Being Marked

Adam has endured many things since his diagnoses in November. From radioactive dye for the scans, to chemo, transfusions and many many labs. However today he got to endure one more pleasantry. getting marked for radiation.

He had his initial appointment today with the radiology department at the Barrett Center at University Hospital of Cincinnati. They placed him is a machine, much like that of a CT Scan, and placed him in position according to where his tumors are located and proceeded to mark his neck and chest for the EXTERNAL BEAM RADIATION THERAPY. He thought they were actually going to use a needle with ink, similar to tattooing, but they used a sharpie...a black magic marker! I thought that was funny. So now he has these little black x's on his neck chest and belly.

He also had to have an Effimask molded today. This mask has to be worn during the treatment so that the parts of his body (Head, eyes, mouth) that are not affected by the cancer do not get radiation. This will prevent radiation burns and/or other possible damage to health cells. This process was quite interesting as well. It looked like a piece of plastic mesh that the technician placed in hot water, then put over his head, clamping it down to the table. After about ten minutes, WA LA, they had a mold of his face that they will created the mask with.

The actual treatments will begin next Thursday and will last for 10-14 days straight (Not counting weekends). So another turn in his road to recovery has begun.

School days!

Adam returns to school today. He has been asking to go back for a couple of weeks and we were waiting for him to be finished with chemo, now seemed the appropriate time. We had a meeting with his school counselor, nurse, school administration, and his school interventionist on April 16th. The school has a 504 in place for Adam and hopefully this will help with his re-introduction to his classes. We still have to watch for infection and we have several weeks of radiation to do so he will be in and out of school. The school knows what we will have to be doing and they are willing to work within the 504 to help him and us as he returns to school. He has been seeing several of his classmates and is looking forward to seeing more of them now that he is returning.

We are hoping that he can get right back into his classes and do well. It has been a struggle to get him to do schoolwork until we had the home bound instructor start working with him. I am confident that he will do fine. A lot of his returning to school is to try to get him back to his normal life.

It is hard to think that this is almost over. I know that it hasn't been long, relatively speaking, but sometimes......it feels like it has been an eternity. When I think back to late November when he was first diagnosed and we didn't know if/how he was going to manage.....he has just amazed me with how well he has done. I've told him often that it is because of the prayers that have gone up for him from all around the U.S. that have sustained him and helped him to get through this. None of us could have gotten through this with the help of our friends and extended family. Of course, we have had amazing doctors and nurses who have helped us along the way and we definitely appreciate them. Even when Adam didn't want to do something, Dr. Raj would just explain why we needed to do it and Adam would do it.

I can't say that it hasn't been difficult watching him go through all that he has gone through. It has been very difficult for his dad and I to watch him go through chemo and not be anxious about him. He has just about finished this chapter and is ready to start a new one.

Amazing Day!

Today was another long and tiring day at Children's Medical Center. Scans, X-rays, Blood work, more scans, and clinic. But it ended with news that we have been praying for since November when Adam was first diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkins. Let me see if I can get the exact words of his oncologist...

"From the preliminary reports of the scans today we see no live spots, which means there is no active cancer cells currently in the areas that previously were active. So from these initial reports we can report that his cancer is currently in remission. This does not mean that there are not tumors, as the tumors in his neck are still there in the lymph nodes and have not shrunk from the last scans, but they are currently inactive. The tumors in his chest area are calcified. There are only two "live" spots showing any indication of activity and these we think are from the infection he had three weeks ago and is not cancer activity."

Adam showed little emotion, but then he has showed little emotion from the onset, that is just his personality. He will still have to undergo the radiation which our first "simulation" is set for April 23rd, but this is just an added deterrent to the cancer and hopefully it will remain in remission. Once radiation is complete, then the scans and tests will be completed again and then the doctors will then determine the next course of action, if any.

Today was an amazing day, and an amazing relief, and proof of our Amazing God.

Continue to pray for continued good news!!

Home Again

Well, Adam is back home and back doing the things he enjoys. hanging out with friends, working on cars, and being a teen age boy. His chemo session went well, and he came over to dad's for a few days and now we await his tests and scans that are scheduled on the 15th of April to show us what our next step is.

Chances are that they will schedule the radiation within a few weeks. We continue to pray that this is the last of the chemo.