Just wanted to show everyone a picture of Eli with his "best friend" Abrielle in front of one of the turtles. We didn't even get half way through them, but had fun nonetheless.

School is out!!! Jacob's last day of school was yesterday, the big 10:30am end time. I really don't understand why they even bother. The kids ate lunch at 9:00 or something crazy like that. Anyway, the year is over. I am glad. Although he didn't have any difficulty whatsover in school, I really don't think he was challenged at all. Unfortunately, we had other things we were concentrating on, (haha), so I am hoping third grade will be a new start. Jake has been put into the "gifted and talented" class...so it should be really challenging for him.

Eli's MRI went well yesterday. The doc said because of the holiday we may not be able to get it read until today, so not to expect a call until Friday. His ANC count had really gone down to 880. This isn't a horrible number, but he is much more open to infection, so we have to watch it now. Today we are going to take the kids around to look at the "Turtles around town" with Spoleto. They are turtles decorated and put all around town.

WEll, Eli is now sitting on my lap and he isn't very patient...please pray for the MRI results to come back in our favor (no changes in the lesions) and for good counts next week so we can have our LAST bag of methotrexate. Hope you have agood week and thanks for checking in!!

Home again, home again!!! John came home with Eli mid-morning on Saturday..what a relief. I was really worried our late start on Wednesday would mean a late discharge. Again, Eli handled the chemo really well and we didn't have anything unusual happen. One more of those big yellow bags to go!!! When John was released, Eli's ANC count was at an all time high of 3450. We haven't seen numbers like that since our diagnosis.

Then John had to ask the Dr what "Delayed Intensification" was going to be like for us. Well, she said it was basically very similar to the first 30 days...YUCK!!!! Apparently they like to blast it one more time with lots of tough stuff before we go into Maint. so hopefully we won't relapse. Eli's counts will probably go way, way down. So, we will enjoy 3 more weeks of this "great" health that he has had. Really, other than his missing hair I swear you wouldn't know he has cancer right now. But I can't worry about what is to come, I can only enjoy and concentrate on today.

Our friends, the Muellers, were in town from Charlotte. It was such a treat to see them. They lived across the street until a few years ago and we still miss them. They have three girls: Molly, Katie and Abby. The older boys and I went to the beach on Saturday (I have NEVER seen it so crowded.) They had a sand sculpture contest for Spoleto, so I guess it was the place to be. John couldn't get through the traffic to meet us, so we met them for dinner last night too. It is so nice to get to do our "normal" things every once in a while.

Today little Hudson Graze was baptized. I was not able to go to church because John was an usher, but I was able to go over to thier house to celebrate a little. I think tomorrow will be a family day of grilling out and maybe starting to show Sam how to ride his bike sans training wheels. Wish me luck!!! Have a great memorial day!!!

OH!! FYI>>>>On June 21/22 Independent Lens on PBS is going to be showing A Lion in the House, a documentary about 5 families living with childhood leukemia. For anyone that would like to see it, I understand it is very powerful, but also very difficult to watch. (NOT recommended for kiddies) Just thought I would let you know. I have not seen it, and I cannot at this point bring myself to watch it (honestly, I doubt I ever will) but I understand it is an amazing work!!

What a crazy week!!

Sam had his last day of preschool and his Graduation on Tuesday night. Wow, where has the time gone? I will post a picture as soon as I get a chance. He looked so grown up in his little white gown....Mom and Dad and John's mom and aunt came to see him along with John, Jacob, and myself. He was quite proud of himself. Sallie stayed and watched Eli for me at home..I know his counts have been good, but I am still not up for crowds indoors!!

Jake is entering his last week of second grade. This week has been field day, and a party tomorrow. I am not sure what they are going to do with him on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. He is ready to start third grade, and more pressing, to begin his summer. Both older boys will be doing lots of camps this summer. Not knowing what our hospital stays will be like, I thought that would be the safest thing to do.

The past couple of days with Eli have been trying, We got to the clinic yesterday at 8:30 and everything seemed to go like clockwork. But again time stood still here at MUSC and we couldn't get aroom until close to 6pm and the chemo was not started until around 3 am. One of the most frustrating things was that they didn't get his oral meds to me until close to 10, so I had to wake him up and give them to him holding him down as he screamed. The big yellow bag of methotrexate will be finished at 3 am tonight and then we start seeing if he clears it like before. I told John that we might not get out until Sunday because of the later start, but we will see.

