Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize the little things were the big things. ~Robert Brault

Monday, November 21, 2011

May 16, 2014

In two and a half years we will have a cancer-free son! He started maintenance this past week. We have an official "cure" day. May 16, 2014. A meer month before he turns 9. I can't wait for that day. SERIOUS celebrating will be going' on up in her'! I know it's a long, long, LONG ways away still but at least there's a date. We're so proud of Carter for being so strong, brave, and positive throughout all of this. We could not have been blessed with a more perfect son. By Christmas he'll have a short little buzz cut! It's already looking great. When you rub his hair (which is as soft as a newborn's) you can feel little spikes of new hairs coming up. I can't tell if he looks like a cancer patient anymore because to me he has a TON of hair. But then, I think if I saw him like this 9 months ago I would have been horrified.
He was diagnosed with Leukemia 8 months and 17 days ago and now he goes into his final cycle of chemo. What to expect for the next 2 1/2 years is this:
--> 5 days of steroids a month (3 pills in the morning and two pills at night). They cause insomnia for about a week. Sucks.
--> 1 prevacid each morning (helps with stomach acid which is caused all of the other meds)
--> Mercaptipurine nightly (a type of chemotherapy in pill form taken at least two hours after dinner with only water... I have to set my alarm every night. So annoying. Because it's chemo you can't touch it with your fingers... yet I willingly have my son swallow it. Weekends he has two pills at night. This one makes him kind of sick. I don't like it.)
--> Methotrexate (another oral chemo-- again, can't touch it) every Monday (with a few exceptions). 6 1/2 pills at night.
--> Each chemo visit will consist of Vincristine through his port.
--> Each chemo visit will also consist of an hour long dose of Pentamodine (an antibiotic to prevent pneumonia... which could kill him).
--> Every three months he has a spinal tap where they give him Methotrexate into his spine and test the spinal fluids for cancer. (these are the Mondays where he won't take his Methotrexate at home)
There is a chance that some of these will be switched up a bit if he doesn't react well to them. For example, the Mercaptipurine caused serious elevated liver counts last time he took it. He had to take it for a month last time and by the end of the month one of his liver counts was 875 and in a normal person it's 25. Left that high for too long there will be permanent liver damage. If he does that again this time around they will have to change it up with another drug. The one that they would use would probably be one that causes serious hair loss and nausea. (Although last time he took it he didn't get real sick... but went VERY VERY bald.) Only time will tell though. Just because he reacted a certain way last time he took a specific drug doesn't mean that he'll react that same way this time around. (Annoying, right?)
I have mixed feelings about his hair coming back in. Him being bald is a very visual reminder that he has cancer. Once his hair is back in then people won't be as careful but he'll still be as sick... you know? But, it's fun to watch his hair come back in. It's pretty light. I think it'll be a dirty blond. Much lighter than before. But there's still time for a curve ball with his hair color.
Here's the video of what we think of Carter going into maintenance. Be sure to mute the music so you can hear it... actually, we're pretty loud. :)

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Pine Creek HS Football Game

Friday night was an absolute blast. One of the senior football players at the local high school (the one our kids will attend when they are older) wanted to do a service project to add to his college application. He called the oncology clinic and told them he wanted to have one of the cancer kids be a part of one of their football games. The clinic thought of Carter... because he's so darn cute, I'm sure. ;)
Before the game there was a dinner for all the football players that Bryan took Carter to. The boys gave him a jersey and he got to spend the meal chatting with them. He also got to meet the very beautiful team managers. (His words... not mine. :))
The game we went to was Senior Night so they made Carter an "Honorary Senior". We got to walk onto the field with balloons while they announced "Number 45, Carter Wyeth". The announcer then announced that he was fighting cancer and that Pine Creek HS had his back. The crown cheered and Carter felt like a super star. There were strangers taking pictures of him. It was kind of funny. It was probably the Yoda hat. :)

