Journal History

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Thursday, May 17, 2007 8:33 AM CDT

Wow can you believe this, I have not updated in months. Well you know, no news is good news. Benjamin is doing great, and is counting the days until summer break. He is playing baseball again this year and this year it is kid pitch. This is a whole new form of baseball for him since the last 2 years has been pitching machine. Before his first game last Saturday, Benjamin asked me can the pitcher hit you with the ball. Hmmmmmmm, I had to tell him yes but it would only be an accident. Well wouldn't you know, his second at bat he gets beaned. I was so proud of him, he just shrugged himself a couple times and then ran down to firstbase....

Oh by the way Ben's first came was a rout, they won 15-1.

Well take care and i promise I will update again soon....

Have a great SUMMER!!!!!!!

Monday, February 12, 2007 12:31 AM CST

Happy Valentines Day!!!!!!!! For some.......

First off, I am so sorry that there has been such a huge delay in updating Benjamin's website but like they always say no news is good news. Benjamin is doing real well except some minor issues that we are dealing with. We had to seek a Psych. Coun. for Benjamin as he has been having some real issues and they think his problems are Radiation related. Benjamin received 31 doses of Radiation to his head and neck region and now we are having so psych. issues. Benjamin has a short fuse here lately and we are getting real concerned with everything he is going through. I will keep everybody posted with his condition.

Well how is everyone liking the subzero temps. I am not. Anybody have a place in Florida I can hang out for a few days. I hate cold weather. Benjamin is not liking the freeze either. Ever since his treatments he does not tolerate extreme heat or cold. Before Cancer you could not get Benjamin in the house, now I can't get him to go outside at all. In the winter and hot summer he becomes a Hermit.

Benjamin has been pretty busy over the last month or so. We have been to the Monster Truck Show thanks to Make-a-Wish, Disney on Ice and Kids-n-Kamp functions. He is doing ok with his school work. Benjamin hates school with a passion. He dreds it. Since August that has been our #1 problem, school. When his mind is set there is not much we can do. Homework wow, going to war would probably be easier. What a job, sitting down everynight with Benjamin and doing homework. Benjamin needs a lot of praise to get anything done.

Well I hope everybody is doing well and i hope everyone a Happy Valentines Day.

Take care and I will try to post soon......

Sunday, December 17, 2006 9:44 PM CST

HOHOHO Merry Christmas to one and all!!!!! Well first off I am so sorry it has been so long from the last journal update. Well there has just been to much stuff going on in our house. But that is something for later!!!!! So how has everyone been? Well to start off with Benjamin had to have surgery last week. Benjamin is doing good, the surgery was of his mouth. The radiation that he had to receive has really screwed up his gums and teeth. They had to pull 5 teeth, cap 2 teeth. Benjamin is still having some soreness from the surgery but other than that he is doing really well. So is everybody all ready for Christmas, well my kids are... They are counting the days for the big fat jolly guy! I thank God for every day for giving me another Christmas with Benjamin. From the DX I never thought I would still be celebrating Christmas with my fun loving boy. I just wish I could give the kids the Christmas they would love to see. Lots of things have been happening. Benjamin has finally grown just a tad. He has to get an injection every night of growth hormones and synthroid (pill). The radiation has destroyed his growth capabilites. He is a trooper, he never complains about anything he just keeps doing everything we ask of him. He has always been such a great fighter never complaining about anything. We told Benjamin last week he had to have surgery and he just said ok. It does scare him, he always ask what happens if I die in surgery. Well I think every child has a scarey feeling about surgery, I know I do and I am an old man. Well you all have a great holiday season. I just can't believe it is back around again, man it needs to slow down a little I am getting old. If you all could please send Benjamin a guest book entry, he really enjoys reading his guestbook, it would be great to get some Holiday letters for him to read. But please Santa if you are reading this if Benjamin is on your naughty list please break it to him easy. Well everyone take care I need to get back to The Polar Express with the kids. I have never seen this movie and I now think I know why, it is a very strange movie!!!!!!

Merry Christmas and GOD Bless everyone....

Thank you Father for sending your Son Jesus to be born on this day.

