Nothings ever straight forward, eh? Well Liam had the CT and a chest Xray today. So much stuff going on in his lungs, and no good base line CT following his last surgery.... so its tough to report one way or the other. We'll try again in three weeks, and then have the two to compare.

In any event, he's healthy enough to start chemo again today. Going with the four nights instead of five. Gotta a roomie from Canada tonight.

Behind schedule

Bridgett and Liam spent Monday night at Mass General with a fever and too high of a white blood cell count... who would have thought that would be an issue??? Well apparently it could be a sign of an infection, so a couple days on an antibiotic have put us a few days behind in starting Liam's chemo this week. The plan now is to have his CT on Thursday (as scheduled), then if everything looks good, go ahead and start chemo Thursday night. Liam’s due for the five night inpatient Ifosfamide / Etoposide combo, but seeing as last time it really hit him hard, Dr. Friedmann is considering just giving him a four day dose.


Needless to say, I have a TON of anxiety around tomorrow.


With the change in plan this week, we had Tuesday afternoon to ourselves and decided to do something fun and put the kids in their Halloween costumes. The original intent was for Jack to be an astronaut and Owen to be a fireman, but they decided to make a switch. It could get messy the day Halloween arrives if they decide they both want to wear the same outfit. We were able to get a good picture of them all; this in fact may end up being our Christmas card picture!!!

Anyway, I am once again behind in sending out thank you notes and retuning email, but we are very appreciative of all the support we continue to receive. Thank you for EVERYTHING…

Thank you Aunt Claire!!!

Just found out about this today... Aunt Claire and Uncle Bob are running the Hartford Half Marathon tomorrow in honor of Liam and to fund raise for Angels Above.

THANK YOU and GOOD LUCK!!

It’s a miracle

After three days of being unable to walk, and on the verge of a decision concerning surgery and/or other unpleasant options… Daisy miraculously stood up, walked and asked to be sent home with her owners… ok – so she didn’t actually speak, but we got her out of there with her pain meds and steroid prescription before we had to pay for another night stay in the critical care facility!!! Welcome home Daisy!

Mini Update

Liam is doing very well and is showing not only an enthusiasm for eating, but he's trying new foods too.

Daisy is not doing so well and is still over at the New England Animal Emergency Center.

I am also overdue with Troy's christening pictures, and I've have some pictures from the Caton Blood Drive I want to share.... maybe later today???

Seriously, can we catch a break?

Liam's counts were good enough to get discharged today; he's also had a pretty good day eating, drinking an playing. Liam was home from MassGeneral by 11:30 am, but by 2pm, Daisy was on her way to the vet ER. Not a good day for her. What started off as a limp this morning got progressively worse over the course of the day. Best guess by the vets at the New England Animal Emergency Center is some type of disc issue. She's in overnight, and hopefully we'll have more to report in the morning....

Day three

Yes - still here, but in great spirits. As usual though little eating or drinking be done by Liam. (Frootloops are now just another source of entertainment). No fevers since early Thursday am and he's off the Tylenol/Motrin.

Still neutropenic, but counts are on the way back up, we are optimistic that he'll be discharged after tomorrow mornings blood counts are checked (and at a reasonable level)

I love technology...

Just in from Tee-tee from her camera phone. Nice to see a smile as I sit here pretending to work.

Still in the hospital

Liam is being treated for pneumonia.
Fluids, Tylenol, Motrin, several antibiotics.
Today he’s having a blood transfusion.

Fever’s were up and down Tuesday/Wednesday… seem to be under control since about 2am this morning.

Great turnout at the Blood drive today, unfortunately Liam headed to the hospital this evening with a temp.

More on both to come...

Little bit of an up-and-down week for Liam. Made the daily trips to Boston for chemo, by Wednesday and Thursday he wasn't feeling so great, but was back to his old self by Friday. Later today the visiting nurse is coming to give him his shot of Neulasta...funny, I remember seeing commercials for this drug on TV, never occurred to me that we'd be making use of it someday.

I'm nervous about the week ahead... Liam's counts will be going down as the week progresses, I hope that he stays healthy through it all.

