Another Clinic Monday... Day 383 30NOV09

Clinic days on Monday seem to be our routine so far. Clinic...Good - Hospital...Bad.  I will take clinic visits over hospital visits any day! Joshua is doing great. Thanks to those "oh so wonderful" steroids, his counts are in the 2000's. Everything else is looking good as well. Joshua enjoys his clinic visits because he gets to see all of his "cancer" buddies and he also gets to hang out with the wonderful volunteers that play with the kids. It's also nice for me because while Joshua and Jarrod are off in the "art" room, I can hang out with other moms and just talk! It's good sometimes to be able to help the new moms and compare notes. Every child is so different yet they are all alike!

After clinic, we stopped by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to drop off Joshua's handmade Christmas Card. He was excited to see where they all hang out!

At home was another school day, followed by bike ride, dinner, a little t.v and then off to bed.....otherwise...Normal!

God, I love normal!  

Worldwide corn dog shortage... Day 382 29NOV09

Joshua has eaten twice his weight so far in corn dogs. Nothing else seems to satisfy him right now. Thank goodness that the average annual production of corn dogs is slightly more than he is capable of eating. The last couple of days he has ben getting a little heart burn, go figure when your diet is made of ingredients no one can truly identify.

But like all of his food cravings this one too shall pass away and we will be left with the always challenging task of figuring out the next best thing. Meanwhile if you like corn dogs I'd be stocking up while you still can.

Jarrod and Joshua spent the morning playing with Taylor and Avery who just got back from a trip to Tennessee for Thanksgiving. I cleaned up out in the garage while Renee help down the fort inside. The steroid monster seems finally to be asleep in his cave once more. Not to be awakened until the week of Christmas. Yee Haw.

The boys took a bike ride before dinner and then we all hung out together for a while and caught up a little on the massive backlog on our DVR.

A tree and an angel... Day 381 28NOV09

Jarrod woke up early this morning and got started putting up our Christmas tree. This is the first time he has done it all by himself and I must say that all those years as my assistant payed off. It warms my heart and freaks me out a little that he is big enough to do the job in the first place. It is both exciting and terrifying to watch your children grow up. It happens so fast.

Joshua came home a little while later and did his special job, putting the angel on the top of the tree. He had a good time spending the night out and came home refreshed and in a much better mood. We got the rest of the Christmas stuff down and Renee and the kids went to town decorating. The house looks very festive and Christmas is definitely in the air. I am hoping that this Christmas is a lot more "normal" than last year.

Black Friday... Day 380 27NOV09

Joshua will thankfully finish his round of steroids this evening and begin the return to the normal loving child he usually is. Renee informed me today that we have 120 more steroid days to get through before we are done. Not sure how we are going to make it right now but we will tough it out.

Renee decided to brave the mobs and actually went shopping this morning at 3:30. She was home by 6:30 and was really happy with what she managed to get accomplished. I'm just glad she likes to do things like that instead of me :) I can guarantee that the people at the stores do not want me shopping in the middle of the night on a few hours sleep. Not pretty...

The rest of the day was moments of peace followed by NATO style peace keeping until Joshua left to go over and spend the night with Grandma and Pa. Jarrod stayed home even though he wanted to go because Josh had a meltdown over him going. He is really growing up fast and we enjoyed spending the evening with him.

Hopefully Joshua will return tomorrow a little calmer and peace can be restored. Until next month.

Thanksgiving 2009... Day 379 26NOV09

We came together today to celebrate Thanksgiving. We all met at Renee's parent's house: our family; Christian, Jamie, Allie, and of course Bella; this year we were also joined by Ahmed and Andrea who are friends of Christian and Jamie. We ate. We took a break. We ate some more. The food was wonderful and plentiful and we all got a great start on packing on that extra holiday poundage. Well actually we kind of started early but whose counting...

The kids took several boat rides because the weather stayed nice and we didn't really start to cool off until tonight. Joshua loves to drive the boat and as he comes from a long line of seafaring folk he does it not only with confidence but with style :) His favorite thing to do? Go fast.

We have so much and so many people to be thankful for this year. A great number of people have touched Joshua life and made this past year much brighter and happier than it would have been otherwise. Joshua continues to do good and we are so thankful for his progress in his treatment plan. Every day is another step closer to him being free of cancer forever and we are thankful for all of you that walk beside us.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dreary... Day 378 25NOV09

Today was just a dreary rainy day. You know you are in for it when it is still dark at 9:00 in the morning. We have a cold front coming through and after the rain temps are supposed to drop significantly. The rain didn't really dampen Joshua's steroid outbursts much but he was pretty good most of the day. He is stuck on corn dogs this time around and is eating them almost constantly. The good thing is with all the corn dogs he doesn't need a laxative after the Vincristine :) He did start getting bone pain today which he has gotten after every Vincristine dose. It was in his shoulders this time instead of his hips.

Tomorrow we all celebrate that which we are thankful for. I wish all of you a wonderful day and a happy Thanksgiving.

We certainly have a lot to be thankful for.

This is your brain... Day 377 24NOV09

Remember the old TV commercial? This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs. Joshua had his first flash of rage this evening from the steroids. Definitely an uncontrollable anger thing with lots of screaming punctuated with a few well timed door slams.

When you open the door to his room ten minutes later to check on him an angry voice yells out one word...

"Leave!"

Then in a flash the old Joshua will be back. For a little while...

Earlier in the calmer part of the day we all went to the Children's Cancer Center for a special lunch and presentation.Panera Bread doanted $100,000 to the Children’s Cancer Center of Tampa. The money was collected through the company’s Community Breadbox donation program in 24 bay-area bakery-cafes and matched by Covelli Family Limited Partnership, a franchisee of Panera Bread. Thats right a hundred grand! Wow! The food was really good and we got a chance to visit with our extended family.