Blake's High Dose Chemo

Blake was finally able to continue his treatment! His ANC was at a 10.4, which is very good! He has to have lots of fluids before he is able to start the high dose chemo treatment. He is being a trooper and is fairly cheerful about everything. He was slightly fussy earlier, but we think this was due to his upset stomach and his being tired. Poor Blake has had tummy issues off and on all week, but seems to be doing better today! Luckily his tummy issues are chemo related and he does not have a fever or a virus!

I will be posting pictures later. I forgot to bring my USB connector for my camera!

Alexia seems to be enjoying her stay here at the hospital as well. None of us have cabin fever yet as we are in day one. Blake should be able to get out of the room and play since he does not have any kind of illness that requires isolation! We are very excited about this.

We have now begun the Interim Maintenance phase of his chemo treatment and today starts the 3 year countdown to the end of his chemo treatments! We are very excited!

Alexia's Big Night Out (Sunday April 19th)

Alexia got to go on a trip to Lincoln with the family to watch Great Grandpa Bare speak for the 35th Anniversary dinner for CSF. Grandpa was one of the founding members of CSF (then known as CCCF). He gave a wonderful message, which we all enjoyed. Alexia was amazing and sat still through the whole program! She cuddled Papa Mark and was then handed off to mommy. She slept pretty much the whole time Great Grandpa was speaking, but did not fuss at all the whole time! She even let mommy eat all of her own food! We had a great time and wish we could do such things more often.

Relaxing Family Time

Mama Bare and Papa Bare were in town tonight (Saturday, April 18th)! We joined them for a wonderful, enjoyable dinner at Mom and Dad Wilson's house. Blake enjoyed seeing them again and we enjoyed showing off all the new things Alexia can do! Papa Bare is still recovering from back surgery, but seemed to be in wonderful shape!

We hope to see them again while they are visiting the area and show off our new place!

We appreciated continued prayers for Blake's ANC counts to be what they need to be in order for him to have his chemo treatment on Tuesday.

Alexia's First Easter

Alexia seemed to enjoy her first Easter weekend! She got to spend time with her grandparents, both Parrack and Wilson. She also got to hang out with some of her Aunts and Uncles and watched her brother and Aunt Ryleigh hunt for eggs!

Hoppy Bunny Day! (Happy Easter)

We had a great time on Saturday at Tommy and Val's house. They hosted a pre-Easter dinner and Easter egg hunt. Blake had a great time looking for eggs and was very excited to find "moneys" inside. Dinner was awesome and with the exception of Blake wanting to lay claim to all of Taylor's toys it was harmonious. It is so wonderful to see the family and to watch all the kids grow up together! It's always amazing to see how much the kids change in such short amounts of time! We hope to have many more enjoyable family events throughout the years!

On Easter Sunday Blake, Alexia and Desiree went to Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Wilson's house for Easter brunch and yet another Easter egg hunt. Blake of course loved this as well. He hunted for eggs with his cousin Caroline and had fun breaking open the eggs afterwards. He filled himself up with mashed potatoes and bread and successfully avoided having to take a nap. We also had a fun Easter egg hunt at home in which he found 35 eggs with "moneys" in them. He had lots of fun counting his money and putting money into his cow bank and his sister's piggy bank.

On a non-Easter note, Blake's visit to the hospital on Tuesday did not go as well as we hoped. He was scheduled to have a spinal tap with chemo and a 24 hour infusion of high dose chemo. He was unable to have this infusion for the second week in a row because of low cell counts. His ANC was at a 5.4 this time and must be at a 7.5 in order to undergo the treatment. This will be his second week in a row without any chemo. While the Doctors assure us that this is normal, we are still worried whenever his counts are low as it increases his risk of infections.

We are praying for better counts next Tuesday and appreciate all of your prayers and words of support as well!

Blake's First Time Swinging on the Big Boy Swing

Diamonds and Champions

Blake was invited to be in the program for Diamonds and Champions (formerly known as Diamonds and Decadence) and we accepted the invitation. We were worried that he would not enjoy the earlier part of the evening since he would be in a room with about 5-10 other children who either had cancer or had siblings or parents with cancer. We got there a little early, worried that he would not want to stay in the kids room. He really surprised us though. He went right in and started playing with the woman in charge of child care. She had really cool toys for him to play with. He didn't even notice when we left.

All of the proceeds from Diamonds and Champions go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in order to fund research and development of cures and treatments for Leukemia, Lymphoma and Myeloma.

Once the kids went on stage (after the adults were done with dinner) Blake seemed a little shy, but the caretaker picked him up and he was fine. After they left the stage we went and grabbed Blake and he sat with us for the remainder of the benefit. We were sitting next a children's speech therapist and she told us that Blake's speech development was amazing! That made us feel really good!

We were also approached by Team in Training. They requested that Blake be one of their Honored Teammates. If you are interested in learning more about Team in Training here is a link to their site: http://www.teamintraining.org/ne/

Blake is still having some nausea problems, so we have to regulate his diet quite a bit to make sure he doesn't get foods that cause him to feel more sick. Other than that he is doing great! He is very energetic and full of life. He really enjoys going to the playground and playing! It's nice for him to be able to get out of the house!