Monday, October 16, 2006 1:13 PM CDT

Well everyone I don't know what to say, I have been so busy I have not had a chance to update. You know what they say, no news is good news. Well Benjamin is doing really well except we have had some minor issues but hey Benjamin is tough. Benjamin has been back in school now for about two months now and still hating every second of it, LOL... We have a lot of things going on and he still finds the time to play. Benjamin is having some problems with his right ear again so we are going to have to call his ENT doctor again to see if we can get him in to see him. Benjamin's growth hormones injection that he receives every night has been increased again for the third time, but hey he grew 3cm. it is not much but he grew. Way To Go Benjamin.... Well other than that benajmin is having a lot of fun, I will try and post again here real soon, I promise it will be quicker than the last time I posted. Take care everyone and God Bless You for keeping up with Benjamin on his road to recovery.

Saturday, August 5, 2006 9:27 PM CDT

Good evening everybody..... First off thanks for all your prayers during the week up to Benjamin's MRI. What great news, Benjamin is still cancer free, woohoo.... We are here at Fort Rapids for the second time in two months, we love this place. Benjamin is just having a great time running and swimming and playing with his brother. Everything has been going pretty good this summer, he just plays and rides his bicycle and play with his friends. It is so great to see Benjamin just playing like an 8 year old should be. 4 years ago I thought I would never see this day, Benjamin 4 years later playing like nothing ever happend. Well once again thank you so much for being such great prayer warriors, because with out all of you I am not sure if daddy would have made it. Well you all I have a great rest of the summer. I know Benjamin is starting to bum, because school is just right around the corner once again. He told me he would rather kiss his brother than go back to school. WOW, that means he just despises school if he is willing to kiss his brother. What a stinker!!!! Good night everyone and have a great new week....

Jesus had no servants, yet they called Him Master. Had no degree, yet they called Him Teacher. Had no medicines, yet they called Him Healer. Had no army, yet kings feared Him. He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world. He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him. He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today. Feel honoured to serve such a Leader who loves us. HAVE A BLESSED HOLY WEEK! If you believe in God and in Jesus Christ His Son..

If you believe in Jesus pass that on....

Love the Thomas Family

Thursday, June 22, 2006 8:07 AM CDT

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GREAT NEWS!!!!!!!
Benjamin's MRI just came back....
ALL CLEAR, No Sign Of Cancer
Thank you to all our prayer warriors...
3 YEARS REMISSION....
WAY TO GO BENJAMIN, DADDY LOVES YOU BUDDY....
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Hello Friends and Family of Benjamin.... Time for prayers!!!!!! Benjamin will be going in Thursday July 27 for his MRI. We need all our prayer warriors.

Well so sorry to be so behind with his updates, well you know what they say "no news is good news". Well everything has been going pretty good with Benjamin so far this summer. We have been living at the pool this summer, my kids are water babies. I have never seen kids that want to swim everyday. Benjamin just finsihed another year of baseball. He loves playing baseball, he has a natural bat swing but he is lacking size. That is why he is taking growth hormone injections. The radiation therapy he had to have destoyed his Thyroid and his putitay gland so he is lacking hormones. Speaking of size, Benjamin is also signed up for football this fall, oh I hope I made a smart move he is so tiny. Benjamin has been begging me for two years to play football. I decided that he is ready to play football, I know that he has the mentallity to play it. He asked me the other day if he can hit them hard enough to break there legs. I think he will be able to hold his own.

We have all stayed busy this summer, but we have a few more things to do before they go back to school. Benjamin is not looking for that anytime soon, he hates school more than anything I know. He has a tutor in school because since his radiation to his skull he has been having some learning problems. Benjamin did end up doing well in 2nd. grade this year, I hope it moves right with him to the 3rd. grade. School is righ around the corner again. I need to get alll the things done before it ets back here. Well everyone I hope you are all haveing a great summer. Thank you for stopping by and checking up on Benjamin. I hope I can be a little more speedy on his journal updates. It just has been a busy summer, sorry for the delay. Well everyone take care and I will send and update as soon as I hear back from his MRI.

PLEASE keep Benjamin in your prayers....

Benjamin ask me to ask people who visit to sign his guestbook, he loves to read his entries. He will sit back and read them all by himself. So please if you can please sign his book so we can keep him up on his reading skills.

Take Care!!!!!!!!!

Love the Thomas Family......

Friday, June 9, 2006 10:44 PM CDT

Well hello everyone, we are coming to you from a great new place in Columbus, ohio. It is called Fort Rapids an indoor waterpark. Wow what a awesome place to be, there is so much stuff to do here besides swim. Well of course we all know that daddy found the bar, now come on where else would a daddy be. I also had to spend a ton of money in the huge 5,000 sq. ft game room, wow games everywhere. Well everyone I just wanted to let everyone know to please keep Benjamin in your prayers, on June 21 Benjamin will be going be going into Children's hospital for an MRI as a yearly check-up. It starts to worry daddy until we get the all clear, can you blame me.... Well I need to run getting late and I need to be back up again early for another round of waterpark fun. Take care, please add Benjamin to your prayers....

