 5 minutes in it started to rain, and continued to rain for a good amount of time. Eventually Andrew decided he’d had enough and told me, “If Taylor want’s to leave, we can go.” So that was it. One and half quarters on a cold rainy day is plenty for a sick kid.

The rest of the weekend was pretty low key, although I did get Andrew to draw a picture of Lolo, the purple chinchilla that he alluded to at the end of his last video. Not sure where that one came from, other than a bored kid stuck in a hospital for 3 weeks.

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.