Ok, actually a few final words.  Somehow I forgot to work this into my past posts, but we got the news back today on Cutler’s spinal tap culture and it was 100% clean with no blasts.  I believe this means at least one week without a spinal tap.  Cutler and cutler’s back thank the chemo for its effectiveness. 

Also, today was a very good day for Cutler.  He spent most of it napping and eating, but wasn’t very fussy at all.  He did pee on Aunt Ellen tonight, so his ornery side is still fully in place.  Right now he is fast asleep and without requiring medicine throughout the night I am hoping for a full night of sleep so that I can be well rested in order to help convince Mason tomorrow that he belongs on his feet during the soccer game.

That’s all for now, Thank You and Good Night.

Had a great dinner tonight with Melanie, Mason, Grandpa, Maude and Vivian at Nate’s where there was some live music.  A very good blues band and Mason has become a efficianado of good music over time.  As soon as dinner was over he went with Melanie to check out the band in person.  Naturally he had to go to the front of the room to stand directly in front of the band and imitate the drummer.  Next thing you know Mason has the tambourine in his hand and is just grooving away to the beat.

It wasn’t a minute into the song and away goes the tambourine and the robot inside starts to break out and Mason is all over the dance floor.  He even did some break dancing spinning on the floor, unfortunately I don’t yet have that on video.

By the time it was over, Mason had the restaurant cheering for him and the band calling him out and he didn’t shy away once.  Perhaps a career in entertaining is right around the corner if the stuntman route doesn’t play out.

My apologies for the video layout.  Not sure how to rotate.  It worked differently on my laptop.  So I suppose you can just turn your head 180 degrees for your true viewing pleasure.

Blood Drive Benefiting Cutler

Tiffany Solis, Cutler’s teacher from North Star Learning Center, has put together a blood drive to benefit Cutler to be held at Canyon Creek Presbyterian Church located at 3901 Northstar Rd in Richardson, between Plano Pkwy and Renner Rd.  This is scheduled for Friday, October 9th from 12:00pm to 4:00pm.  It will take place in room M-204 on the second floor of the church.  I believe that it is prefered to have a time scheduled as only so many people are allowed at one time.  Please contact Tiffany at andrewsmommy28@yahoo.com or by phone at 214-335-3007 for more information.

Also a very special thank you to Tiffany for putting this together and for all of the other wonderful things you have done for us.  For someone that has known us for so little time I am amazed at the effort you are going through for us.  As I said in an email to Tiffany earlier today, it is a shame that something like this had to happen in order for me to see how many wonderful people there are in this world.  It has touched me beyond description and is helping me drive to be a better person.  (Just don’t ask my mom about this, my tone used at home is still on the list of things to improve.  🙂  )  Nothing but good will come of this, including Cutler winning this long and difficult fight.

Psalm 139:13-18
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!

Thanks to everyone for following my fight against leukemia!  I am strong, I will beat this!!  Love, Cutler

We have recevied a few inquiries about Cutler’s health because there is a lack of post.  First off, Cutler is still going strong and still without fever.  Haven’t heard anything back on the cultures yet, so no news is good news right now.  I apologize for the lack of post, but things are fairly hectic with running between the hospital, house, Mason, and work.  Please stay positive and don’t assume the negative when a post is not up in a timely manner.  We are also running behind in getting thank you notes out to everyone who has been so grateful with their time and donations.  Promise that those are on the way.  It is my night in the hospital, so I should be able to get more photos and information posted later tonight.  Thanks for everyone’s continued thoughts and prayers.

Oh, one last thing, the photo below for Guess Who is Mason.  I was looking through some old photos on Friday night and was amazed at how much they look alike.  I think we can now cancel the paternity test.

A quick update…Cutler’s fever broke about 12:30 this morning and so far has not returned.  The doctor believes the fever was probably due to some bacteria in his system rather than an infection, but he is still following through with the cutlure to be sure that we are covered.  For now it looks like Cutler will be on antibiotics for a few days unless the culture comes back with something new.  He also hooked up the iv again to be sure that Cutler doesn’t get dehydrated.  In a typical defiant move by Cutler, he continues to suck down the bottles.  I guess his way of saying “IV?  I don’t need no stinkin IV”.

A couple of hours ago Cutler started running a fever of 101 and just recently vomited quite a bit.  The fever is now up to 102 and he is being treated with antibiotics.  The nurses believe the vomiting is just due to the fever and are not concerned right now and have given him some anti nausea medicine.  Tests have been run to determine the type of infection and help determine how long he will need to be on antibiotics.  The doctor assured us a few days ago that it would be very surprising if he didn’t start running a fever, so this hasn’t caught us by surprise however we were hoping that he would continue to be the exception to the rule so it is a bit disheartening.  Regardless, he is in the hospital where he needs to be and is under good care and monitoring. 

On a positive note, Mason did get to hold his brother today and give him lots of hugs.  He really does love and miss his baby brother and Cutler continues to react as if a rock star just entered the room when Mason kicks open the door and shouts “CUTLER!”.  Pictures to be provided tomorrow.

When we were young(er)

Thank you to Ellen for watching Cutler and Aunt Pat for watch Mason to give us a few hours to get out and enjoy a nice dinner together.  It was a much needed break to spend some alone time together without the sound of a monitor or a nurse constantly walking into the room.  We had a nice relaxing dinner at a little Spanish place where Melanie battled me for every last tapas on the table and then proceeded to drink too much sangria where I then had to hold her hair while she paid for the sangria.  Ok, made that last part up, but the food was great and the glass of wine was good, but the company was incredible.  And no, the picture above is not from tonight, but from when we first started dating several years ago and I thought I would show how little Melanie has aged compared to how much I have.

As for Cutler, all is still going well.  No more chemo meds and so now it is just time to hang out in the hospital and play with mom during the day and hopefully sleep through the night.  He must be going through a growth spurt as he never seems to be full and is always wanting more milk, which is good.  His weight is almost back to his pre hospital admittance weight and I swear he looks taller to me in just the two weeks we have been there.  He is definitely teething and based on the amount of slobber, I expect he will have his full set of teeth by Monday morning.

Big soccer game for Mason, let’s hope he scores some more goals and crushes the other team  has fun.  Updates and up to date photos tomorrow.