The team also gave Carter a signed football. It may as well be signed by the Cardinals. He absolutely LOVES it.
When it was time for the coin toss one of the senior boys came and asked Carter if he wanted to come onto the field and do the coin toss with them. (Guess what Carter's response was?) This cute senior took Carter's hand and took him onto the field for the toss, held his hand while he was out there, and then gave him a fist bump before they all came trotting back. There's a better picture of it on the high school's website this week. You can see it here. Throughout the game, the players kept coming up to Carter and telling him that they were playing the game for him, that they were going to win it for him, that he was their good luck charm. It made him feel so special!!

The team managers all wanted their pictures taken with Carter. They took Carter around with them while the guys were out playing. He gave the players water and went onto the field when he was allowed to with the girls. (He'll LOVE this picture in a few years.)
This is Cub Olsen. He's the senior that put all this together. It was a dream come true for Carter and I could just kiss this sweet kid for doing it. He will never know how much it meant to Carter and long after Cub has forgotten all about that night, Carter will still be telling his own kids about it. Cub kept coming up to Carter through out the game to make sure he was having fun.(Heading onto the field between quarters to give the players water.)
At 1/2 time all the cheerleaders headed over to meet the kids. They thought they were totally adorable (duh) and wanted to take pictures with them and give them hugs. Addilyn thought they were so beautiful too. :) That colorful hat in the middle of that picture is Addilyn... being smothered by all the cheerleaders.
Carter with all the cheerleaders.
There is a darling boy in our ward that plays for PCHS as well. I seriously adore this kid. I don't know him that well but I'd be a liar if I said I hadn't done the math to see if he's too old for Addilyn... I think he is. :( That's him on the right with Cub. My kids thought they were suppose to kneel down as well. Goofs. :)One of the cheerleaders taught Addilyn (we use the term loosely) a cheer and said whenever she was ready for me to bring her over and they would do the cheer for the crowd. Of course we headed over as soon as 1/2 time was over. They gave her pompoms to use and she did the entire cheer with them... which turned into the entire second half of the game. She shook her booty and her pom poms until the game was over. She also took off her jacket despite the chilly weather because she wanted everyone to see her Pine Creek shirt the team had given her (they game us all shirts).
They even did a lift with her. Addilyn has since declared, "Mom, I want to be a pom pom girl when I grown up!" (Sorry, Uncle Bradley...)

She became particularly attached to this cheerleader, Sarah. She even asked me Saturday morning if we could call her. :)After the game the cheer coach gave Addilyn some roses for being such a good cheerleader.
Here are the souvenirs from the night. he also got a water bottle from the team managers.
The night could not have been more fun for all of us and more magical for my kids. They had so so SO much fun and I'm so glad that Cub put all this together for our cute little fighter. Major blessings in heaven for that kid!!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Happy Halloween!

This year for Halloween I kinda flaked. I'm just tired. All. The. Time. I'm just kind of done with life, ya know? We all get like that, sometimes... right? (please say "right" or I'll feel super slacker.) Addi wanted to be Spider Girl and we found these really cute spider accessories at Claires. She loved them so don't tell her they look nothing like the real spider girl. Carter wanted to be Darth Vader. No problem. Everyone I know has a Vader outfit so we borrowed one and called it good. As for Pres, well, I called my dear old pal, Katie Budge, how has a little girl almost a year older than Preslee and borrowed Brinklee's outfit from last year. Pres was happy as a bug in a rug about it. She just wanted the candy. :) We had a really fun evening and made it to about 30-40 houses before everyone pooped out. Even though the kids only had a few pieces of candy last night Carter still got kind of sick at school and came home after lunch. Last week at chemo he got a really high dose of meth (don't worry, the real name is Methotrexate, but it's more fun to say our 6 year old is a meth-head) and he hasn't felt great since. Poor thing. Thank heavens for Zofran. All in all, Halloween was a success!