Hard to believe it is already that time again but we got the call yesterday to schedule our next set of scans.  We had 6 weeks of excitement over clear scans and now we get 6 weeks of building anxiety for the next set of scans.  Jack will go in on February 14th for a CT scan which he is awake for so no anesthesia that day!  He will then get an injection for his MIBG scan the next day.  The 15th we go in and he goes under anesthesia to get his MIBG scan…the scan that makes any Neuroblastoma activity light up, so obviously we want nothing to light up!  The only good thing about going under anesthesia is that we get to see Dr Maze!  Since Jack doesn’t have to get the bone scan this time, it will be two very short days of scans.  Hopefully we will hear from Dr Eshun again that evening so we can start celebrating the next set of clear scans!  This will be Jack’s 9 month follow up scans…how time flies.

Jack has also stopped taking his Levothyroxine for his thyroid so he will get labs drawn when he is under to check those levels.  If they come back normal, he will be able to stay off the Levothyroxine and then be checked again at next set of scans to make sure it’s still normal.  That would be so wonderful if he was off all meds!!!

As always, Jack’s scans fall during a busy week…Braden turns 2 just a few days before and Zac and I will also be celebrating our 5 year anniversary.  I can’t believe so much has gone on since we were married…and even more so, I can’t believe my baby is turning 2!

So please start praying now and sending your positive thoughts this way!!  Clear scans…NED…clear scans…NED!!!!  No need for thyroid medication too please!!

Day 2 of scans…done.  We woke up Jack again at 5:15 AM and right when I woke him up he said, “Let’s go in your room and have breakfast in bed”  Once we got in our room and I got him settled he decided to tell me, “You know you shouldn’t wake me up until it is sunny outside.”  He is so right, but we do what we have to do.  We made breakfast and he ate it up before the cutoff time and then around 10:00, Zac, my dad, Jack, and I headed off to PCH.  We were greeted by one of our favorite radiology nurses, Angela, and of course Dr Maze.  ”A” was doing Jack’s bone marrow biopsy today so she of course came in the room and Jack got a huge laugh out of her.  It always makes me happy when we see all of these Dr’s and nurses bring such a huge smile to his face.

We went in to the CT room and Jack and Dr Maze got everything ready…set up the machines and then Jack sat on the table and helped again with the Propofol.  Once Jack was asleep, we went and grabbed a quick lunch where we were met by our friend Sue as she was volunteering today at PCH.  We chatted for a bit and were also able to see some of our favorite nurses from when we were inpatient for chemo.

We headed back to the radiology waiting room and waited and waited.  I started to get a bit nervous because I felt like the MIBG was taking a bit long and made a comment to my dad and Zac that I hope they weren’t having to take additional images because they found something wrong…within a minute later Angela came out and told us, “I didn’t want you to worry that we were taking additional images or anything but we are on a new MIBG machine and for some reason it is a lot slower than our old one.”  Funny that she had the perfect timing so my nerves were calmed again.

Once Jack was done we were back in recovery with another favorite recovery nurse, Beth, and of course Dr Maze.  He said that Jack did wonderful and we are all anxious to see the results.  Since Jack has been on Accutane his skin is a bit sensitive and the tape that was on his face holding down the tubes and such while he was under causes some irritation so he looked as if he had been in a hockey fight.  Poor little guy.  He woke up a bit irritated that his face and his biopsy points on his hips were sore but once we were home he was totally back to normal.  We have had a great night and even though tomorrow will be a long day of waiting, it will be a good day.  We have Braden’s cardiology appt in the morning and then we will take the boys out to do something to pass the time.  We will update you after we know the results on Friday…

Please pray as hard as you can that Jack has clear scans.  He has made it this far and we thank God that he has done so well. We want him to continue on this path so we need clear scans.

On a side note, thank you all for your texts, emails, messages, posts that wished me a happy birthday.  It was so sweet to hear from so many people!  Thank you so much and may my biggest wish come true Friday morning….