Matthews Cancer Adventure

Matthew and sweet Emma at her Birthday dinner!

No Admission!

Today is the first clinic day that won’t be followed by admission for a cycle of Chemo!

After the standard bloodwork today, and we are hoping and praying that no transfusions are needed, we will have a meeting with the primo Neuroblastoma surgeon to prepare for next week’s surgery to remove the soft tissue areas that carry the cancer. This is in preparation for our trip to Cook Children’s to have the radiation therapy.

We thank you all for all your prayers love and continued support as we take the next steps on Matthew’s Cancer Adventure!

May the Lord bless and keep you all!!!

This is what we know:
We conferenced with his doctor this morning who told us the last two rounds of chemo did reduce the amount of disease but not as much as hoped for.

Matthew has been living outside all the statistics so far anyway, so we are expecting Plan C to work better than the statistics as well.

We are following the lead of our astounding son which has been: after options were explained, a few brief tears were shed, hugged & thanked the doctor (who also had wet eyes), he immediately decided to continue the fight. What an amazing man.

That means surgery in a couple of weeks followed by a radioactive therapy in the Dallas area & then we’ll see where we stand.

One day at a time. And we think that’s the best way to trust God anyway. We know we are eternally thankful & feel truly like the most blessed parents on Earth.

Our thanks & appreciation to you all.

If we can ask anything, it’s your continued prayers and support. 😊

A Busy Couple of Days

Yesterday was a full day with a CT scan in the morning, the MIBG injection, and receiving blood and platelets.

Today is the MIBG scan day.

We are hoping and praying for good results from both scans.

Thank you all for your prayers and support!

What an amazing weekend.
Matthew was able to participate in his schools Senior Serve to raise funds for prom, he even joined the conga line (scary for mom and dad but fun to see him having such a great time), and then he got to see sweet Emma on Sunday as we watched the Academy Awards together. Yesterday he was up for a visit to mom’s school to watch his percussion team perform a concert and then grabbed a bite to eat with them .

That is what low hemoglobin looks like Matthew style!!! We are so thankful to God for how well he handles things.

Today … up early for a CT scan, bloodwork and an MIBG injection .

Tomorrow … the MIBG scan.

Praying for good results from both the CT and the MIBG.

On the horizon … surgery for tumor removal.

All your prayers, love and support mean so much. Please keep them coming!!!

MATTHEW ROCKS!!!
Thank you Lord for another smooth ride through the I.C.E. chemo.

The cycle has ended … Mom and Matthew are safely in the car … And Matthew is so happy that he starts rockin’ the car like never before. Such a big smile!

Matthew had us pick up breakfast on the way home. And after enjoying the non hospital food he decided to play catch up on his sleep by taking a nap.

Later today I am sure that he will be on his computer and phone, in contact with sweet Emma and other friends and planning for the weekend’s Senior Serve at school. The doctors have already let him know that he will be able to do that!!

Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Matthew is doing well!
He is being blessed with great caregivers and is tolerating the 2nd cycle of I.C.E. as well as he did the first one. We continue to pray that he will finish this cycle feeling great and that the chemo will have targeted only the cells it needs to destroy and that it will leave all the healthy cells alone. We are praying that once we get to the next scan that we will see serious reduction in the disease or, if it is God’s will, a complete elimination of it. We can’t thank you all enough for all your continued prayers, love and support. May the Lord bless and keep you all!!!

The picture above is of Matthew and his big sis Christi as he was waiting for admission a few days ago. Gotta love the smiles and laughter!!!!!

Today Matthew made numbers so we will be checking in for the final scheduled cycle of I.C.E. tonight.

He has had a great week though while waiting for today and especially was able to enjoy Valentine’s Day with sweet Emma! I don’t have a picture of it, though I did see one, where Emma had set up her backyard so they could have a special picnic dinner!!!!!

The picture I do have is of Matthew receiving and opening Happy Valentine’s Day cards sent from the entire 5th grade class at the school where Mom teaches.

