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3-7-04 - It's been a little while since I've updated so I figured I had better get to it! Not really much news to speak of. Beth is doing really well in school. Math seems a little hard for her to grasp at times but all other subjects are handled pretty easily for the most part. Beth is feeling well but still has an occasional bout this some stomach pain / sickness. She has a checkup appointment with the oncologist at Childrens Hospital this Wednesday and then a hearing test (also at Children's Hospital) on Thursday. Then she is good to go until the end of March when she has her brain and spinal MRI scans again. We took Beth and a bunch of her friends to see Monsters Inc. on ice at the Palace recently. Luckily a good friend of ours gave us 12 tickets and use of a suite....wow was that nice! Thanks Nadine :) It was so great. The suite had three leather couches, a table, mini kitchen and also a bathroom. Outside the suite were two rows of stadium seating. A great time for the children AND adults! Beth had a great time with all her friends. She is very blessed with the caliber of friends that she has. That's about it for now. Please remember Beth and our family in your prayers for daily strength and also the upcoming MRI scans.
03-12-04 - Beth had a routine post-chemo spinal tap done on Wednesday. They gave her morphine and some other drug but it did not totally put her out. Jenni tells me that our nurse inserted the needle but was unable to get any fluid out. Another nurse came in and had to probe around with the needle to finally get it. Ugggh! Needless to say, Beth's back has been pretty sore because of it. They will check her spinal fluid to make sure there are no tumor cells in it and we should get the results sometime today. Yesterday Beth and I went back down to Children's Hospital for her scheduled hearing test. Beth has some hearing lost in her right ear which was not critical but did have areas which showed no hearing and frequencies that she could no longer hear. Well...he did the tests again yesterday and I saw him looking at the computer with a puzzled look, and then looking at the past reports he had in his hand. He did this a few times, scratched his head and said "I've never seen anything like it!". He said that her hearing had substantially improved and that it was almost completely normal again! He hypothesized ...maybe this.....maybe that. Maybe NOTHING! I know why. Prayer. Thank you all for yours and please keep it coming :) I will update as soon as I get the results from the lumbar puncture....promise. A couple of new pics on the newest page too!
03-12-04 - Beth's spinal fluid checked clear :) Got the word this afternoon!
3-21-04 - Hi everybody! Things have been going well. Beth has been feeling pretty good and has even riden the bus home from school a couple of times this last week. Today we went to a little place called the "hotdog stand". You eat in your car and a wait person runs your food out to you. Anyway....Beth got about 1/4 of the way through her hot dog and then got a funny look on her face. She then proceeded to open the car door and gorf her lunch onto the parking lot. We were parked right in front of the ordering window and the lady inside saw the whole thing and looked mortified. So afterwards Beth immediately starts laughing and eating more chips. It was hillarious and I laughed so hard....not so much at Beth but at that lady inside. Needless to say we got the heck out of there fast! I think we may be banned ;) hehehe. Beth had a bit of a headache this evening which immediately puts us on edge....but I'm sure it's nothing. She gets headaches occasionally just like we all do. We go in for MRI scans next Saturday and Sunday so please remember Beth in your prayers.
3-25-04 - Jen and I went to Beth's parent / teacher conference today. Her teacher spoke highly of her and says she is doing well. I was so glad to hear that. Beth actually stayed a couple of full days this week at school and is getting more comfortable with eating in the lunchroom with her classmates. Beth mentioned to me today that she was nervous about getting her MRI scans done this weekend. Turns out she was just afraid of getting a needle poke in the same place two days in a row. Our doctor is already talking about taking Beth's medi-port out. This would be an out-patient surgery. Beth is not wild about the idea right now but if she gets it out soon then she will be fine for our Make-A-Wish Disney trip in May. So much weight on such small shoulders! From my perspective.......I'm now kinda grasping that whole mustard seed & mountain thing :) We went out to K-Farms today and saw Beth's favorite horse....Boblo. I got a few pictures with my phone camera which turned out pretty good. They are on the newest pics page. All entries on this page up until March will be archived by next entry. Again, please pray for Beth and our family during these trying times. MRI time is rough on everybody.
