17 more hours and we will be in much cooler weather!  Off to CA we go and we are so looking forward to getting out of town and to seeing Jack and Braden play on the beach!  In the sand!  In the water!  In mud!  Everything that they have stayed away from for so long.  Braden has never seen the ocean and Jack has been singing all day long, “We are going on vacation, we are going to California!”  He is so excited!!  My parents have a whole slew of things for us to do and we are thrilled.  We are hoping to be able to meet up with Zac’s brother, Jess, and his family at the beach one day so all the kids can play together and I also found out last night that my friend Jaime is going to be there with her family so hopefully we can meet up with them too!

On to Dr appointment news…I recieved a phonecall today from the Audiology department saying that Jack needed to have a bear hearing test done while under sedation ASAP for end of treatment results.  I figured that I would really rather Jack not be put under in July when he is going to be put under again in August so I told the lady that I would call Eshun and Sharon and see if we could just wait until August to have it done.  Sharon called me and said that August would be fine and we would just schedule it when he was in for his next round of scans instead of having to go back for an additional sedation.  She also told me that Jack’s blood counts from Tuesday were more than perfect and that his Thyroid levels are perfect as well.  We will be talking with the endocronologist soon to see what he wants to do about his medication.  I have a feeling we will be staying right where we are at but would really like it if he thinks we should decrease the amount of meds he is giving him.  We are thrilled his labs are spot on and are looking forward to hearing what his urine tests look like next week.

I also told Sharon what an awful experience the blood draw was and she said that from now on, she would do it.  She is very straight forward with Jack and she doesn’t mess around at all so I feel very confident that next time will be much better than the other day!

Ok, it’s 10:00 PM and we are finally done packing!  Jack was a huge help as we now have 2 extra carry on’s full of snacks and games for our 1 hour flight.  Yes, we are packing more for our trip to Orange County than we did for our trip to NYC!

Jackers had his first clinic appointment today since May 20th and we were a little nervous since he had to do a blood draw from his arm since his broviac is no longer.  Nikki and I went with Jack to the hospital and we got in right away which is always a good start.  We were able to see Sharon and “A”, two of Jack’s favorite people at PCH, and they were cracking Jack up.  ”A” made him laugh talking about how scared she is of rats and Sharon brought Jack a $1,000,000 bill because he had once told her that he wants her to give him a million dollars…so she did!  He said, “I need my wallet and we need to go to Target so I can buy a game.”  Pretty funny.  Dr Eshun was very please with how great Jack looks and how much energy he has.  He loved how he was laughing and joking around with everyone because there were many months when he just didn’t want to talk to anyone at the hospital.  He gave us cups for Jack’s next couple of urine samples so we can just collect it at home and then drop them off at the lab down here instead of going to see him at PCH.  He said we really don’t have to come back until August when we are getting results from Jack’s next set of scans!  We really don’t have to do urine at all, but Zac and I feel better knowing that we are monitoring his levels for Neuroblastoma activity.

After Eshun left, the nurse came in to do Jack blood draw from his arm. I was nervous to begin with and when Jack figured out what was happening, he pretty much freaked out.  He was not having it at all and we had to bring in another nurse to help hold his arms so they could get the needle in.  I was holding Jack and he was screaming and they couldn’t find the vein and that made it even worse.  After about 2 minutes of searching for the vein with the needle, they finally were able to get the blood they needed and it was over.  Thankfully Nikki was there with me because for whatever reason it was a tad to much for me and I felt like I was going to pass out.  Nikki said I was all white and she had to take Jack from me.  I haven’t ever had that problem and I felt a bit silly since Jack was the one actually being poked, but it is what it is.  After Jack calmed down and I was able to see straight, we got up and off we went.

We did stop at Target for a little prize but Jack was allowed to use my wallet and not his own which made him very happy!  Both kids are feeling better and fever free so that’s great!  We will have Jack’s urine results next week and I am sure Dr Eshun will call tomorrow to let us know about the Thyroid levels. Today was a good appointment.  It’s always nice to have the Dr’s tell you how happy they are and how optimistic they are about Jack’s future.

Hello All!

Another crazy week is over with and on to the next one!  We had Nikki’s bridal shower this past weekend and the whole week was crazy busy finishing up all the details for that.  My sister, Stacey, and her family moved to AZ this past week so they are staying with us for a couple of weeks until their house is ready and that has also kept us busy.  Jack was so happy to have his 2 cousins here to play with!  He was nonstop from Wednesday until Friday when they left to go out of town for the weekend.  Starting Friday afternoon Jack starting to come down with a fever and saying that his throat hurt.  Nikki’s shower started at 10:00 AM on Saturday and I ended up taking Jack to see his pediatricain around 11:00 so I had to miss out on a bit of the shower, but we needed to get Jack in to the Dr.  I talked to his oncologist, Dr Eshun, a couple of times that morning and since Jack is over a month out from his last day of treatment and since his doesn’t have a broviac, Dr Eshun didn’t feel like he really needed to see him and that it would be ok for him to go to his old pediatrician.  So odd to take Jack there because we haven’t been there since he sent us to PCH back in Feb of 2010.  They did a throat culture and he didn’t have strep and all else looked good so he didn’t put him on an antibiotic.  We came home and Jack was still fighting a fever.  He pretty much rested all day and by midnight that night, he broke the fever and it hasn’t come back.  He felt much better yesterday but he was still pretty sleepy so he feel asleep at 6:30 PM and slept until 7:00 AM this morning.  He feels much better and his troat no longer hurts, so he is happy!  We go to see Dr Eshun on Tuesday for a urine test and blood work so please pray that all of that looks great and his levels are normal.

