Another chemo visit

Today was another chemo (via IV) appointment at the hospital. Everything went great.

His counts look good, his lingering cough has lessened, and surprisingly, he wasn't affected as much this last week with the steroids as before (he had a few outbursts each day, but it didn't feel nearly as extreme as past steroid pulses, thank goodness!).

Last night was his last dose of the steroids so now we're back to "normal" again, and return in another few weeks for another dose of chemo (via LP). :)

A visit from our DC friends!

To further prove we truly live in a small world, I'll share my story of Jill and David.

Jill and I met at Georgetown, where we went to grad school together. She met David (now her husband) while we were in school so I got to know him then too. We graduated and went our separate ways, but stayed in touch. Jill and David remained in DC but of course I returned back to CA (and met Jon soon after I returned). Anytime they came out to CA I'd meet up with them for a lunch or coffee and when I returned to DC (sadly I've only been back once since I graduated!), I stayed and visited with them for a night.

Fast forward many years later where Jon has been successfully moving forward at Twitch and Amazon. David, meanwhile, had worked many years at a private company in DC but moved to Amazon (still in DC) about the same time Jon moved over. Jill and I thought, how neat that our husbands now worked at the same company (but never thought they'd actually run into each other given we are on different coasts and it's such a large company).

But! It's not as large as you think ;-) A big project Jon was working on, brought he and David together just a few months ago. So, our two husbands met and worked side by side, putting in many late nights for several weeks. How funny!

David shared with their kids how he was working on this project for a company called Twitch, which just so happened to be a company that his son (also named David) was a big fan of. :)

Just this past week, Jill and their two kids decided to join David (he's out here for a conference) on the trip. She asked if it would be possible for me to arrange a tour of Twitch for little David, the big fan. Of course I said yes!

I picked up my boys after school and we headed up to the city to meet them at the Twitch office. Jon walked us around - the kids got their fill of free snacks and video games and had a great time. Jill got a fun pic of the kids and Jon (little David in his purple Twitch shirt) which I'll have to share later after she sends it to me. :)

After, we walked with them to the nearby Apple Store before heading home. Jill and I got to catch up on life (as much as you can, anyway, while walking the streets of SF with four hyper kids running around!) which was nice as well. It was so fun to see them, even if our visit was too short. We both agreed we'd need to do another visit sometime very soon! :)

Happy birthday big boy!!

Today, our youngest rascal turns 5! My how time flies.

We've spent the day swimming, eating yummy foods, and most importantly, making and then playing with monster shrinky dinks!

Happy birthday kiddo. We love you dearly.

Prepping for the party!

I'll post better pics tomorrow after I've had a chance to recover! But for now, I thought I'd share a few pics I took while prepping for Callum's 5th birthday party today. :)

Callum had a fantastic time (as did Logan), I'm beat but happy it turned out well.

More to share later! :)

A good luck birthday card

Logan made Callum a birthday card last night and was very proud of it. I had to capture some pics of it because it was so touching to (hear him) read. He wrote it all by himself; here is what it says:

I love you. You are my only brother. The thing that got cancer, I hope it goes away soon. I hope you luck.

(And then on the other side):

Happy birthday. I hope you like the presents. I water you. I love you.

Moving right along

I forgot to post these on Thursday - but we had a big day at the hospital this last week. We've hit the 3rd cycle of Callum's maintenance protocol, and Thursday was Day 1! We're moving right along! :)

(Each cycle is 16 weeks long; we have 7 cycles total!)

So, we headed in for labwork first (the poke was one of the best he's had in a long time - fast and no tears!) and his bloodwork looks great. Woohoo!

After his labs were drawn we headed to another part of the floor, the pulmonary wing, to get his Pentamidine breathing treatment (we now do this monthly, instead of weekly doses of Septra at home).

After we were done with that, we headed BACK to the clinic again to wait for his chemo. We had to wait outside the clinic (so there he is in the second pic, settled in nice and comfy on the couches, playing on his iPad) since he still has a cough. :(

It took awhile for his exam and to walk through all the questions with the nurses and his doctor. Plus, we had a new nurse (guy in the third pic) overseeing us this visit so we probably spent a bit more time with him than we usually do. As you can see, he and Callum hit it off quite nicely!

At the start of each cycle we do a 7 day "pulse" of steroids - so, after his chemo was done (vincristine via IV), I gave him his first dose of steroids before packing up to go.

Because it was such a long visit, he was pretty cranky and hungry as we were leaving the hospital. I had to stop by the pharmacy on our way out to pick up our refills - but they weren't ready for us - so I spent a very long, grueling 10 minute wait, trying to soothe a grumpy kid who was quickly unraveling at the seams about every little thing. Yay! *sigh*

(I know it wasn't the case, but it sure felt like those steroids had kicked in instantly that morning!)

I finally got him to calm down once we hit the road. We picked up some cinnamon bread at a nearby pastry shop (it's becoming a regular thing for us now) and that certainly washed away any last tears remaining. :)

He was in such a nice mood we even stopped by a lighting shop to check out some fixtures for the new house (since I'm now in remodel mode full time!) before picking up Logan from school. Phew!! What a day!

Superheroes Day

Today is Superheroes day at school - so naturally, Callum chose his "Bat-Moose" shirt (from Yellowstone). ;-)