He Laughs At Pain

I realize that parents often marvel at the smallest things for their own kids and think that they are best, but this time I apologize to all parents because Mason is by far the bravest four year old that I have experienced.  Yesterday we took Mason into the doctor’s office to have blood drawn in order to be tested for a bone marrow match.  A few weeks ago when I discussed this with Mason he told me that he wanted to sit up and watch because it would only hurt for a little bit.  I thought this was just a lot of talk and when it would come time we would be strapping him down like a mental patient in order to draw blood.  I was wrong.  Mason sat very strongly in my lap and watched as they inserted the needle and was in amazement as he watched the vile fill with his blood.  I asked him if it scared him and he said “No, it’s pretty cool”.  Not one tear dropped from his eyes and it is one of the proudest moments I have experienced.  He gave blood easier than a lot of adults I know.  Now, if he could only take that attitude to the soccer games we might have better stories to tell after the games.  🙂

As a reward we took Mason ice skating for the very first time.  The first couple laps were not very smooth, but after a few times around and the can do attitude that his mom has instilled in him you could definitely see dramatic improvement.  Of course we still had to hold his hands (e.g. hold him up), but each pass required less and less effort on our part.  He now wants to take lessons so he can play hockey.  Hopefully he keeps that attitude and doesn’t change it to figure skating as he enjoyed watching the girls that were practicing.  Here is a short video of his efforts during the second pass through…

I apologize again for the layout of the video, unfortunately anything taken from on my iphone is rotated for some reason.  WordPress assuress me that they are working on a resolution for this.

Now, for the negative news about Mason’s donor potential.  We did hear back from the doctor today and Mason is not a match.  As disappointing as this is, things are still good as we still have a very high probability of finding a cord blood match via the cord blood bank.  We have also heard some potential of using his current healthy bone marrow, but I don’t know much about that at this time.  We will be in the office on Monday for more blood work for Cutler and hope to get more news at the time.  One request that I have of everyone is that you please never mention this to Mason.  I am sure it goes without saying, but we really don’t ever want him to know that he is not a match.  That can wait until he is much older when he understands these things.  In the mean time, as far as he is concerned, the doctors took his blood to help Cutler. 

Again, this news is not what we had hoped for, but with only a 25% chance of Mason being a match it is what was expected.  Up until this point, everything has gone our way, so we need to expect to have some road blocks in the way, but they are only road blocks and ones that can be removed.  We still have the cord blood solution and more importantly we still have a baby that is in remission and who loves his big brother very much.  Below is a video of Mason coming home from school to find his baby brother home from the hospital.

We thank everyone for staying positive and for their continued thoughts and prayers.

Still Happy

So Cutler is adjusting to the home life quite well from an entertainment perspective.  He loves to play in his exersaucer and to roll around on the floor.  He has become quite adept at rolling all over and is doing a pretty good job of sitting up on his own.  However, his best trick of all is his ability to pull his socks off with his teeth and then keep it there for display purposes.  I believe that if our socks were available he would probably chew on these as well.  He is actually worse than the dog.

Doggy Cutler

Unfortunately in between his play time and feedings, Cutler is still getting sick. You can tell when he is feeling it, but as soon as he vomits he is usually back to his fun-loving self. The doctor today called in a script for a new medicine to help with this and so far it is working. He has successfully stomached three feedings since first taking the medicine. Let’s hope this round of medicine works. If not, he will most likely head back into the hospital. While he definitely misses all of his lady friends there, he prefers it at home.

Kammie Makes The Blog Again

Code Pink Is Always on Belinda's mind

Speaking of the hospital, we have received some conflicting information about a potential transplant.  Three of the four doctors had mentioned this would likely be Cutler’s last round of chemo before the potential transplant, but then when we were in the office for Mason’s blood test (more on that in another post) Dr. Goldman mentioned that we still had another round to go.  I am sure they are combining their brain power and will ultimately make the best decision for him and we hope to hear more on Monday when we go in for more blood work for Cutler.  Until then we just continue to hope for the best and pray that Cutler continues his strong recovery.

Missing Mason

The title of the post is how the doctor refers to Cutler.  Apparently he is reacting well if he keeps eating at this pace and continues to amaze the doctors.  While he does still vomit at least twice a day, he does still show the desire to eat which is a very good thing.  It does seem like it is only happening with his first two or three bottles of the day and we are trying to get him anti nausea medicine prior to giving him a bottle.  Helps keep the laundry bill low.  Regardless of the nausea, he is still drinking a lot of milk and is continuing to enjoy the vegetables which is a very good thing.  Right now he is maintaining his weight, around 16 lbs, but as the chemo is almost over I suspect his current appetite will start to pack more weight on as soon as he keeps it all in on a consistent basis.  And sorry Aunt Linda, but I have a feeling he will continue down the trail of the carnivores in the family.  After all, you don’t keep a body like this by not eating meat.  🙂

I vomit, but I don't care

Cutler may be in remission, but this second round of chemo is really hitting him hard physically, but not mentally.  I had the pleasure of being the recepient of two episodes within 30 minutes.  Personally, I blame it on Kammie, as he only seems to have these issues when she is covering him but she claims that she only makes him laugh.  Apparently he laughs so hard that he pukes.  🙂  Actually, if it weren’t for the vomiting and the hair loss, it’s the same story as before where you wouldn’t even know he was going through chemo.  He continues to be the happiest baby around and continues to amaze me with how talkative he is throughout the day.  Oh another milestone for Cutler is that he is now eating vegetables and for the most part loving every bit of them.

