• MIBG Scan-Negative, found small, light spot on Jack’s skull when the 3D imaging was performed
• CT of chest where main tumor was-negative for cancer
• MRI of spine-negative for cancer
• PET scan of body-negative for cancer
• MRI of head-negative for cancer
• bone scan of body-negative for cancer

Yesterday Zac, Jack, and I went to see Dr. Stegman (the radiation oncologist) at Banner and talked about starting radiation for the small spot that lit on on Jack’s skull on Friday.  We were worried because if he had to do 12 days of radiation, he would miss the cutoff day for immunotherapy at Pheonix Childrens and we would have to go to NY for the rest of his treatment.  Dr. Stegman said he would figure out a way to try and get all of our days in on time, even if we had to do weekends, to try and let us stay here for treatment.  As we left, Jack jumped up and down telling Zac and I, “Today is the BEST day EVER!!  It’s the best day of my LIFE!” 

Around 5:00 PM I got a phonecall from Dr. Eshun while I was at the grocery store with my mom and sister and he said that he wanted to talk to Zac and I together so I hurried home and Zac and I went upstairs and called him back.  Dr. Eshun told us that he had good news for us.  He said he was shocked that the bone scan came up totally negative and same with the MRI of his head.  He went over all the scan over and over again with Dr. Kushner, Dr. Stegman, and the board of oncology and they have decided that the spot on Jack’s head is not “real”  They believe that since the MIBG was negative until they did that 3D spec and since all of the other scans have come back negative,  that it is not progressive disease and that we do NOT need to radiate his skull!!  They want us to continue on with immunotherapy as planned and we will rescan in 3 months to make sure that spot is gone!  We asked if he considered Jack to be NED (no evidence of disease) and he said, “There was a faint spot when we did the 3D spec, but yes, I consider him NED”  WOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Braden went to the cardiologist 2 days ago and his whole in his heart is exactly the same.  Since he is doing so great (he weighs a little over 22 lbs and is 29.5 inches long) and growing so well that he has outgrown his medication that he is on.  We start giving him his medication one time a day instead of 2 and then as of next week…no more medication!!  We go back in 3 months for another echo, but he is doing great!!!

So, needless to say, Jack was right.  Yesterday was a great day, the best day of his life, the best day of our life, a huge light at the end of the tunnel for us.  We are so happy, so thankful, so proud of our little boys.  It goes without saying that this holiday season will be the best yet.  We start Jack’s immunotherapy next weekend but we will gives more details on that as we get closer.  Now we are just going to enjoy our time together knowing that Braden’s health is great and that Jack’s cancer is gone.

Well Jack has been doing great since radiation was completed.  The Dr thought that his energy would drop off around his last week, but that never happened!  They did say that his throat would start bothering him and last for a couple of weeks since the radiation area was so close to his esophagus.  They said it would feel as if something was stuck in his throat so he might have a gag problem…and he has lately.  Once a day he takes too big of a bite and it gags him and he gets sick to his stomach, but 2 seconds later he is eating and drinking again so it really hasn’t bothered him too much. Other than that, he is doing great.  His hair is growing in!  Not sure what color it will be…looks like a mix of dark and light so we will have to see!

Our wonderful neighbor, Angie, was in charge of her kids school carnival that was this morning.  Since he has been watching Angie build all sorts of carnival games for the last week, we decided it would be fun to take him down there this morning before all the kids got there so he could get out and have some fun.  He loved it!  Angie did a wonderful job (as we knew she would) and he was able to go into a Spiderman bouncy house with Daddy and play all sorts of little games.  He kept telling us how fun the circus was and what a great day he was having.  I swear, this little boy loves every minute of life.  He has such an appreciation for all that he is able to do…I am sure we all could learn a thing or two from him.

Zac ran out after we got home and bought the kids some new warm PJ’s (since it is freezing in our house at night!) and brought home some monster slippers for Jack.  He is running around trying to scare everyone and telling me to play with him at the monster competition…no clue what he is talking about, but looks like we are going to play some interesting games!