On the Thanksgiving side of things, Eli is handling everything again like a trooper. He has not gotten sick (they are giving him all 3 anti nausea drugs) and seems to feel fine. His counts were back up to a whopping 2900 ANC, platelets at 308,000 and a hemoglobin of 11.4....all of these are fantastic numbers, I can only hope they stay there. His LP went great...so no surprises.

John will come and relieve me tomorrow after work, and I will be more than ready to go home.

Again, our MRI is scheduled for May 30. Please pray that his brain lesions have remained small or gotten better. Thanks for the prayers...they are working...we are proof!!!

I wanted to show a couple of pics....one is Eli getting a haircut!! I laugh because I think he literally got his one hair cut!! It was looking really whispy, and now it looks better. The other picture is of the three boys opening an amazing box of toys given to them by the ladies at St. Anthony's Church in Hackensack, NJ. Dad has been going there for a while, and these folks have really been prayer warriors for us. Well, dad got this Huge box and brought it over....it may as well have been Christmas all over again...

Things with us are going well. We return to MUSC on Wednesday again, hopefully we will be out by Saturday again. We are officially halfway through with the Interim Maintenance, then on to Delayed Intensification. (Could they make these names any scarier?!) We have another LP Wednesday morning,then on to 7B. Our MRI is on May 30.

Congratulations to the Hucks family on their newest addition, Matthew Wilson. We are thrilled to have yet another boy in our midst!! We all can't wait to meet him!!

I'll let you know how the week goes, thanks for checking in on us!!!

Wednesday was actually a quick clinic visit....we did a finger poke and about two hours later we were going home. Eli was pretty mad about the poke, but he got over it pretty quickly. His counts still look good, but we are going down. His ANC is now 1590, down from 2900 when we left the hospital on Sat. That is still a good number, but we just have no idea how low it will go this time. So, we are still doing some stuff, but no more seeing lots of people at once.

The mouth sores have come back, so we have had some difficult nights. It isn't horrible, which is a blessing, but it is still tough on us. And again, I bet we will get rid of them as soon as we have to go back into the hospital on Wednesday.

Eli's next MRI is scheduled for May 30. They will go in to see if his lesions have changed any with the methotrexate they have been giving him. We haven't had any type of seizures again, so that is a good sign, but we won't know for sure until we get the pics.

And we have new hair!! He is definitely growing some new hair fuzz on top. It looks a little darker than before, I think. I am not sure if he will lose it in this next phase, he may. Some kids grow it back during Long Term Maint, and some don't . I guess we will see. It is funny how used to him bald I have gotten, I looked at a picture of him from January and was shocked at how he looked.

Prayer requests are that we continue feeing good, no hospital visits, and good counts. Thanks!!

Happy Mother's Day to everyone....I hope your day was as good as mine. We got out of the hospital yesterday afternoon. Eli cleared the methotrexate almost as quickly as last time...so that was a relief. The hospital stay was really uneventful...the only problem was Eli being VERY, VERY bored. He really doesn't like the new playroom at all, so he just wants to stay in the room and watch TV...that gets old really fast...

John brought him home and then I went shopping!! We were able to get a babysitter for last night and went to see a local improv group with Mark and Cher. I figured my full 72+ hours was plenty of "mommy" time with Eli for the week. It was a really great night, very relaxing.

Today we got up, loaded Eli in the car and headed to St. Christopher camp and conference center. Jake and Sam had a fantastic weekend!!Thanks Dell and Kelli and Tiffany and Micheal!! They were surrounded by all of their "church friends" and I felt so secure with them being ther eI didn't even talk to anyone to be sure they were OK!!! Those that know me well know what a big deal it is!! Because Eli's counts are way up, we were able to take a quick walk on the beach (lots of sunscreen and a hat for the sun) and then attend church as a FAMILY for the first time in 5 months....Great!!!

If you can't tell, I have a big smile on my face...it has been a great Mother's Day...hope yours was too.,

As usual, our 9pm chemo start turned into 11:30. They have so many kids up here...the nurse said she had 6 chemos to give last night alone!!! I think someone needs to get busy and find a cure for this monster. It is so funny how before I was a mom of a child with cancer, I really gave it no thought. But now it seems it is everywhere, and I don't know why more people aren't talking about it. It seems lots of folks talk about breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men, but what about our babies?

So far so good with this round of methotrexate. Eli hasn't gotten sick at all. I have them giving him the Ativan, which makes him really groggy, but I would much rather him sleep than throw up. So we had a very quiet day here in the hospital. We watched alot of Scoooby Doo and slept some. I am going to have them stop the Ativan tonight when he finishes the "big yellow bag" of chemo.

