Email Nina and Poppa in Florida...

r.lasbury@cox.net

They do not have any email addresses in Florida, and are desperate to make contact!!!

Another week almost complete.. some highlights of the past few days. Monday night dinner was delivered courtesy of the Casey's of Upton; Wednesday we had an entire day without Basketball!!! Thursday night we broke out the finger paints and created some great art work. This weekend should be pretty quiet, we'll catch up on some needed rest and get ready for our Monday night stay at MassGeneral.

This isn't the most flattering shot of Liam - but a great one of the top teeth he's been working on for the past few weeks!

Liam's appetite

Liam's appetite does not seem to have been affected by he chemotherapy. He had an out-patient treatment today, did well. I think we are all a little tired today from staying up to late to watch the Superbowl, or it could just be that it's February, and it's cold.

...and BTW... doesn't he look like Grampa Laz? Wow.

Another Treatment Complete!

Just back from Boston, Liam did well again today. Blood counts a little low, but nothing causing big concern. The "music" therapist stopped by today, but Liam was sleeping. He slept through most of his appointment today, as he does most weeks. Even when Dr. Friedmann was checking his ears, Liam never even budged. So she'll stop by again next week and see if she can't get him up singing and dancing?? Not sure :)

Exciting news here, not last night, but the night before - LIAM SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! Yeah for us! Friday morning around 5:30 he woke us up, which is early, but - he had been sleeping since 8:30 the night before. Wow! Prior to this, he hadn't slept through the night since approximately November 3rd, 2006. He was up once last night, but we are seeing signs that we are through the worst and getting back on schedule. This is Liam in his crib napping this morning.

Our thoughts are with cousins John and Gretchen and their daughter Lucy (and siblings). Lucy had surgery Thursday, and word is she did ok through it. Hoping to be out of the hospital by Sunday. But send some prayers their way.

Michele and Wayne took Owen and Jack for the day while Bridgett is off for a big game today; Bridgewater is playing Fitchburg for first place in the MASCAC. Meanwhile, Liam and I are getting some Q-T and catching up on some housework....

Well, we are back home already, done with our second VAC cycle. Started out yesterday in Dr. Friedmann's office for some bloodwork. Checked in over at the hospital by 2:30, fluids, zofran, benadryl... chemo complete by 6:30 pm, them just more fluids, two doses of MESNA. Today, Miralx and Zofran with breakfast, and more over the next 24 hours. Wed - Thursday are Bactrim days. There was a steroid in there someplace too. I now can recite all Liam's drugs, doses and frequency by heart.

Anyway - he did well, and is in great spirits today. We are home early enough so that I can take Owen and Jack to the game tonight... Nina's going to sty home with the baby. Soo... blood counts will start to drop, and hit low in 8 - 10 days, hopefully Liam will do as well this second time around as he did with the first.

Liam’s Other Web Site

Southington Public School internet policy does not allow access to “blogs”, which of course includes this web site, so I have set up another web site specifically so they can get information on Liam too. My sister MaryBeth has her students working on a couple of projects in honor of Liam.

There’s the Walk-for-Life “Team Liam”, and a hat drive that’s well on its way to collecting over 100 hats that will be donated to Massachusetts General Hospital for Children. Nina and Bobby have also joined in the hat drive, adding even more to the donations. Here’s the web site…

http://home.comcast.net/~mb9taunton/liams.html

Other news: All the kids are just about over the colds; a few lingering coughs and runny noses. Liam is seconds away from getting some top teeth, and they look like they are going to be daggers!!

Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Hmmm.. well Liam managed to get his Vincristine today as scheduled despite a nasty cold. As I mentioned Friday, we were watching his cough, which lead to an eventual fever Monday morning. As directed (and expected), we were sent to the hospital right away and he was put on antibiotics while they took cultures, and tests and blood work. Eventually we landed on RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus). I like to think of it as a a nasty cold. Anyway, RSV is a lot better than a bacteria infection of some sort.

So we spent Monday night in the hospital, the fever finally broke abut 5am this morning. The Dr.s kept him on the antibiotic pretty much the whole time, even though they were pretty sure it was just RSV. He's still coughing a bit, but eating and drinking well, which is why he was able to have his treatment today and make it out of Boston before the afternoon commute.

