Halloween

Beckett had a Halloween party at school today. Being the lazy (super busy) mom that I am, I donated the juice boxes. I think there must have been quite a few like me because Trader Joe's was wiped clean out of juice boxes except for the sugar filled white grape and (gasp!) lemonade. Oh well. We tried to make it back home in time for trick or treating, but we rolled through at 6:10 and it ended at 7 and we still needed to eat dinner. Secretly, I was kind of glad because it looked like the whole town was out trick or treating and was a little crazy. Beckett didn't seem to mind which I am sure will not be the case next year.

Here's a picture of Beckett in his costume. (We kind of cheated because this picture is actually from last weekend when we tried it on.) That face he is making is a growl.




Tomorrow is his 10th treatment and the final one in the "Induction phase". He will get a two week break from treatment during which time he will get an MRI to let us know how the treatment has been working. We are hoping for no growth or even for a reduction in the size of the tumor.

Can't Touch This

This week John's mom has been visiting us from New Jersey. It's been great having her here and Beckett adores Grandma Pat. She "got to" take Beckett to treatment on Thursday and has been helping us a lot with babysitting (we actually went on a DATE), cooking and all kinds of stuff. Today we had a birthday part for John (40th!) at the park. We had great fun seeing everyone and Beckett ran around the park with Ruby and Charlie (the twins of a friend of mine). There were two major hits of the party: My friend Elaine, gave John one of those audio birthday cards that plays "U can't touch this" when it opens up, and Alex, his brother, gave him a card that plays monkey noises when you open it. Ever since we got home, Beckett has been playing with MC Hammer and doing a little dance as he plays it. When I tried to hide it before bed, Beckett forlornly asked for "Purple Card" for 5 minutes before we figured out what he was asking for.

Now he's sleeping with both cards cuddled up next to him and I am waiting to be awoken to MC Hammer at 2 am. (If that happens. I am calling Elaine.)

Lucky

We had our eighth chemo treatment today. I was feeling sorry for myself because work has been stressful, etc. Every time I go to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital its a good wake-up call though. Beckett was in the Day Hospital, and the girl next to him was on week 90 of chemotherapy. Also we met another boy who had gone through TWO YEARS of various treatments. And he was only three. I heard another lady asking the social worker for a letter for her boss because he didn't believe her that she needed to spend the day at the hospital with her daughter getting chemotherapy.

We are so lucky! We know Beckett is going to be fine. We have health insurance that makes it so that we don't worry about how we are going to pay for all this. We have jobs that allow us to take time off to care for Beckett and supportive friends, family and colleagues. It's still hard and exhausting, but we could have it so much worse.

Beckett did great today. I have given up on having him sleep through treatments so the tough job is entertaining him for two hours while he gets his fluids, zofran, vincristine, carboplatin, flush and heplock. The worst part, as always, is when the nurse "deaccesses" his port and takes off the tape holding it down. When we left, he fell asleep before we got on the freeway, after only demanding the Signing Time CD once.

15 minutes...

...of fame.

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2007/October/16/local/stories/03local.htm

Look at the picture. (You can read the article, too. It's about a sales tax extension for the library in Santa Cruz.)

Six down.....

Beckett had another fairly uneventful week at chemotherapy. It was our second week of just getting vincristine so he didn't have such a long day. In fact we rescheduled it so that I could take him after school and save my sick days for the upcoming months.

Beckett is starting to realize where he is going so he starts to say "Owie" when we go in to have his port accessed. He's a trooper though and only cries for a second.

This week we start back up on both the chemo drugs so we are back to long appointments. John is taking him this week and I'll take him the following week. Luckily, Grandma Pat is coming for a visit and she is going to go with us. Having another person there will make it much easier. So we only have four weeks to go until our two week break. We start up again right before Thanksgiving so our chemo that week will be on Wednesday instead of Thursday.

Beckett is also having an evaluation for physical therapy Monday, as the result of leftover preemie issues. He's just a bit behind on some stuff like jumping and running. I think it might be a bit genetic because my mom tells stories of me hiding behind doors trying to jump when I was his age and John is not the world's most coordinated person.

Otherwise Beckett is doing great. He's talking up a storm, chasing the poor, patient cat and calling his cousin in England (who owes us call, by the way).