One step at a time

Even though my fundraising site is still under construction, I want to thank Nina & poppa for the first official donation to my marathon fundraising effort!

See Liam's fundraising page here.

A couple of weeks before Christmas I got the official confirmation of a spot on the 2010 MassGeneral Marathon Team. My training had a few speed bumps around the holidays, but I seem to be back on track now, and am considering setting up another blog to record some of my real thoughts about those 6am, 17 degree runs. (I just need a few extra hours in the day!!)

Anyway – I hope this weekend to add more of a personal message on the fundraising site, but appreciate all the support you can throw my way!!!

My interpretation of Liam's recent x-ray

You know I like to share all the medical media I can get my hands on...

Legoland Day 2

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No alcohol @ Legoland

But some of us can have Tylenol w/codine
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Highlights of our San Diego vacation (so far)

Long flight delay in Dallas, no mini vans at car rental, slip in shower - broken collar bone for Liam.. That was the 1st few hours :). It quickly picked up though, great weather, trip to zoo, basketball games, beach, parade, USS Midway... Legoland still to come.
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Not letting a broken collar bone slow him down

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Need a workout?

The kids spent the afternoon at a BSC practice yesterday... nothing like broad jumps/boot camp to tire them out, next time we will have to make sure they're wearing sneakers :)

School Picture

I do believe he is the cutest boy on the planet!

A little sedation, a little music... overall, a good (but long) day.... while we didn't get the final read of the CT back today, the initial look was stable.... we are happy with that!


So don't I post this entry, and 1/2 an hour later, Bridgett asks me to help her transfer contacts and pictures off her old cell phone on to her new cell phone. These were two of the pictures... Liam with Lorri during an inpatient stay, I'd guess about two years ago... still making music :)

We are winding down our last few days of summer vacation; seems like most families are back to school already, but we don’t start up until September 9th.. so we have a few more days to enjoy. This really has been a carefree summer for us, lots of cape time (some of it rainy), pool time, birthday parties, the zoo, running…not a whole lot of gardening though - which means the yard looks like a jungle.

So where to begin…the “MGH” news… we got the pictures back from our flashes of hope session; beautiful black and white shots of the kids, the family and lots of individuals of Liam. I’ll probably post this blog entry then back track to find the disk and upload a few of the pictures…. Liam’s next scan is in about a month. The last few scans he’s had, we have made an attempt to try the scan without sedation, but it never seems to work out. I was thinking of putting a few boxes together to “practice” a scan at home, maybe put Liam in a wagon, turn the vacuum on and roll him through. This thought lasted maybe three minutes before I came to my senses… I’m sure we can think of better use of the boxes…. Some really disheartening news from a fellow MGH family – Shaney, (diagnosed on the same day as Liam, at the same age, same cancer shared and even shared a room together with his family the first night Liam had chemotherapy) well.. his mom found out she had breast cancer and is having a double mastectomy this week. When I first heard the news, I was so angry, I still am… She had run the Boston Marathon in 2008 for Shaney, and they were a big support for Bridgett running in 2009. Just doesn’t seem right, so we are looking for ways to help them over the next few months…

On the running front, Bridgett is still feeling the aftereffects of the marathon. She did however, muster up enough strength to run a 5k this weekend to support The Jamie Fund/Special Education programs in Mansfield. (link on the side). I managed to make it through the Falmouth Road Race in August, and will probably look for a few other races this fall. We are always looking for your support (And donations!!) and the latest event we are participating in is the 2009 Southern New England Autism Walk for Autism Speaks. Not only are we walkers, but we are co-captains of a team… “Mansfield Miracles”. The families we have teamed up with are those of Owen’s classmates from back in his Roland Green days, all of who are dealing with some type of Autism Spectrum diagnosis in their children as well. It’s less than a week to go until the walk, and we are very far behind with our fundraising target, so once again, we’re reaching out to our friends and family for their support... Click here for our webpage.


I often find myself going back and rereading this blog to figure out where the last 2+ years have gone. Just last week, on Troy’s second birthday, we were trying to remember the days leading up to his birth; I’m thankful that I have this as a reminder… so even though I spend a good deal of time on Facebook now, I’ll always try to keep this site updated.

Enjoying the summer!

Flashes of Hope

We had a family photo shoot today at MassGeneral, part of a program called called Flashes of Hope. What a great experience.. it will be a few weeks before we see the pictures, but I'm sure they will be amazing.

All the kids have now finished school, and this Thursday night we're headed to the Cape to kick off our official summer vacation, hoping for a turnaround in the weather, but its not looking that promising.

Liam finished up his series of doctor's appointments last week. In addition to his scan he had three other appointments; a vaccination "catch up", a visit to his radiation oncologist, and a three year check up with his pediatrician, needless to say, he's done with doctors and "ouchies" for a while. The concern shared across all of the physician involved with his care is on the growth of his spine, which may (probably will be) impacted by the radiation treatments he received... this will be watched closely over the years to come. Given the removal of much of his right lung, they were also asking about shortness of breath, which to date, we've seen none of, and believe me Liam can certainly keep up with his brothers!! Again, all things that will be watched over time, for now, we are hoping for a SUNNY, relaxing, summer!

Whew

A long day...starting with the alarm @ 4:45am, but finishing on a good note, the scan was clear. We head back next week for followup with Dr. Yock (Radiation Oncology) to check on Liam's growth...he's still a bit groggy... in the back seat of the car now eating a bag of Peppercorn Ranch Sun Chips :)

Not your typical 3rd birthday

What did we do to celebrate Liam's third birthday today??? Sent him off to his first day of preschool!! We dropped him off about an hour ago, my eyes are still red. Liam never looked back, Jack on the other hand seemed a little nervous about getting Liam to the "blue" room safely (Jack is in the red room).

Oh what a big week.

Updates soon, I promise. Just need to make it through Thursday, then I'll be able to focus!

Sleepless nights...

must be getting close to a scan date...