Dr. Friedman filled me in on last week's pow-wow, all the specialist are in agreement that Liam does NOT need radiation. The surgeons feel like they got it all and the pathologist confirmed the edges where it was attached to the lung were all clear. We'll still have another CT in a couple more weeks to make sure nothing else shows up. Dr. Sweetser was covering Monday, so he got us settled in... I added him to the "Our Team" section. I also added "Project Linus" to our support list. There was a blanket for Liam from Project Linus waiting for us when we arrived at the hospital.

So, if Liam continues to do well this week, we'll go in Monday the 22nd for our next overnight stay. That will be his second dose of the three drugs together. Liam's getting to be pretty popular on the floor, and we seem to know most nurses by name now. They even list Liam as having breast feeding mom(s)... this means Bridge and I get meals provided too :)

Well not much going on these past few days, Liam's got a little cough, we're keeping an eye on him. Teetee and Ryan were here today helping out, our cousin Meghan stopped by with sauce and meatballs, and the boys helped make cookies. The only thing new is that I worked my 1st official Friday in about 4 years.

We'll go Tuesday for our next treatment because of the holiday, and get the update on the big "Liam" meeting that happened this week. Otherwise, things are status quo. Stay tuned though, it never stays quiet for very long....

Liam had another good day... his nights are still patchy though; we've just had no opportunity to have any type of routine in place since roughly the middle of November. He was out of the bassinet and into his crib for just for a few weeks before we started with the pneumonia.. and as you know it's been crazy since.

Anyway, we made it to Bridgewater tonight to see the Bears win their first league game. Good start to the second half of the season. We are thankful they won, as it keeps the coach in better spirits round here.

I've also got a long list of thank you notes that will go out someday soon, but in the mean time.. Thank you for the cards, the calls, the prayers, the masses, the flowers, the basket, the bear, the snacks, the meals, the desserts, the hats, the beer, the wine, the baby sitting, the overnights, the errands and the offers for future help too! I'm sure there's more I forgot, but we know we've got a lot of supporters out there, and that's the greatest help of all!!

Round Two

Well today was easier than Friday. We are starting to get the routine down pat.

- Emla Cream at home
- Commute to Boston (HOV Lane if we’re both in the car, and it helped this morning!!!)
- Yawkey Parking Garage (Seven levels below ground)
- Elevator to Main level
- Second elevator to “8B” – The Oncology Unit
- Check In
- Weigh-in (Just Liam!!!), Height and Blood Pressure
- Access the port
- Bloodwork
- Wait for results
- Talk to Dr. Friedmann
- Chemotherapy (Just Vincristine today)
- Line Out
- Kicked Out

Liam did great again today. His WBC was up, HCT about the same, ANC normal. The office is much quieter on Monday’s and during one of my future posts, I’ll give you more details about the office.

Maryann handled play group with Jack today.
Minnie did drop-off with Owen.
I’ve got about 30 minutes till pickup.

Here’s hoping for another good week!

Blood Counts

Was I naive about what to expect today or what. Apparently when you are having chemotherapy, there’s no such thing as a “quick” checkup; it’s all about the blood counts.

We learned all about the ones they like to watch (acronyms included).
* WBC – White blood cells
* HCT – (Hematocrit count, this is the measure of both the number of red blood cells and the size of red blood cells.)
* PLT – Platelets
* And finally… absolute neutrophil count (no acronym for this one, but it’s the most important one – key for fighting infection).

So the white and hematocrit counts were on the low side, but at an expected level. Everything else was ok. We also met a lot of different people in the office, all there to help with anything we need…. And now, when watching ER, when someone orders a CBC, I know what they are asking for; a Complete Blood Count.

Liam’s doing well, Nina and Poppa on the other hand….

…could use a vacation. If you are looking for the latest information on Liam, skip ahead. This one’s dedicated to Nina and Poppa.

Nina and Poppa are here for a few days helping out while Bridgett is away with the basketball team. Today, I headed off to work (which is my home office in the basement) and left them in charge.

