And Now We Maintain!!

It's finally here!
Gabey's ANC counts were up to 950, and his platelet counts were fine too, so we were able to go ahead with the first treatment of Maintenance!!

Gabey got his Lumbar Puncture with interthecal Methotrexate (chemo injected into his spinal fluid), and his Vincristine push treatment(chemo just injected into his tube).

For the entire 3 years, he'll have a Vincristine push every month, and the LP with IT MTX every 3 months.

His home meds will be...
Decadron- 2X daily 5 days a month
MTX oral- 1x a week (chemo)
6-MP- 1x a day (chemo)

Here are some pics for you!

s20 waiting room with cool fish


in dr. office, waiting to be canulated (have his tubey put in)


cute baby


daddy and Gideon in dr. room


playing in OR waiting room with his herbie and hummer


my first time going back into the OR with gabey!! jeff always got to go back before because the anesthesia wasn't good for me when i was pregnant.


back in the "train room" s20 family room, waiting for VCR push


hello electric car!!


we're on our way HOME!! (running down the tunnel to the parking garage)


cool picture of the cranes at CC- so many cool changes to the place, it's looking great!

Shots are DONE

I am so thankful that the shots are all finished. We had awesome help from our friend from church, Laurie. She came a few days last week, and gave him his shots. This week, our neighbor Bryan, came and did the shots 2 times, and Jeff actually did the shot once. It was rough on Gabey, but luckilly, it always went really fast, and Gabey got over it within a minute or so. He doesn't hold grudges, and was giving high 5's afterward. I'm so proud of him.

This Thursday is just to check his counts, and then he'll be on a rest.

Thank you so much Lord. You have made this phase so much smoother than I thought it would be.

Here is my big boy holding his baby brother. I love my awesome sons.

Funny Guy

These are from a little while ago, but they're so cute.

Gabey was sitting on Jeff's foot, and laughing so hard.


I was videotaping the movement of Gideon in my belly, and Gabey came up and started making faces.

Beautiful Boy

Flashes Of Hope

The pictures are here!!
We got 2 beautiful 8X10s and 4X6s. They turned out soooo great!







Dr. TY


Dr. Tanya


Dr. Kate


Nurse Jen


We got 3 shots of Nurse Denise, and they're all just photo perfect.

Another Blessed Appointment

It's about 7:30am, and Gabey is watching Curious George, and pretending to be him. It is so amazing that he just had 2 powerful chemos yesterday! God has kept every side effect away! He is so good! The only medicine that affects him is the steroid, decadron. He's my little salami baby. LOL. Goldfish, tomatos, and salami.

Our appointment went really well. Gabey was just a little soldier getting his clippey put in. He closed his eyes again, and actually peeked when the needle was going in. He let out a funny little "ow". He knew it was supposed to hurt, but was surprised that it didn't. LOL. Afterward, he kept saying, "It didn't even hurt," Praise the Lord for EMLA cream (numbs the skin).

We watched videos, and got the zofran (keeps him from getting nauseous from the doxorubicin)and his chemo, and goofed off with the nurses and doctors.
Gabey gave some of the nurses crafts that we made this week.

I am amazed at his counts this week, the decadron is doing it's job. His counts on Thursday were 6600!

Gabey hiding from his medicine...


Waiting with yummy goldfish crackers...


Getting blood pressure...


Nurse Reagan with Gabey...
"My Tubey didn't even hurt!"


Waiting for chemo...

Week Off

Today starts a week of NO CHEMO, PTL. He has to get his counts up before we start the next phase, so this week is to help him build up. They have to be at 750 for him to be able to start the next phase on Thursday.

We'll really need your prayers for this phase. It has a few new chemos, and is pretty intense. It will last for 45 days, so keep Gabey in your requests to God during that time. It's his last intensive treatment, and after that, we get to move on to Maintenance, which will last for about 3 years.

Gabey has been feeling GREAT! We've had a fabulous month. I'm so grateful. He lost all his weight, and looks soooo cute. LOL. He's got tons of energy, and STILL has his hair!! PTL!!

You Make Me Happy

I just can't look at Gabey's fun faces, and not get happy! He makes me laugh so much! I don't know if I have ever laughed as much before he was born.

I was trying to get a picture of his haircut, it looks the same, but it's cut with clippers, which is a big step. :) He's a big boy!


I put this in my main blog, but wanted to put it in here, for anyone who doesn't visit my other site.

Can't wait for the Pictures to come in!

