How far we've come

A year ago at this time, Hayden was in the hospital and dealing with some nasty food issues. We had just finished an intense treatment phase, which made his blood counts bottom out, which made his temperature skyrocket. No fun. Fast forward 365 days and, while Hayden's counts aren't exactly stellar, his overall progress certainly is. That's the head space I was in last week during Hayden's hockey camp. It's the first time he ever had a stick on the ice and I had mixed feelings about it, especially after I dropped him off (at 7:45 AM!) on the first day. All of the other kids had played before. They all had fancy rolling bags and water bottles (like the rookie I am, I sent Hayden with a juice box). I don't know if he noticed that but I left feeling sooooo nervous for him. Thankfully, he was on the same team as a friend from tae kwon do. It's a coincidence of the highest magnitude that this friend was also in the same Mini-U camp a few weeks ago...must be a good omen.

On the final day of camp, parents were invited to watch the game. Well, when I saw him on the ice it took me a few minutes to get my emotions under control. I couldn't help but think back to a time when we had to force him to get out of bed and walk a few agonizing steps. And there he was with his equipment on looking so damn big, curls poking out the bottom of his helmet, and playing hockey! I'm watering up just thinking about it. I'm so proud of him for doing this, despite the fact that all of the other kids are clearly more advanced (and bigger!). He stuck with it and has every intention of playing this winter. I can't wait to be a hockey mom.

Then and now...

First day of grade 3 (Sept. 2009)

9th birthday (July 2010)


Along the lines of celebrating progress, we'll be attending a party this weekend for a good friend who has just completed his leukemia treatments. That's it - all done! Jesse's 8 years old and, although we met him through CancerCare, he attends the same school as Hayden. Congrats Jesse!!! We're so happy for you!

Neutrophils at twilight

We celebrated Hayden's rebounded blood counts in the usual way - lots of public outings. His neutrophils are at 1.12 so he headed straight out to spend up the gift cards he received for his birthday and catch a show. We saw the latest Twilight movie, Eclipse. Yikes! The 'talk' between Bella and her father raised a few questions in my young son's head. I promised to explain after the movie but, so far, it hasn't come up. That's almost scarier than the Paranormal Activity 2 trailer.

So we're back at 50% chemo doses, which is where he previously maintained good blood counts. Plus today Hayden visited the PDU to get methotrexate via a lumbar puncture (this is now quarterly rather than monthly) and vincristine via his Iron Man port. And he started his monthly stretch of steroids - but this time I was thinking ahead and asked for a big hug before I gave him his first pill. That outta get me through the next 5 days.

Hockey camp starts next week. More to come...

Still no chemo

Last week's blood test revealed that Hayden's counts are climbing but he's still neutropenic (low neutrophil count so compromised immune system). So still no chemo...it's been a nice break but it's definitely time to get back in the game. We go again next Tuesday for another blood test. Surely by then Hayden's counts will be high enough to re-start chemo. Surely Dr. Stoffman will lower the chemo dose so his counts don't nosedive again. Shirley and Lavern had the best theme song in tv history.