A few side notes…our neighbor, Anna, has been battling cancer for the past 5 years.  She is 15 years old and is one of the strongest and wisest  young woman that I have ever met.  She really needs a lot of love and prayers right now.  I am asking if you would please visit her website, www.caringbridge.org/visit/annawilkerson, and read her story and her journal. 

Also, two days ago was Zac’s dads birthday so we want to say Happy Birthday to him.  Today would have been his mom’s birthday, but as most of you know, we lost Mary Lou in April of 2008 in a tragic accident.  We miss you Mary Lou and know that you are watching us and protecting our boys from above.  There is not a day that goes by when we don’t think of Mary Lou and we are often reminded, in many different ways, that she is still with us.

NO MORE RADIATION!!

Today is a great day…November 9th, 8 months and 1 day after Jack was diagnosed with Stage IV Neuroblastoma and he is done with radiation.  He has gone through 6 rounds of heavy chemo, 2 hospital stays for fevers, surgery to take out his main tumor, stem cell transplant (which included another heavy round of chemo), and 20 sessions of radiation.  Not to mention countless tests, scans, procedures, and Dr’s appointments.  Jack has been through so much and when we look at him now, it is hard to believe his little body has been through it all.  He looks great.  He looks so healthy.  He is happy, full of energy, smarter than smart, and has the courage and determination that I would love to have. 

We woke up Jack and got him ready this morning for his last day of radiation.  We got there and he was so excited to give Marla, his nurse, and Dr. Maze the cards and cupcakes he made for them.  He ran down the hall and saw Marla first who loved her little gift! She then gave Jack a big balloon and a little present to go along with it.  We then saw Dr. Maze and Jack ran down the hall to him and Dr. Maze scooped up Jack and told him how proud he was of him and how much he loves him.  He gave Dr. Maze his card and cupcake and you could just see how happy Jack was.  That kid has no fear…he wanted to get the day of radiation over with so in we went to the radiation room.  He was all smiles and making everyone laugh.  As always, he helped Dr. Maze push the medication into his Broviac and off he went to sleep.  Nikki and I went to wait in the waiting room and we saw little Mia and her mom Sandra.  Even though they have had such a difficult time being in the ICU at PCH, she somehow found the time to get Jack a card and a little Christmas ornament for his completion of radiation.  I am so glad that we met at Banner and can’t wait until we can all have a big play date with the kids.  Jack was done and of course woke up wanting his Popsicle.  He had that and they gave him his certificate of completion of radiation.  Dr. Maze and Marla told us what a wonderful little boy we have and how lovely our family is.  They said that they can just feel the love that we all have and it was so great to see him every day for the last few weeks.  All in all, it was a good day.  Jack and Braden are both sleeping now but I am sure the coinsidence of them both sleeping will only last about 10 minutes!

I wish we could say that he was done with everything, but he still has a very tough few months ahead of him.  As I said before, Zac and I will be taking Jack in next week for an echo, ekg, MIBG scan, bone marrow aspiration, CT scan, and bone scan.  We will be meeting with Dr Eshun on Thursday morning to hear the results, but hopefully he will call us with some sort of news on Wednesday night like he usually does.  Please pray for Jack over and over again that the scans show that his heart is still in great condition and that his little body shows no evidence of disease…NED.  Remember from his last set of scans that the cancer was fully gone from all of his little bones (which was a wonderful miracle since there was so much uptake), his bone marrow was clean, but there was that small part of active Neuroblastoma that was left behind from the tumor resection.  Please pray that the radiation did it’s job and that it is gone.  NED, NED, NED, NED…. 

If Jack’s scans show that everything is moving in the right direction, we will be starting his shots on December 3rd and checking in for a 4-5 day stay starting December 6th.  This will be his 1st round of immunotherapy.  Jack’s friend, McKenna, started her 1st round this week and McKenna’s mom said that it was very painful for McKenna to go through so far.  Each day they get an infusion that lasts from 12-20 hours and most of that time they are in pain.  They set them up on a pain pump to make them as comfortable as they can, but I can only imagine what Zac and I are going to feel when we see Jack in so much pain.  As a parent, you can only hope that he handles this as well as he has handled everything else.  He HAS to because he is Jack.  He is our little Luigi, our Spiderman, our Iron Man, our hero.  He will get through this.