John is in Charlotte for the evening and my mom is taking care of the boys. He will come back tomorrow night and relieve me here. Jacob and Sam have been invited by Tiffany and Micheal and Dell and Kelli to go to the church retreat with them. Although i was hesitant at first, I was really bummed that they couldn't go, so I relented. I know they will have a blast. If Eli gets out on Saturday I am going to try to go down too.

Please pray for good ANC counts, quick clearance of the MTX, and a clearance from the docs to get out of here!!!!

We are in the hospital tonight. Eli's counts were actually better than they have been in a couple of months or so. They are actually in the 'normal" range as opposed to being in the "low to critical" range. The nurse at the clinic said not to get too used to it, with the methotrexate they should be coming down soon. But we will enjoy it while we can.

We got to clinic at 10 and they got us into a room at 3or so, then they will begin his chemo at 9. Talk about being in the land with no time....it is amazing. But again the nurses are amazing. It will take about 24 hours for him to get all of the chemo, then we will wait for it to clear. Thanks for the prayers, I will keep you posted.

We had another good weekend. We really didn't do all that much....Eli's mouth sores are definitely getting better, I told John that they will completely heal by Wednesday...when we go back into the hospital and do it all over again!! We are keeping him on the glutamine, so hopefully that will help in the future.

Saturday night John and I actually got a babysitter and went to a Cinco de Mayo party at Dell and Kelli Tyner's house. It is great just being able to get out and be with other folks and not think about all of this stuff for a while. We had such a good time. I am hoping we wil get to do something again after our hospital stay as well.

The church picnic was fun. It rained here in the morning, and it was really cloudy after church. We kept his hat on, but there really wasn't any sun at all..which was a good thing. Lots of people got to say hello, although Eli got a little overwhelmed. I realized that he hasn't been in a crowd larger than 5 or so for almost 5 months now. For a two year old, it can be quite intimidating. But it was nice for us to get to show everyone how well he is doing.

Our admission on Wednesday is late morning. I will try to write in the evening and let ya'll know how things are going. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers.

Eli slept quite fitfully for the second night in a row. It is as though he wakes up just enough to realize that his mouth really hurts, then he decides to go back to sleep. He was crabby most of today, but that is understandable.

Clinic went well. All of Eli's numbers looked good. His hemoglobin wasn't nearly as low as I thought it would be, but the doctor went ahead with a transfusion because he has been so cranky. Plus she said it may mean that we won't have to do one next week as we are waiting to be admitted to get the methotrexate. His ANC is at 1936!! Yea!!

We have a church picnic on Sunday and I asked if we could go. The doc said no problem as long as I keep him out of the sun. The methotrexate also makes them VERY sensitive to the sun and sunlight in their eyes. So we will go and stay in the shade. I would love to "show him off" a little bit, so everyone can see how wonderfullly he is doing. The prayers are working....and the folks at church have been such prayer warriors for us.

My arm is getting so much better. It is kinda funny. I have figured out a way to pick Eli up with the crook of my arm without using my lower arm at all. (those moms out there know what you will do in desperation!!) So, I can hold my son, but I still am not able to turn a jar or doorknob with my left hand. I went for a bike ride the other night, and although it was sore it didn't throb the next day like I thought it would. The dr told me to go to a physical therapist, but I wasn't able to make the appt last week...maybe I will shoot for early next. It think I could do OK if they can just show me a few exercises to do at home. Going for PT 2 times a week just ain't gonna happen right now!!!

Prayer requests for tonight are that Eli continues to do well, that his mouth sores heal quickly, and the next treatment goes OK

So far our week has been one of mixed blessings.....we got to go out more..we went on a "Tea Room Picnic" again yesterday with Abrielle and Cher. Abrielle and Eli are way too cute together, almost as though they are brother and sister. Eli loved the She-Crab-Soup and annoyed poor Kendra Tuck in takeout until they got it to us!!!

Yesterday John and I noticed that Eli is getting a couple of sores in his mouth....Yuck!!! We were really hoping to avoid this side effect all together. I know how much is stinks as an adult to have mouth sores, I can only imagine how it is for a two year old. And today he was really grumpy and tired....I know part of it is because his mouth is hurting him. I gave him some Tylenol and the Magic Mouthwash, but it really didn't seem to help that much. I have a feeling that he will need another transfusion tomorrow, hopefully that is why he is so tired. We go in first thing in the morning, so we will go from there.