3-27-04 - Beth had her brain MRI this morning. We were in and out pretty quickly which is why I like to schedule them on the weekends if we can. Tomorrow morning will be the spinal MRI. We should get the results of both sometime mid-week. On the way home today we were running pretty early and decided to stop off at Star Theatre and see if anything cool was playing. Well, it just so happened that Scooby Doo 2 was out and started in only five minutes. So after a quick stop at the concession area we were watching the movie together. It was a fun time and a funny movie. We will post the MRI results as soon as we get them!
3-31-04 - Well, we got the news today from Beth's doctor. Both the brain and spinal MRI scans looked "clear and normal"! What a relief. We try not to dread the results of the tests but sometimes it's pretty hard to control your brain. We are so happy and thankful. Our Disney trip next month will be with peace of mind and should be a great time just to have fun and enjoy each other as a family. Thank you to everyone for the thoughts and prayers.
4-11-04 - Happy Easter everyone!!!!! Sorry it's been so long since this page has been updated. We have all been busy with normal life doing normal things. The kids fight like cats and dogs half the time, the dishes mound and the clutter accumulates throughout the house.....and I LOVE it! I never thought I would actually appreciate these kinds of things but I really do. Beth is feeling fantastic and has been doing great. She even rode her electric scooter / moped that we bought her for the first time. She is playing outside alot and generally feeling better now that the chemo is finally out of her system. We went to Burger King for lunch today and she ate and entire Whopper Jr., with the exception of one bite. We all know where that last bite went.....mmmmmm......burgers. She has been doing well in school also, getting the highest grade possible on a recent class project. The band people conducted a test and sent a letter home with Beth saying that she is a good candidate. Since Beth still has some weakness on the right side of her face she is unable to make a seal on blow effectively to play a wind instrument....so I suggested guitar. She is very excited and I told her that she can start out with an acoustic guitar and that when she starts sounding good we'll get her one that plugs in so she can jam.....that should be fun! We went to see the Easter bunny and all the other fun stuff families do at Easter and are thankful every second of every day for all that we have.....but more importantly, for each other. I have posted some more pics on the most recent pics page. Have a great Easter everyone and try to remember the big guy upstairs...he has been good to us.
4-25-04 - Beth has been feeling well with only a few episodes of stomach pain. It seems that if she waits to long to eat in the morning then the stomach issues arise. We were told that the lining of the stomach and esophagus are comprised of quick growing cells which, like tumor cells, the chemo attacked. It would not suprise me if Beth's stomach is very sensative to stomach acid which, as stated in the last post, will be greatly helped by a Zantac tablet. She still has some slight balance and facial strength issues which are magnified greatly when she is tired. I think I mentioned that Beth has not grown at all since diagnosis. An endocrinologist will be seeing Beth but I'm told that no growth hormone will be given for at least a year. I heard somewhere that any sooner can contribute to tumor recurrence....but I'm not sure how factual that is. All in all Beth is doing very well and we are so thankful. Friday Mikey and picked up tons of sticks in our back yard while Beth was at school. In an hours time we had a huge mound of sticks that we put in our fire pit. Later that day we all went to the movies and saw "13 going on 30", a very cute movie. Afterwards we came home around dusk, lit a bon fire and made smores. That was a really good time. Less than two weeks until our Make-a-Wish trip to Disney. I learned that it takes about $7000 for the average wish. Wow! Beth has talked about wanting to do a car wash for cancer this summer. I thought that was a great idea. All the money would go to St. Judes brain tumor research. What a great kid Beth is to want to do something like that. I'm all for it. Finding a good location will be the hard part I think. Thanks for checking in keep those thoughts and prayers coming...they are priceless.
5-2-04 - Only a few days until Beths Make-A-Wish trip to Disney! I think Jen and I are looking forward to it just as much as the kids are. It's all Beth and Mikey can talk about. It's good to see them both so excited about something. We have all of our tickets for travel and arrangements have been made for everything. A lot of special people made this trip possible. Speaking of special people. We have to thank the great folks at Village Green apartments (and other properties) for raising the money to sponsor Beth through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. We attended their "Splash" party yesterday afternoon in troy. It was a very nice event. They raised money by getting pledges to jump into the outdoor swimming pool which is unheated. Now you "out-of-staters" have to realize that the weather was a balmy 50 degrees yesterday and the water seemed like it was much colder than that. You can check out a pic of the splash down on the latest pics page. Thanks to everyone for who jumped for Beth! They included Beth in all of the afternoon festivities and she even got to draw the names for the cool raffle and also counted down with a microphone when it came time for those poor souls to jump in the pool. Beth is doing very well. We are so pround of her. She wrote and incredible school paper, the theme of which was "Acceptance". When the teacher returns it I will enter it on this site verbatim. It will bring a tear to your eyes. She titled it, "The change of my life".