Please pray that this cycle of I.C.E. will go as smoothly as the last one. We ask the Lord that the Chemo only target what needs to be attacked and that it leaves all the healthy cells alone. We pray that this cycle will reduce or even eliminate the cancer and that Matthew can soon move on to the recovery portion of his ‘adventure’. God’s will be done!!!

As always, thank you for your prayers and support. We have been so blessed and are so very grateful!

May the Lord bless you all!

As part of Matthew’s 1 week reprieve before the next cycle he wanted to go to his school and enjoy the annual Mr. Debonair contest. We are extremely humbled by the fact that the school has decided to apply the proceeds from this event towards their giving Matthew a Make-a-wish, one of three they are funding this year!

It was great to see Matthew sitting with sweet Emma and laughing and cheering on his classmates. Brandon, one of his band friends, won the contest.Congratulations Brandon and all the participants. It was a very entertaining evening!

We are so thankful and grateful to the wonderful folks at Klein Oak for the love and ongoing support they have for Matthew.

So many of you are praying for Matthew and that means so very much to us.

Next on the schedule … Valentine’s Day!!!!!

Update 02.09.12
We went in to TCH Tuesday morning to be admitted for the 2nd cycle of I.C.E., but Matthew’s platelets are a little low to “qualify” for admission, so they’ve sent us home & we’ll try again next week. This sounds like a set back, but Matthew feels great & everything else is strong so he’s viewing it as a free week! Planning to knock out a lot of school work, spend time with friends aND hopefully attend Divine Worship this Sunday.

This picture above is of Matthew signing next week’s pre-admission paperwork for the first time … now that he is 18!

Thanks to you all for your continued prayers and support as this Adventure continues!

God knows what’s going on, our trust is in Him!!!

May He bless and keep you all!

As we await Matthew being disconnected from his post hydration and getting the go ahead to head home, I thought I would reflect back on this cycle of Matthew’s Cancer Adventure.

As you know, the test after the first 5 cycles showed less than expected results. So the doctors all powwowed and came up with a new 2 cycle plan called I.C.E.. Janet found out the names of the 2 top Neuroblastoma gurus from Matthew’s nurse practitioner and we thought, “Hey, why not try giving them a call.”, not really expecting to get more than a general contact without flying to them for an in person consult. One of the gurus wanted just that, though they did call back later and answer some questions. The other hospital asked her some questions and then said someone will call. Later that day the phone rang and the #1 guru was calling personally. Long story short, the gurus all concurred that the I.C.E. treatment was exactly what they would do next. This brought us all alot of peace of mind.

Now, the I.C.E. chemo is a more intense cycle so we checked in expecting the likelihood of having to manage more nausia than the most intense round of the first 5 cycles. We planned to premedicate for nausia and found out that one med, the Emend, wouldn’t play nice with one of the meds so they added a steroid instead. The plan worked so well that throughout the entire cycle Matthew had ZERO nausia! Thanks be to God!

In addition to that good news Matthew has been able to eat this time, including two dinners where we brought him Fajitas for 2 and he ate the whole thing. We thought he was looking thicker, more muscular, perhaps gaining weight and Mom had him step on a scale and sure enough he has gained around 3 pounds while in the hospital. Wow! This is not typical but, with the lack of nausia and the steroid, not completely unexpected. We are thankful for the improvement.

He is soooo ready to go home … watching the clock, waiting for the time when they will stop the post-hydration, hep lock him, deaccess him, give him his NeuLasta injection and then say Hasta Luego!

And with amazing blood numbers, particularly an ANC of 8.46 (8460), we can expect to have a great time on Thursday and Friday as we celebrate his 18th birthday!!!!!

We can’t thank you all enough for all the prayers, thoughts and support.

May the Lord bless you and keep you!

(This updates picture is of Matthew with one of his doctors)

p.s. On the way home Matthew was so happy and wanted to play all sorts of music with a “Home” theme. Love that boy so much!!!!!