Here goes the next 10 weeks...

The next 10 weeks will be hard for Carson. Hard for our whole family. I pray he will not be in pain, or too sick to still be a little boy.  He has been so brave. The boy is a pro at going for treatment.  He helps the nurses give him his treatments, and is always willing to show them the dinosaur that lives in his mouth(aka when they are checking for mouth sores he grawls at them super cute) The nurses love him and always say that he looks great, and that is such a "BIG BOY" something I have heard from day one. He was never a "baby" he has always been our "big boy" tipping the scales and always being in the 90% on the charts.

Mickey Rode on his lap the whole way to the hospital. He had to share his blanket with Mickey.

 

 

We asked the Child Life Specialist Rachelle(who is amazing by the way) to let Carson play doctor and give Mickey a port. He was so excited to do so, and was happy to give Mickey medicine and also take his blood. :)  

Carson no longer likes to wear shoes, he prefers to wear slippers, Lighting McQueen ones to be exact. He loves them.

I ran to Costco to get a few things, and Carson saw a LIFE SIZE Minni Mouse and about did a head dive out of the cart to get to it. I carried it around the store till I could find more. Thank Goodness they had Mickey. Both boys got one and both of them LOVE them! They are so happy to play with them and each sleep with them. We still have the smaller one to travel with us to the hospital and such, but who wouldn't love a life size Mickey.

Also Uncle Travis and Uncle Shawn got Carson and Blake a 4-wheeler. 

Carson LOVES it.

 

Both boys were very excited for it. I hope he feel good enough to ride it at least a few more times before it gets cold.

 

This is now our motto! We may no understand everything now, but we are smiling through the tears, and pushing through the hard times! I don't ever think I will "make sense" of why children get Cancer, but I do know that there is a lesson to be learned. In my heart I know Carson will beat this.

Put a smile on....

I am forcing a smile in front of my kids. Inside I scream because insurance companies are annoying and have choose what they will and will not cover for his treatment. Really? I am pissed, angry and more hurt than I have ever been. Our child is sick, and you want me to call you and have you explain WHY you are not covering it on top of dealing with him being sick? No this is not how it should be! It is not fair. But what else can I do but put a smile on my face, because if I don't my kids will see I am upset, hurt and angry and they don't need that. They are dealing with enough. Carson going for treatments and being "tuff" about the whole thing. Blake going with the flow since what other choice does he have.

 

Really when you look at this picture, he could barley hold his head up. He was so weak. I am an out spoken person when I can handle dealing with one more thing, I will do whatever is needed to get awareness, and more money for research to find a 100% cure! If we find a cure for one Cancer, we can find it for all of them; I am starting with Childhood Cancer.  No kid should have to be "sick" and no parent should have to face the fears that Brant and I are.

At least he is able to be a little normal. He enjoys riding his bike but always has to have Mickey mouse with him. He gives Mickey Mouse bandages, and always says Mickey's legs hurt when his do. He loves Mickey. I am thankful something makes him as happy as Mickey does. You would never guess this kid is sick. Our next phase of treatment will be more intense and not something I am looking forward to. I am also thankful he doesn't fully get he is "sick" and all the fears that could Intel.

10 more days for this "part" of treatment

We are in a part of treatment called Inter-maintenance 1. In just 10 short days we will finish this part of his treatment and enter a phase called Delayed intensification. Not a part of treatment we are looking forward to. We have been so blessed to be able to be somewhat normal and do things that kids should get to do. Not all kids with Cancer are able to do so.

 

I wanted to get a picture of him with his Port Accessed. To show him later what it looked like. This is his "I am going to kick Cancer's butt" face!

 Here are some pictures we took up the canyon; Monday after treatment. He enjoyed going for a ride in Daddy's truck and watching the river.

 

Before we were able to go up the Canyon Carson and I made the journey to PCMC. We had to take Mickey Mouse along with us. He is driving me nuts with Mickey Mouse. He watches it at least a few times a day if not all day(on bad days). It makes him happy so I deal.

We were scheduled to go through the OR so we had to be checked in with the OR at 8am. Carson knows when we go there he can play with the cars. While we waited Carson found a friend who had down syndrome and a trachea tube. While his mom was suctioning out his tube Carson reached his hand out and told him "it okay". The little boy smiled at him, and they held hands and play together. It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen. We had to leave soon after and head up to get "treatment". They then changed our plan and had us go through the RTU; much easier for Carson to go to the RTU since I am able to take him to the room and hold him while he falls asleep. I am also able to go back to him much quicker than if we were in the OR. But since we we were moved to the RTU it meant we had go back up stairs for treatment; Carson was no happy about this at all. But soon calmed down and fell asleep while he got his chemo. I also talked to the doctors about using essential oils to help Carson with his leg pains. After talking to a few doctors, we came to the agreement that we will not use essential oils to help. Some studies say that it could make the chemo not as effective, and that is not a gamble we are willing to take. So we increased his doses of pain medications, and will continue to use a vibrating chair mat and heating pad to help manage his pain. We are 2 days out of treatment, so far he has not been in too much pain. He acts silly after getting a "full" dose of pain medication, but I would much rather have a silly child than a child in pain.

 

We continue to receive so much support from family and friends. We are more than thankful for all the support. 

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.