Wrapping up summer...

We have been blesses Carson's blood counts have been good. Well enough we could live a some what "normal" life for a little while. This is not always the case with kids who have ALL so we are thanking our lucky stars and very grateful for it.

One of my favorite pictures is the 2 of them snuggling together. It doesn't happen often so when I does I run for a camera!

A dear friend of mine that had a baby at the same time I had Carson went OUT of her way to send us a very special package with some very special handmade pictures from Noah, Brady, and Michael. It brought tears to my eyes when we got it! The boys loved opening it.

We had treatment on Friday. Carson picked out a hat. It had puppies on it, but also said Princess. I laughed and let him wear it. He also got a pig so then the hate became the pigs blanket. Thank goodness because I wasn't sure what we would tell daddy when we got home. :)

The kid is a trooper. He helps the nurses with flushing his line, and always sits up like a big boy to get his port accessed. He knows to take his shoes off when we walk in, and is always eager to let them give his arm a hug, even telling the nurses what arm they can use that day! We are lucky that the nurses understand this is hard for the kids, and do as much as they can to make it as easy as possible for the kids!

We are also lucky that American Fork IV center is so kind to let us go there to get Carson's blood drawn each week. We have to know his counts in order to know #1 how much treatment he can have #2 what is "safe" for us to do for that week. The nurses there are super kind to both boys and always have treats for them! They welcome both boys.

One of Carson's favorite things to do is to go ride the Alpine slide. He loves it! Grandma Georgiana has been nice to take us to ride the slide 3 times and counting(she promised to go again)

Carson gets Angel mail. It is an amazing program where 2 people send a letter/package each week. It gives Carson something to look forward to, and he loves to get mail! The ladies that have Carson's name are super nice and send a treat each time they send a package!

Since Carson's counts were so good, my mom and I were able to take him to Salt Lake City and stay in a hotel and be on "vacation". Carson loves vacation just like his mom!

We made it to Hogle Zoo, Clark Planetarium, Lion House Pantry for some great food, and the Olympic park to ride a different Alpine slide. He enjoyed it! We have 20 more days of this "easier" course of treatment, then it is on to a "hard" part. I am not looking forward to the "hard" part, as I am sure he is not either. Other than Leg pains, he is acting and playing like normal! THANK GOODNESS.

Wrapping up July Month 3 of Treatment

July was a crazy month. I wanted to make the best of the next summer months since he will be in Delayed intensification Starting in September and his white blood cell count will be lower.

So we Dressed as buzz to go to the grocery store!

We wore half PJ's and half normal clothes to go take Cousin Jeff to the airport.

We played in Laundry Baskets!

We Celebrated the 4th of July in Style!

He enjoyed sitting on Uncle Shawn's lap watching the "big" fireworks.

He had to have ALL GREEN. For some reason he had to have everything green this day! it was crazy!

He LOVED the Farris Wheel.

We rode the Farris Wheel. 1st time for both boys, they loved it. Grandma and I not so much.

He rode a big slide and loved every minute of it.

The love the Mary-go-round.

The Grandma took us to BEAR WORLD! VACATION! All of us were sick of staying home so when my mom offered to take us to Bear World Yellowstone, I was more than thrilled. The boys didn't know what was going on. But soon learned they loved "Vacation" too!

Don't mind Carson picking his nose! :)

They loved the rides at Bear World.

We got to ride on a truck, that Carson called a Bus and see the bears up close, and feed them.

They sat up and clapped for the "treats" that we got to feed them.

There was a petting zoo that Carson loved. We used lots of hand sanitizer and washed our hands after! I had a little anxiety about him touching the animals, but he loves animals just like his dad.

He thought this mask was fun. But instead wanted to buy stuffed snakes for "brother" and him.

On our way home we stopped by a place called "soda springs". It was cool to learn about carbonated water that comes from the earth.

Carson loved to play in it. You can drink it.  but it tastes nasty!

The it was back to reality... back to the hospital for an appointment. Carson blood counts were still great he was at 850! YAHOO!

We had to be at the hospital at 8AM. No time for breakfast, and they always have snacks so I wasn't worried, he picked chocolate pudding cheese and water.

Then Grandma had a great idea to go on a stay-cation in Park City. I needed to get the kids clothes for fall anyway, so off to Park City and the outlets we went for 2 nights!

We had a great time riding the Alpine slide. Carson loved riding the chair lift up... Blake on the other had is a total dare devil and tried to jump off while we were 100 feet up in the air! We got in trouble when we got to the top and told that if Blake couldn't sit down he wasn't allowed to ride again.

We came home to eat "Taco Amigo" Blake enjoyed his "fry sauce" a little too much! it was in his hair, all over his face, and the chair.

The back to reality sucks! I would love to vacation to the max while his counts are good. I know we will be stuck in the house for months especially since it will be cold and flu season. Carson is such a trooper. He has the routine down for hospital. He takes his "chemo pills" like a champ, and doesn't let being "sick" phase him! He is an amazing kid. Blake is a trooper as well he tugs along and just goes with the flow.

I didn't think we would be able to get back to a somewhat normal life. It has been nice. But I also know that we will be staying home more and more as the next phase of treatment starts! It was fun to vacation and enjoy life, and see him smile and love the adventures we went on.  I wish Brant could have joined us, but he was unable to take off work.

