Back to School - August 2009

By the time school starts back up it always amazes me how much my kids have grown over the past year and especially the summer! I never think they are ready for the next step - but they are! Chad is now a big 3rd grader, Halle a 2nd grader, and Sean is now in Kindergarten.




They all have a love for school - which I am so grateful for. The first day of school was full of excitement about having new teachers and seeing old friends.




At Adam's the 3rd graders get to have class out in one of the portables. Chad was overjoyed to finally become one of the big kids in the portables. He also graduated to playing in the big kid area of the school for recess. He has adjusted well - and been a trouper at staying positive even though most of his close friends from last year are now in the other 3rd grade class. His only real disappointment about his new teacher is that she does not require them to have a binder (which the other teacher does for her class). He was really looking forward to having a binder (okay, not "looking forward" to but completely OBSESSED!!!!! with having one) - so I let him have one for use at home.




Halle's 1st grade class and teacher looped to 2nd grade - so she has the same teacher and friends. She was so excited to see her friends again. (With all that was going on this summer I just didn't get many friends over to play this year.) She thinks she is getting pretty big. She loves school and was disappointed on the first day when they didn't even do math, science, or writing. Life is much better now that they are back to a hard core learning schedule - she has even completed 3 homework assignments now.




Sean was the most fun to watch. For the past two years he has made the walk to the bus stop and back. He would always try to sneak on the bus - but never quite made it and would always have to walk home again. This year was his year!!!!!




On the first day, we waited and waited for the bus. I usually expect problems with the bus (due to past experience) and was prepared with my van parked right by the stop. Finally it was time to make a decision - continue to wait for the bus and be late for the first day of school or go in the mommy bus/van. All the kids decided they wanted to get to school right away - nobody wanted to be late. Even Sean, who has been literally waiting his whole life to ride the bus, wanted to be to school on time.




So, I drove them to school, dropped them off, and then found a parking spot. By the time I got to school the kids were all settled into their classrooms and ready to go. Chad was ready to get down to business, Halle was socializing with all her friends, and Sean looked as proud as could be coloring away and sitting at his desk.




Things looked like they would run smoothly - but come on, something always happens on the first day of school. As I again waited and waited and waited at the bus stop for Sean to arrive home from kindergarten I wondered what was going on and what time he would actually arrive (on Halle's first bus ride home from kindergarten it took the very confused bus driver almost 2 hours to drop her off at her stop - completely ridiculous).




After waiting for half an hour I got my phone out to call the school. Just as I grabbed it, it rang. It was Sean's kindergarten teacher. She did not put him on the bus. Sean had convinced her that I was coming to the school and was taking him to the school cafeteria for lunch.




I started laughing my head off. First, I have no idea why Sean would come up with a story or a thought like that. We had talked all week about how he would be riding the bus. At the open house the day before I showed him his bus badge he would be wearing and where he would be getting on and off the bus.




I was also laughing at the teacher. Just the day before at the kindergarten open house I had filled out a form saying that Sean would be taking the bus home everyday. The kindergarten teacher knows me and my kids and knows they take the bus. And she mentioned several times that she follows what is on the form (bus kids to the bus, express kids to express, kids to moms - once you see the mom, etc.). Over and over again she mentioned that only a written note would let them change the schedule. So after all that concern and show of rules, Sean had sweet talked her into changing the schedule without at note.




So I know my Sean is a pickle and was real concerned about his behavior in school this year - but this takes the cake. On just his first day of school he has the kindergarten teacher wrapped around his little finger - following his orders instead of his mom's and the school's rules. What else will he accomplish this year?!

Sean shows off where he got his four shots for kindergarten. Turns out he missed a shot so I had to take him back in for another one today. He was very brave!!!!

The many faces of Sean. Sean got to go to school on Wednesday for a kindergarten open house - he counted it as a full day of school. So he has been to school four times now.

All ready to go.

Chad checks out his fun school supplies (minus the binder of course).

Halle excited to be with her friends again.

Sean is ready to get into kindergarten work. (Looks like he is day dreaming about his next scheme.)

Life at the Hospital

This week has been crazy! Chad had his birthday, my parents came to visit (with my mom just leaving tomorrow), the beginning week of school, and Chris having another surgery.