As always, keep not only Jack, but all of his friends in your thoughts and prayers. 

PS…I have added pictures to the gallery so you can see Jack’s last day of radiation!!

One more day left!!  Sooo excited!!  Jack did great today…we got up bright and early while our wonderful friend Ali came over to stay with Braden so he could sleep in.  Nikki, Jack, and I headed off to Banner for his second to last radiation treatment.  Jack did great and we went straight to clinic at Phoenix Childrens right after to have his levels checked.  The Dr came back and said that his levels “couldn’t be more than perfect” so we were able to get a move on and head right home. 

After getting home we made some cupcakes to celebrate tomorrow and Jack made some thank  you cards for his nurse, Marla, and Dr Maze.  I am sure they will be thrilled to get them tomorrow.  They really have been great with Jack and have made us feel very comfortable while we are going through such a sneaky treatment like radiation. 

It’s true…radiation is sneaky.  You feel as if you are just going about your daily business when you go to radiation because it is over so fast and there are no visible signs that anything is happening.  It is the strangest feeling.  Radiation is the type of treatment that can have side effects 7 years after you are done.  Hopefully Jack will not have any of these awful side effects that they warned us about, but still…I have decided that I don’t like radiation.  I like it because it is getting rid of the rest of Jack’s active cancer, but it is just different.  I am sure that sounds a bit odd, but it’s true.  I guess it’s hard to explain unless you are going through it.

Once again, please do not forget to sign up for the 1st Annual Jack Morton Foundation Golf Classic!!  We are so very excited and can’t wait for our big day on December 5th.  It will be so much fun and of course it will be for such a great cause!  If you don’t want to mail in your form, let me know and we can arrange to drop it off to us or Nikki or we can even pick it up!  Just let me know!!

Also, since we have been going to treatment we have met a wonderful little girl, Mia, who is battling brain cancer.  She is such a beautiful little girl and her family is wonderful.  Mia’s parents are so strong, loving, and just plain wonderful.  Mia has a little brother who is about Jack’s age and a baby sister who is 10 weeks old.  To say that they have their hands full is more than obvious.  Please follow Mia and pray for her and her battle.  She is strong little girl who has a lot of spunk.  She it taking this cancer on, and she will win.  http://humantribeproject.com/tribes/princess-mia

Well Braden’s runny nose from teething turned into some sort of a virus because Nikki, Jack, and I all got it.  Since we all were feeling pretty down here, Zac came home from work last night to be with Jack so there is at least one healthy person taking care of him.  I talked to the nurse at the clinic at PCH yesterday and as long as he doesn’t run a fever of 100.4 or more, there really isn’t much we can do about it.  Since it is cold season, they expect the kids to get sick at some point so they aren’t too concerned.  He had a very low fever of 99.1 yesterday when he was sleeping, but it hasn’t gotten any higher than that.  We are allowed to give him something for the cold as long as there isn’t a fever reducer in it so he took some medication yesterday afternoon and it seemed to help a lot.  Hopefully we will all start feeling better soon and get back to “normal”.

Zac got up early this morning to take Jackers to his 17th day of radiation so I could try and sleep in a little to get rid of this cold.  Braden has been up since 5:45 this morning wanting to get up and play so sleeping in really didn’t happen!  About 15 minutes after they left for the hospital, I get a call from radiation telling me that the machine is down….again.  It has been “down” the last 5 days in a row.  Since they already left and we live so far from Banner, there wasn’t much we could do about it.  Jack and Zac are still waiting to go back for his radiation (45 minutes late so far) so who knows how long they will have to wait.  It just really stinks that we have to get him up so early and he can’t eat or drink anything and he just has to sit there.  Once again, what can you do….not much! 

After today Jack will only have 3 more sessions left!  Thank God it’s almost over.  I can’t even explain how proud we are of Jack and how well he handles everything.  He really does have more courage than all of us put together and he is the true definition of a survivor.  He is going to beat this.  Cancer doesn’t have a chance.