Cleveland Clinic was hosting Flashes of Hope today, and we were able to get portraits done of Gabey, and also of us as a family. We had Gabey get pictures with all our favorite Dr.s too. They'll be done in about 6 weeks. They're black and white professional quality. We'll get some prints, and also the disk to make more copies. It was so nice.
Here is their website.
http://www.flashesofhope.org/flashesofhope/site/default.asp

The visit was good, just a check up really. They checked his counts which were up because of the decadron he took for the last week. Right now, it's 1300. I was talking to the doctor, she prescribed an antibiotic for him, after I had her check his one toe. It looks infected, and she doesn't want to take chances. She was glad I understand the way the counts can drop and rise. She was saying..."Even though his counts are good right now.." and I added..."Today." and she said.."Exactly." so we were glad we're doing the antibiotic.

Interim Maintenance

We had a nice, easy appointment today. Gabey's counts were just high enough to start on the next phase in his treatment. He's still neutropenic- 810.

This phase is called Interim Maintenance, and it's actually quite a break from the other phases. It will last for the next 2 months.

He had a treatment of Vincristine through his tubey today, and he'll be starting on an oral Methotrexate one day a week, and some more Decadron for a few days at a time. He'll still be taking his 6-MP, and other regular meds, but other than that there aren't any other treatments. He'll have one LP next month, and that's it. We'll still go in for checks on his blood, and height and weight, but it will be a lot more relaxed than the other phases.

Praise the Lord, for getting us to this phase. He is so good to us.

I just love all the doctors and nurses at CC. They all come into the "train room" and visit with him and play with him. Even on days that they aren't working with him, they'll still make a point to stop and talk to him. He's been so good. He goofs off with them, and makes me so proud to be his mom. They always are so shocked to hear him say his "may I" "no thank you" and other polite phrases. I LOVE it. He's a good boy, and I'm so glad that he's making a positive impact on the workers there.

The nurse said today..."You need to make 12 more of him." (shari's BEAMING!)

Gabey's been making crafts for the Dr.s and nurses!


Our good friend, Miss Jen, one of Gabey's nurses.


One of our awesome Doctors, Holly.

Photos of Visit

Gabey's still got a cough, pray that it gets better. He's fine, and acting great. He woke up this morning, and I noticed a real difference in his weight. I can tell he's getting back to normal. His face is slimmer, and his belly's slimmer too.

I brought my camera on Thursday, and got to take some pictures. We weren't expecting to have to stay. I took pictures of the good parts of our visit. Some nice things happened. One fun thing is that the nurse who put his "clippy" in rewarded him for being so good by doing a handstand! The OR nurse put Sunny Bunny in an OR outfit for Gabey to pass the time. I got a pic of that. When we got admitted to the hospital room, there was a present waiting on the bed for Gabey. It was a really cool tool set. The family room is finished this time, so when Chrissy was up with us, Jeff and I got to go in there for a little bit to eat dinner. (I forgot my sandwich in the fridge there, oops sorry.) In the morning, I was able to sneak in there again before the guys woke up, and had a cup of coffee in there. The showers are open, so that's awesome. If we would have had to stay, I would have taken a shower, but we were leaving that morning, PTL.

This is the OR playroom. We like the magnet tables.




in our OR prep room waiting and watching TV


pretty tired, waiting


putting Sunny Bunny in a fun outfit to pass the time




Jeffie in his gown. he goes in with Gabey until he's asleep


here we are getting ready to leave in the morning, PTL.


cool blinds in his room


here is the famous fish tank on the way off the floor :) Gabey loves these fish.

No News Yet

This picture is from Saturday. My sister and we went to Goody's for dinner, and then shopping. Gabey was so funny, and silly.

He's getting back to normal. He's laughing and being silly a lot. Yesterday, by afternoon, I was worn out, lol. I love that he's getting his energy back. Even with the extra weight that he has to carry around, he's trying to run, and he's moving around a lot. I'm glad of that. He still has some weakness in his legs, and needs help with stairs, and can't get up from the floor unless he pulls himself up with something. I'm not sure when that will go away, as it's a side effect of some of the chemo. His hair is also getting very thin from the VCR, and we're seeing shedding on his car seat.

I have been trying to be patient. I haven't heard from the doctors yet. I finally just emailed the one doctor yesterday, asking if they had any info yet. I'm going to call them today.

It's been a great week though, and I'm glad. Gabey only has to take 2 meds now, and one is just a tiny dose once a day. The Bactrim though, is gross, and a whole TSP full. We have to give it MTW 2X a day. It tastes nasty, and we try to sweeten it with powdered sugar, and syrup, and that ends up making even more for him to take. He freaked out with Jeff last night, and just refused to take it. :( It's like a cold med to prevent Pneumocystis pneumonia. I wish I could get in pill form, to crush up, I'm going to ask about that when I get to talk to the Dr. today.

Cranky Gabey

Gabey has been through so much this past week. I'm not surprised that this picture turned out looking cranky.


This is his new booster seat. We were planning on waiting to get him one, but since he has the mediport in, we didn't want the 5 point harness of his old one rubbing on his chest, and hurting it. We were able to use some of the gift money we got recently to purchase it. Now, I can rest easy that he'll be comfortable in the car.