5-14-04 - The Disney trip was AWESOME! Give Kids the Worlk was UNBELIEVABLE!! GKTW provided a very nice (and clean) 2 bedroom villa with a spacious living room, kitchen (with dishes, dishwasher, mini-stove, refridgerator, pots & pans and cleaning soaps). There was also a washer and dryer in the villa with detergents and fabric softeners. The village itself had an awesome ice cream parlor which encouraged a big sundae before dinner. Amberville had a really cool game room and a very nice miniature golf course. It was surrounded by a train track on which an electric passenger train transported the kids around. There was another train which had a gas powered motor that traveled right on the streets that would pick you up and take you anywhere in the village you wanted to go. The Gingerbread House restaurant was great and, like the rest of the village, run almost completely by volunteers. They served breakfast and dinner at no cost to wish families. We did Universal Studios, MGM Studios (where I had a role in the water scene....the boat captain), Magic Kingdom and Sea World. All of the tickets were free and provided by GKTW. Make-A-Wish gave us a generous expense check and provided our air transportation via Northwest Airlines. MAW also provided a rental vehicle for the week. I can't begin to describe what a great and relaxing time we all had. Beth had a riot and was sad to leave.....as we all were. You really get pampered. All the theme parks give special treatment too. We went on the rides with no wait. We loaded onto the ride through the exit area and were already in the rides when the cars went into the waiting area where everyone else got on. That way our stroller and wheelchair were waiting right there for us when we got off. Huge thanks to Village Green apartments, Make-A-Wish and Give Kids the World. I am working on a couple of pic pages, one for GKTW and the other for general trip pics. Stay tuned.
5-20-03 - Hello again everyone! Beth gets her Medi-port out tomorrow at Childrens Hospital in Detroit. We are still waiting for the call to find out what time it will be. It's a pretty minor surgery and only takes about 15 minutes but does require full sedation. Unfortunately Beth has a hard time with nausea for a few days after the anesthesia. The good news is that my normal days off were switched by chance this week to Friday & Saturday. Now I will be able to stay home and pamper Beth the day after keep her comfortable in our own home. I'm really happy about that. Unfortunately I will miss her school musical tonight which I would have otherwise been able to attend. Oh well.....waddaya gonna do? Beth is a little nervous.......who wouldn't be? She really is a trooper and I am so proud of her. Beth is with Jenni at her fancy shmancy salon getting pampered. This will be Beth's first hair cut / styling since she has had hair again. It is definitely time. When she takes off her knit hat her hair goes.....POOOOOF! I will get a pic of her new hair style and post it. Beth's stomach has been doing much better. Today is the first day in about 6 days that Beth has had a little stomach pain. She called me from school and wanted me to pick her up early because she couldn't wait until lunch to eat. When her stomach starts to hurt she needs food immediately. So we stopped at the nearest restaurant and she felt better afterwards. That's about it. I will post tomorrow and let you know how the port removal went. Everyone is welcome to join us at the Relay for Life @ the Clarkston Middle School on Waldon Rd. on July 24th at 10 A.M. We will all be there and it is alot of fun. Beth has been asked to lead the survivors lap at 10 A.M. with another child survivor.
5-21-04 - The port is out! Everything went like clockwork. They let me accompany Beth into the operating room because she opted for gas to put her out so she wouldn't feel the IV....this had to be done there. Beth wimpered a little bit while getting the gas but they put bubble gum scent inside the mask to make it a bit better. A few seconds later Beth was completely unconscious and I had to leave. Jen and I went down to the cafeteria for some much needed food. Just when we got back to the waiting room the doctor came out and told us that everything went fine. About 15 minutes later we joined Beth in the recovery room where we remained for about an hour before we were discharged. We are now home and Beth is just taking it easy on the couch and ruling the television as usual. She has to take it easy as far as food today......so I'm not sure what were doing for dinner but she is glad that it's over. The dread and worry is always much worse than the thing your worrying about in these cases. So....Beth is fine and recovering nicely :)