The Good and the Bad

Today we went for Chemo + a broncosopy to see what was going on with Carosn's airway, we were planning on looking into this before he got diagnosed with Leukemia. We had a big day today. We had to be out of the house by 6AM to make it to PCMC by 715 so we could do our physical assessment test, Chemo, and get to same day surgery. The Physical assessment  required Carson to run for 8 minutes, plus doing some measurements, crunches, push ups and jumping... ALL of them I had to do in order to get him to do them. Running at 8AM was not what I had in mind, but we made a game out of it and he enjoyed playing.

When we are at PCMC he knows the cars are all up for grabs! HE Loves to play in them. I will be sad when he is too big to fit in them!

He got his Chemo and wanted to help hold his "tubie" while they pushed it in through his port. Thank goodness his "counts"(blood counts) were high enough to start this week!  I have to say the nurses in Oncology are amazing. They let him do his own thing. they are amazing people!

After this we were off to Same Day surgery to have his broncosopy. Just Carson and I went. So as soon as he went in I RAN down to get something to eat. Fried zucchini tasted great!

Dr. Mier came out and told me he had bad and good news. He said most of his air way looked great, but his left bronchial tube is small, about 1/4 the size it should be.(see the pic below) in order to fix it we first have to have a CT scan to see the outside of it, and second we have to wait for a good time during treatment to have a MAJOR surgery. He compared fixing it, to open heart surgery, something that is very invasive and a high risk for infection. We will have to wait till next week to learn how and when he can have this done. We may need to wait 3 years till he is done with treatment.

This is just a speed bump in the road. Overall he is doing amazing. He has a routine down for treatment. He likes to watch Mickey Mouse while we wait for Chemo, and is always eager to get home to see his Blakers :)

Riding, Pedicures, and of course Treatments

We are off Steroids yay! Carson has started acting normal again! We are so happy to have him back. His legs hurt him by the end of most days, but he loves to run, play and drive his car! His counts were too low last week to get his IV chemo so we will start those tomorrow when we go.

 They take his weight each week, he has the routine down, weight, height, blood pressure, and off to his room.

 He LOVES to drive his car. We are blessed my parents have a big yard for him to play and drive his car to his hearts desire. He wishes Blake was old enough to drive his car, he is working on it, maybe by the end of the summer he will learn!

 He loves when Uncle Travis or Shawn get out there bikes. He tells them "let's ride". Thank goodness he has some great uncles!

 We take his doctors things with us so he can play doctor while we are at the hospital. We do a lot of playing while we wait for our Chemo to be made, and the doctor to come in.

 I took some much needed time to go get a pedicure. I enjoyed the 1/2 hour to myself! I did orange for Leukemia and Green since that is his favorite color!

Don't forget Blakers he loved the cupcakes aunt Jay made for the yard sale. We had a great turn out from family, friends and strangers for the yard sale. I am so thankful for my best friend Lucy(aka Jessi) Aunt Jay, my mom, Bran's mom, my grandma, and other family members for helping set it all up.

People keep asking how we are doing. Carson is doing great, he does great with treatments and is pretty much got down the routine. He doesn't "like" going but does not have fits about it and for that we are thankful. Brant and I have no choice but to be strong. We were made for each other. Anyone who knows us;  knows that Brant does not make any decisions in our family, he leaves it all up to me. The other day in the car he told me he was thankful that I was the boys mom, that he trusted that I always know what is right for them and our family. We both agreed that cancer sucks; But we have 3 years of hell, but then we will have our little boy back. 

another week

We are on the down hill climb of steroids. It has been a hard 3 weeks. We have had many good days, but some bad days. Most of the time it is just bad moments.

My mom's coworker made "hats" for Carson. She did an amazing job and He loves them. We all put them on. I figure if we make it "cool" to wear the hats then he will want to; and if we all wear them he won't feel so different.

 Even Grandma got to wear one! My mom and Bran'ts mom have been wonderful to have around. It is great we live so close to family!

 Blake and I met a great friend Amanda Chadwick and her kids(Tessa and Tori) at the park, for a lunch date! I was happy to see Amanda and Blake was happy to get out of the house.

 Blake has to be a "duff ball". Love having him around to make us laugh and make light of everything.

He had to wait 4 hours to get food, since we are normally only at "clinic" for an hour and half I didn't plan for a meal. When the nurse asked him if he wanted to order lunch he said "nuggetts and pizza!!" And that is what she brought him :)

Carson had a temp of 101. So we got admitted for 24 hour observation. I think it was a combination of fever and his breathing. Since he is so "swollen" he is working harder to breath. He also had high blood pressure, so we got some medication for that and were sent home the next afternoon.

While we were at the hospital Uncle Travis watched Blakers. I was worried about leaving him with Travis but knew he would take great care of him. Blake had a #2 diaper, uncle Travis tossed him in the tub and "hosed" him off! Whatever get the job done! I am impressed he even changed him!

This coming Friday is our day 28. Meaning 1- NO MORE STEROIDS, 2- he will get his bone marrow biopsy, 3- he will have his broncoscopy so the doctors can make a plan to fix his air way!

We are crossing our fingers his counts will come up and he is able to spend some time at 7 peaks this summer along with doing some camping.