I think they had a good but busy day. My office is pretty much sound proof, so I never really hear what’s going on. Just after 5pm, I finished up for the day, and came upstairs to find Nina with a fat lip, sucking on a piece of ice. Here’s what I’ve come to learn…

After Owen’s drop-off/pick-up from school today, Nina decided the minivan windows could use a wash. So while Owen, Jack and Liam all drifted off for an afternoon nap, Nina grabbed the Windex, and headed out to get rid of finger prints and dirt from the car.

A short while later, Liam got a bit fussy, and Poppa called out for support. Nina abandoned the window washing, and headed back inside. About half and hour later, the phone rings, Poppa answers.

“Hi, this is so-n-so from 9 Old Elm, Do you have a dog named Daisy?” Oops.

Apparently Daisy got out while Nina was playing car wash and had been on an adventure around town. Poppa goes to the end of the driveway, and very soon after, Daisy arrives riding in the front seat of a blue pickup truck. One down.

Back in the house now, Nina and Poppa are now frantically looking for Lucy who is also MIA. In the process, Jack is woken up from his nap, and is rather cranky from having it interrupted. Nina and Poppa split up.

Poppa jumps in the car, dog biscuits and leash in hand and is canvassing the neighborhood. In his words, “It’s freezing out, I’ve got all the windows down, throwing biscuits out calling “Hereeeeee Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, hereeeeee Lucy, Lucy, Lucy”” . No luck.

In the mean time, Nina’s home, bribing Jack with Tostito chips to keep him calm. He’s still very sleepy, a little upset, walking round the house looking for Momma. He gets the basement door open. Not wanting him to disturb me, she scoops him up and sits with him on her lap. This lasts for a short while, then a struggle ensues. BAM! Head-butt to the lip, Nina’s bottom two teeth come through her lip (Check the picture closely, you can probably see the wound.). OUCH.

Well, Poppa arrives back home to find Nina hurt, Jack’s crying and the baby… I forgot to ask. Still no sign of Lucy. All this time I have no idea of what’s going on. Not even when Poppa comes down to the office, knocks on the door, and Lucy and I let him in.. (That’s right, Lucy of course was with me the whole time). He says hi, just checking for the dog, and quietly slips away.

So… it was only later that I heard what the last hour and a half of the day was like for them, and even after all that, Nina still managed to get the windows clean. We, had a pretty uneventful evening otherwise, although I will say, it was particularly hard to watch Nina sip her wine from the left side of her mouth!

I owe you guys!!!

More Good News

The results of the bone marrow test are in…everything looks good. Yeah! Seems like all the diagnostic tests are done, and we can focus all our energy on recovery now.

Liam has his old appetite back, carrots and applesauce today for lunch, not just bottles anymore.
Had my daily call with Dr. Friedmann (just kidding) – she did call in regards to the test results, but I always manage to find other things to talk about. Seems like there will be a meeting of the minds on Liam a week from tomorrow. Everyone involved with Liam’s case/treatment plan attends… all the pediatric specialists - Oncology, Radiology, Surgery, Pathology…. I’m sure there’s more. The one key piece of information I’ll look for out of the meeting is a recommendation on radiation…. Dr. Friedmann’s leaning towards none.

"Bleep"

First the good news... Liam has been having a good week. His few fussy moments I attribute to teething and being over tired. We had a relaxing New Year's and just hung out these past few days. Nina and Poppa are here ... cooking, baby sitting and helping take down all the Christmas decor.

Now the frustrating... I wanted to title this post with a very unfavorable description of my insurance company. Today, 15 minutes before I was supposed to take Owen to school, I get a call from a "nurse" from my insurance company. She was forwarded Liam's case from... hmmm she had trouble figuring out where it came from. Then she proceeded to tell me, that although all Liam's doctor's are "In-network" Massachusetts General Hospital itself is not. So while Liam can have all the office visits he wants, (and the offices are located in the hospital)... the insurance company doesn't pay for procedures at the hospital...WHAT THE ???

Ok, So three hours and several phone calls later, we seem to be all straightened out - but this one nearly put me over the edge. For a better description of my state of mind for those three hours, check with my mom... she witnessed it all. Lot of swearing on my part.

So, what else... Liam has a check-up with Dr. Friedmann Friday @ 10:30. Looks like we're going with Monday as chemo day. I'm back to work tomorrow, and hope that they'll be ok with me switching my Monday-Thursday work week to Tuesday-Friday. Think that's it for now!

HAPPY 2007.