Another Update

Friday, January 2nd 2009

Blake felt well enough to play quite a bit. His medications were adjusted, so he didn't have any more nausea or pain. He was almost back to normal with the exception of having an IV attached to his port, which limited his mobility. He had fun in the playroom with his ma-ma Corinne. He also got to go on a few wagon rides.

Saturday, January 3rd 2009

It broke our hearts that Blake had to have another Chemo treatment today. He had two shots in his legs, which made them sore. He was pretty groggy and complained of pain throughout the day. At the end of the day he asked us to put his shoes on him, so he could go home. We let him put his shoes on, but we couldn't take him home. We took him on a few wagon rides around the floor, since that was the most travelling we were allowed to do with him. He didn't let us take his shoes off of him until right before he went to bed. He was a little more fussy than usual, which our Dr. attributed to the steroids. Late in the evening Blake complained of pain in two areas. We had to go downstairs and have an ultrasound done of the first area, the ultrasound showed that it was just filled with fluid from the IV he has been pumped with since the day we arrived at the hospital. They lowered his dosage of fluids and the swelling went right down. He also had to have an x-ray done of his tummy, which showed us that his stool was backed up quite a bit. The antidote was a combination of laxitives.

Sunday, January 4th 2009

The laxitives paid off a bit as Blake was able to have his first stool in 6 days. Allthough it was just a tiny bit, we were happy to see that the laxitives were working. He still complained of pains in his tummy and was not very active. He barely touched his breakfast. He was not very active, but enjoyed watching Curious George with Brianne and Dan. Uncle Mike and Aunt Cheryl also came over. Uncle Mike gave Blake a wonderful haircut (pictured above). We really appreciated them coming to us to give a haircut! Around 7 or so Blake told Grandma that he wanted to sit on his big boy potty (which she brought from her place). He had a huge stool and immediately felt much better. We took him on a wagon ride, 6 laps around our floor! We were all very tired after that and retired to our room.

Monday, January 5th 2009

Today we should get to go home. Blake was feeling well and finished most of his breakfast. Most of the morning was spent cleaning and making sure we had all of our things packed, so we don't forget anything. We are very excited for Blake to be unhooked from his IV! We can't wait for him to be able to move around untethered. I'm sure he will be happy about that as well. Blake is very excited to go home! We have a meeting with our nurse this afternoon at which she will explain to us what we need to do to keep Blake as healthy as possible. Once they make sure we are comfortable with all of our required duties they will send us all home!

We will return to the hospital/clinic on Wednesday for another bone marrow biopsy. Hopefully the saturation of the bad cells will be lower than the 100% it was on Tuesday.

We are also anxiously awaiting the arrival of our cord blood kit, which was so generously donated to us by Desiree's grandparents. It should arrive either Monday or Tuesday at which point we will allow Alexia to be born if she chooses.

We greatly appreciate all the thoughts and prayers and the words of encouragement are much needed at a time like this. Thank you all!

We thank God for helping us through these tough times and for giving us such a wonderful group of family and friends to help us.

The Parracks