Also thought I would throw in a random picture of Mason as it has been awhile and I don’t want him to be left out as well as including one of the only family member not to make it on here until now…Tau, our well behaved protector of the house.

Tau and Mason before a round of golf

Here you can see where Cutler get’s his happy attitude and loving smile.

Laughing boy

First of all, my apologies for not being very active of late, but there just hasn’t been many updates to provide and I also needed a mini vacation.   But now we definitely have something to update everyone with…Cutler is now officially in remission!  We got the word last night/this morning from the doctor that the bone marrow shows no signs of cancer and the spinal fluid is clean with no blasts present.  The blood work also continues to come back clean.  Cutler is so happy that he is now singing about it…

Obviously this is tremendous news and a major step towards the cure as we will most likely move on to a potential transplant once this next round of chemo is complete.  So while it is time to be amazed and overwhelmed with this good news, we must still keep the prayers pushing forward for the cure.  We had to cancel Mason’s scheduled blood test due to his illness, but he is finally without fever and the cough has reduced so we hope to have the test done at the beginning of next week.  As for Mason’s health, he is heading back to school tomorrow and let’s hope this is the last of the gunk that is going around not just for Mason, but also for all of his classmates as this nasty h1n1 works its way through the system.

So Cutler is now back in the hospital and as much as we hate to be back it was great to get such a good reception from the incredible staff.  We didn’t get the same presidential suite, but no complaints as we hope to be there for only eight days…long enough to finish out the chemo.  The bone marrow biopsy and spinal tap went well and the doctor liked what he saw under the microscope, but we will wait until we hear more hopefully tomorrow after all of the thorough testing is complete.  Cutler did vomit a couple of times today, but otherwise is doing well and the second round of chemo is under way.

Mason did go back to the doctor today as his fever and coughing continued today.  Fortunately the doctor feels he has a viral cold and not h1n1, which is a good thing and amazing considering that his fiance, Taylor Carley, just got diagnosed with it as well.  Sounds like there are quite a few kids out sick from his class.  I think we will keep Mason at home safe with the grandmas for at least the rest of the week while he finishes out his tamiflu prescription.

Aunt Angie

Mason is still sick and Cutler is still avoiding the bug, so not much new.  Mason did have a great first half of the day, but around 2 he started to spike a pretty big fever and soon lost interest in hanging out with anyone, even his daddy.  He did get to enjoy the NickToons marathon of Fantastic Four and IronMan, so not all was lost on him.  By the evening he was a bit back to normal, but still coughing quite a bit.  If the cough persists tomorrow, the grandmas will take him to see the doctor for more medicine while Cutler is undergoing his procedures and starting chemo.

I feel bad that I forgot to mention this before, but 27 people showed to donate blood at the blood drive for Cutler on Friday which is amazing.  Again, a very special thank you to Tiffany Solis for putting this together. 

Another special thanks to Cajun Aunt Pat for all of the wonderful cajun food she cooked up and sent to us with Nana.  I can never get enough of her home cooking.

Life is exercising a no holds barred attack on Team Fricke and we are feeling the full effects.  Before anyone panics, Cutler is doing just fine.  He is sleeping through the night and not running a fever so far.  Instead life has decided to take us on in other areas, most importantly Mason.  It started Friday afternoon when we got a call from the school to let us know that one of Mason’s classmates was diagnosed with H1N1.  To be safe we have done our best to keep Mason away from Cutler or at the very least limited his touches and made sure he was always washing his hands before touching Culter. 

Yesterday started out good and Mason showed no signs of any illness as he gulped down a pretty big breakfast and then played the entire soccer game.  It was about 6pm last night when he started to show some fatigue, coughing and signs of a fever.  We immediately moved him upstairs and put him in quarantine.  His fever spiked off and on throughout the night and then he woke up at 4:30 am crying about his back hurting and so I quickly took him to the ER.  The good thing is that the swab tested negative for the flu, but given the circumstances at home and the symptoms he is presenting he is taking medicine as if he does have the flu. 

Mason and I are remaining in quarantine as Melanie, Nana, Aunt Angie, and Grandma are taking care of Cutler.  Unfortunately Aunt Angie had to fly back tonight, but it was great having her here for the few days and her skills and knowledge as a nurse were invaluable while I was freaking out about Mason.  One good side to being in quarantine is that I have finally had an excuse to sit around and watch football all day and Mason has been willing to let me watch.

Most of the day he has done great.  When we got back from the ER he proceeded to have yet another big breakfast and even a big lunch.  About an hour ago he started to show the symptoms again as he began to warm up and his chest congestion appears to be back.  He is so tired that he actually asked me to turn off Bolt so that he could go to sleep.  Let’s hope the rest helps and he will be feeling better when he wakes.  I do suspect this will postpone his blood test, but there is plenty of time to get that under way.

Just got done at the doctor’s office and his blood work looks incredible, so good in fact he is ready to start chemo again next week.  His spinal fluid came back with a zero count as well and after reviewing under the microscope there was one cell that was questionable, but couldn’t be specifically designated as Leukemia.  This is an upgrade from last week when they defined one cell as Leukemia so we are heading in the right direction.  So now the plan going forward is that we will have the weekend at home together, Mason will have his blood test on Monday, and then on Tuesday morning we will go in for a bone marrow biopsy and another spinal tap and then be admitted into the hospital for eight days of chemotherapy.  The doctor has said that we will be heading home as soon as the chemo is complete so the recovery will be at home this time instead of at the hospital.  I am sure this will disappoint the nurses, but will make the team very happy.