Snacks

At 8:05pm the night before Troy was born (which was a Sunday), our digital camera croaked… we made due for a while, but finally got around to picking up a new camera roughly two weeks ago… so what does this all mean?? While I don’t seem able to find enough time to blog these days, we’ve been camera happy and have lots of pictures to share so future posts may be more visual than anything else.

Liam is back in the clinic this week for chemotherapy. So far so good, but it’s always the following week when the issues seem to arise. We squeezed one more trip to the Cape in last weekend, and are getting pretty good at packing and unpacking for eight (yes, Lucy and Daisy get to go too, although I’m not sure how much more we could possibly stuff into the minivan).

Last Wednesday, I went back to work, the same day Bridgett was scheduled to have her stone blasted... as it turns out, she must have passed it sometime after Troy was born because the pre-blasting x-ray showed no stone. She was a bit annoyed at the 24 hour fasting period she endured, but otherwise happy to know it’s gone. Work for me was relatively quiet, people definitely giving me some space to ease back into it… I’m back on the M-Th schedule which leaves Bridgett and our various helpers to make the majority of the trips to Boston with Liam.

Troy’s christening is this weekend… we’ve kept it relatively small (no pony rides) and are hope that guests won’t be offended when directed to the newly installed CalStat dispenser we’ve added to the home décor. You can find anything on the internet, and this gives us that hospital antibacterial feel at home too.

The next big hurdle for Liam is a 5 night inpatient stay starting roughly Oct 17th. The combinations of drugs he’ll receive that week are the ones that knocked him out pretty well in August. In addition, he’ll have his first CT since surgery/end of radiation while there… and this will all take place the week basketball season kicks off – UG!

Two blood drives are being held in October, more details to the left. Thanks to Tom and Melissa. Also thanks for all the baby gifts. For the Carroll’s down south- Who is Snacks? I’d like to make sure he is properly thanked as well!!

Pictures of the week…

Better late than never

Made it to the Cape Thursday afternoon, Liam's counts were great, and he's really perked up, just needs a little Imodium every few hours. We are enjoying all the things we missed this summer; the beach, the pool, mini golf, JT's.

Thank goodness for Starbucks

Ok.. we are starting to see the light. I just had a cup of coffee so I could stay awake past 9pm tonight and get some work done. I’ve got updates on everyone tonight…

Liam is at the mid-way point of his three week cycle. This last round of drugs was not as hard on the white blood cells, but definitely on the red. His energy level and coloring are lacking. We are having the 1st visit form the Visiting Nurses Association tomorrow to do blood-work; I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up needing a blood transfusion this week. I’m hoping all goes well with the VNA appointment because we are hoping to use them for both outpatient chemo and blood-work as much as possible in the coming months. We are also seeing a new side of Liam’s personality. He can be quite demanding, especially when Troy is in the room, he’s also taking a funny liking to shoes. Not only does he like wearing them, but I swear he checks out everyone’s feet when they walk in the room.

Troy is now two weeks and two days old. He’s settling in nicely with the family, and I think he’s the first of the boys who actually sleeps at night and is awake during the day; at least that’s what I recall about Owen, Jack and Liam… they all seemed to want to sleep during the day and play at night. Bridgett is still carrying around the kidney stone, but is scheduled to have it blasted next Wednesday.


Owen and Jack started school this week. Owen is back at Roland Green five days a week. Jack is at Mansfield Children’s center three days a week, and we just signed him up for a tumbling class as well.

Lots to coordinate. On top of it all, I go back to work next Wednesday. On one hand I’m not looking forward to the return, on the other hand, it will be a lot quieter at work than at home!!!

If Liam’s counts are good tomorrow, we are going to head to the cape for the weekend. He should be on schedule for the next round of chemo to start September 24. Here are a bunch of pictures from the last week.

Yes we are still here. Lots going on, and lots to update you on, just no time to do it. After two nights of chaos, everyone finally settled into somewhat of a routine. Liam is in the middle of a 5 day outpatient treatment, his schedule has already had a significant change (based on the fevers the last two weeks, and giving him a little more time to recuperate). I'll try to get the "new" schedule out shortly. Nina's coming to Boston with me today, so maybe I'll have some time to jot a few notes down on all the updates.