Before Braden went to bed last night, he started to get a low grade fever and he woke up around 2 AM and it had gone up a bit.  He had some Tylenol and he has no fever this morning.  Hopefully Jack just had some 48 hr virus and gave it to Braden!  Braden is also getting in 6 teeth now so maybe that’s the reason for his small fever.

All in all…the shower was wonderful and the kids are doing better today so we are happy.  It is going to be a weird feeling to go back to PCH tomorrow since it’s been so long since we have been there, but I look forward to getting some extra reassurance that Jack is still doing well and is cancer free.  We are going this week to look at a few different schools for Jack because he will be starting Pre-K this year so that is also something to add to the list!  Something else exciting…we leave Friday to go to CA!  Jack will be able to go to the beach again and Braden will be able to experience it for the first time!!  Can’t wait!!!!

Jack and Abbey

Jack and Abbey and a horse that the decided to dress sand feed oranges to…no clue what they were thinking!!

Long time, no post!  We have been so busy around here!  Zac is working 6 days a week, Jack and Braden are through the roof with energy, my older sister and her family just moved here on Wednesday from Texas, and we are throwing Nikki her bridal shower here at the house on Saturday!  We are busy, but it’s been great. Braden had a Dr’s appt on Wednesday for checkup and shots and we learned that he isn’t getting 4 teeth in, but he is getting 6 teeth in!  He is such a trooper though…no complaints at all coming from that little boy.  He is doing great and his Dr said he could hardly hear his murmur anymore so that is more good news.

Jack is doing well and is very excited to have his cousins living here now.  Unfortunately he came down with a fever this afternoon and is complaining of a sore throat.  Hopefully isn’t nothing, but I would be lying if I was saying that I haven’t worried about it.  It’s scary having him run a fever because in the past if he ran a fever we would be in the hospital.  Now that he is at home and without a broviac line, when he gets a fever we are supposed to act like any normal parent would act.  It is very hard and it makes your mind go to many different places, but as of now Jack is asleep and we are praying he wakes up feeling great with no fever.  So please, send your thoughts his way!

Hope all is well with all of you…I am now heading back downstairs to set up for Nikki’s shower tomorrow!

This was supposed to be posted last night, but for some reason the computer didn’t do it!! So here ya go…..

Happy Fathers Day to Zac!  Today was a good day.  The boys woke up and I got them dressed in their “Fathers Day” shirts and then we went to wake up Daddy.  The boys were so cute about it. After they both had their shirts on, Braden looked down at his shirt and then looked at Jack’s shirt and said, “oh my ga.”  Pretty funny.  Jack says “Oh my gosh” to everything so he must have picked up on that!  We then took off after breakfast and went to the store to get food for a bbq that we were having with Nikki and Shawn.  We finally were able to blow up Jack’s pool that he got from Target and the Today Show and he was able to swim around in that while Zac cooked up dinner for all of us.  Jack has no fear.  He used to be the one who  was so timid about everything and now he jumps in the water and runs around like a crazy kid.  The energy he has is unreal. I have said before that he has the most energy of any kid we know, but now it is through the roof.  I am not sure if it’s the medication for his thyroid or the fact that he doesn’t have to worry about tubes or that he is cancer free….probably all of them!  His mind is always spinning and his legs are constantly running.  He has a blast in the water!  Braden was a bit apprehensive about the water, but he warmed up after a bit.  They splashed and played and Zac and Shawn thought it was funny to thrown Nikki and I in the pool and get us soaked and of course Jack loved that!

We had a good day, a great day actually.  A day full of love and happiness.  We are so thankful that we could spend today with our family and that Jack was here to celebrate it with us.  When you enter the Cancer world you know that each day is a gift and you never know what will happen from day to day.  So today we are thankful that we are all together.  We are thankful that Jack is doing well and that we were able to spend another Fathers Day together.

To my husband:

I love you.  The boys love you more than you know.  We are so very proud of you and so thankful for all that you do for our family.  You work so very hard and we will always be appreciative of that.  You are such a wonderful Daddy.  You have no idea how excited the kids get when they know you are about ready to pull in to our driveway.  They squeal with excitement.  You have always shown the boys how much you love them and how much you love spending time with them. You are a great Daddy and I know that years from now you will be as close with them then as you are now.  Your world revolves around your kids and I respect that so much. Thank you for taking care of us and for being who you are.  I am proud of you.  I love you.

Water time!