With still no answers we decided to go ahead with major surgery (as suggested by his oncologist) to remove more lymph tissue. This time instead of trying to find a lymph node that was easily accessible (like last time from his arm pit) they wanted to go in deeper where more of the problem is. So on Tuesday Chris checked into Sacred Heart so they could remove some lymph node tissue from his pelvic/abdomen area.

The surgery went well. (Plus we only waited about an hour past the original time instead of almost seven hours like the last surgery).

The surgeon was able to find a lymph node about the size of a plum and took some tissue. Before they closed Chris up they had a pathologist look to make sure the sample was adequate. The pathologist said the lymph node certainly looked suspicious.

Chris felt pretty well Tuesday night - just a little pain from the surgery and a little foggy in the head from the anesthesia.

Wednesday he didn't feel so well. He felt quite ill. His heart keep racing really fast and he was having a hard time breathing. It was a little scary and they even called in the "Rapid Response" team to evaluate him and make sure he was okay.

Today he was much better. Finally off his IV, eating a little bit of real food (hasn't had any real food since Monday morning), and getting up from his bed.

Chris became a human pin cushion. The surgeon said the lymphoma test came back as negative (again we hope this is good news), and she pulled in an Infectious Disease doctor and Chris' arthritis doctor. They took lots of blood, and scans. They also drained a significant amount of fluid from his thoracic cavity (fluid around, but not in the lungs). They will also send this off for tests.

Each doctor thinks they have a diagnosis. The oncologist says you can't prove it is not cancer and wants to keep looking for lymphoma, the Rheumatoid doctor thinks maybe Chris has Lupus and the Infectious Disease Doctor thinks he will find something amid all the variety of samples Chris has provided.

This morning after talking with the Rheumatoid doctor's nurse I thought for sure we had found our answer and started telling people that Chris had lupus and not lymphoma - but I later found out that lupus is a just a possibility - but again not a concrete diagnosis.

I've been trying to divide my time between my kids and my husband - it is hard to be torn between the two and not to be able to be at both places at once.

Hopefully Chris will be well enough to come home and we can all be together again.

I also hope I can blog about more happy things like the first day of school - I already have a great story to tell.

It's a Mystery

Chris got his bone marrow biopsy results back. Every thing was normal! Yeah - kind of. Apparently you can only prove if you have cancer, no way to prove you don't have cancer. So even though all his bone marrow looks good, still doesn't mean he doesn't have cancer.

We are now going in three different directions. We meet with the surgeon again on Wednesday - they want to take a lymph node out of his abdomen (where they are the biggest problem). Then we are setting up appointments with a rheumatologist in case it is some autoimmune problem and also with an infectious disease specialist in case it is some funky bug causing all of this.

I just can't wait to find out what is causing Chris' lymph node problems. I thought the disease itself would be our trial - at the moment it is the finding out of the disease that is driving us crazy. We just hope we can soon pin point the problem so we can start working on a solution.

A Glimmer of Hope?

Chris had surgery last week to remove a lymph node from under his arm. Surgery went well (although we waited for 6 hours! - 3 trauma cases were higher priority than us).

We waited all week for the results so that we could move on with getting Chris better.

After calling and calling - we finally got the results from his lymph node biopsy - inconclusive.

Yeah, we are just as frustrated now as we have been the last few weeks - waiting and waiting and still not getting any closer to what is making Chris sick or how to get him better.

Inconclusive means that they found abnormal lymph cells but they were not lymphoma cells. So the glimmer of hope is that it may not be cancer - but it still could be (see what I mean by inconclusive?!). A lymph node biopsy can have false negatives - meaning that just because they didn't find any lymphoma it doesn't mean they can rule it out - it still may be lymphoma or it may also be numerous other things (what I don't know yet).

So, the next step is for Chris to have a bone marrow biopsy. Sounds horrible, but is supposed to be a small procedure done in the Dr.'s office. Chris will have that done on Monday, along with yet again more blood work.

We meet with the Dr. again on August 19 to get the bone marrow results and hopefully some answers.

We are most grateful for every one's prayers. I feel so grateful to have so many friends that are so willing to help out and be there for us. Thank you everyone!!!!!!!!