If anyone wants to check out this new an awesome indoor waterpark, well here you go the website is just below. Check it out this place is awesome!!!!!!!

You might have to copy and paste....
www.fortrapids.com

P.S. Thank you Joey for helping us out the PASA Travel Soccer Team. Wow what a great way to relax and just have fun after the awesome soccer season we had this year. Thanks again Joey G.

Thursday, June 1, 2006 11:47 AM CDT

Wow, I am so sorry for the big delay in Benjamin's journal. Well no news is good news. Well we have been doing pretty good , well most of us. Benjamin has another yearly scan coming up in June, please pray for Benjamin that everything comes out ok. Last month Benjamin started on Growth Hormones, he is not to big on it since they are injection. But he is my little hero and is taking all his shots like a man. I just pray that everything works out ok with these injections. There are some side effects we have to watch out for. Only 5 more days, that's right the kids ony have 5 more days of school then summer break is upon us, woohoo. Benjamin has been counting the days to summer break since day 1. Yes from the first day of school he has been asking when summer break going to be here. What a little stinker. Benjamin has been having some difficulties in school but manages to pull through them. He has been in IEP all year. That is an in school tutor. In the beginning he did not want to do it, but it has grown on him. Well everyone take care, I hope to update here reall soon. Like I said his scans are coming so I will have an update for sure when I get the news. Please pray for clear scans..

Thursday, January 26, 2006 4:19 PM CST

Hello everybody, sorry for taking so long to update Benjamin's journal. Benjamin has been doing so well we have just forgotten to do a journal update. Benjamin has had a couple episodes that landed him in the ER, but since then he has been doing really well. Just keep praying, Benjamin will be out of chemo 3 years this coming May. WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!! My superhero. Benjamin is just asking for some snow, he wants to go sled riding and we haven't had enough snow this winter to even try sledding. Hopefully before the winter is over I can get him out sledding atleast once. Well thank you for checking up on Benjamin, sorry for taking so long to update. Take care, and may GOD bless you through out your daily activities....

Wednesday, October 26, 2005 9:32 AM CDT

Hey everyone, just sending a quick update. This week has been a little rough, with Dad, Emily and Benjamin all being sick. UUUGGGHHH!!!!! We hate being sick.... Besides being sick, everybody has being having a great time. Mom and her best friend Tia(who by the way is moving to Texas), went to the Amish country and have some alone time and SPEND MONEY, while dad volunteered to watch our children plus her 3 children, who says dad's can't be nice...... This weekend hopefully if everyone is feeling better, we will be heading to Cincy, Ohio for a big soccer tournament. Our daughter Emily plays select travel soccer has us driving all over the state of Ohio. Then we will be back on Sunday night just in time to prepare for a new week of school. Monday the 31st is our Beggars night for Trick-or-Treat oooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All the kids are ready, but right now we only have one costume, I think we need to get into gear and get there costumes..... Then on Nov. 3rd we are all off to this huge indoor water park with our family plus Tia's family (who by the way is moving to Texas) What so great about Texas!!!! Oh well never mind about Texas, we are going to have so much fun in that water park. If you know my kids you well know that they are all water babies..... Emily and Benjamin have been going off Diving Boards since they were 4 years old.

Here is a picture of Benjamin off the Diving Board...

Also Benjamin's First Trading Card, Lookout Big Leagues...



Well I hope everyone is doing well, and please keep Benjamin your prayers. We will try to update more often. Benjamin wanted me to tell Alma hello.........

Wednesday, October 26, 2005 9:25 AM CDT

Hey everyone, just sending a quick update. This week has been a little rough, with Dad, Emily and Benjamin all being sick. UUUGGGHHH!!!!! We hate being sick.... Besides being sick, everybody has being having a great time. Mom and her best friend Tia(who by the way is moving to Texas), went to the Amish country and have some alone time and SPEND MONEY, while dad volunteered to watch our children plus her 3 children, who says dad's can't be nice...... This weekend hopefully if everyone is feeling better, we will be heading to Cincy, Ohio for a big soccer tournament. Our daughter Emily plays select travel soccer has us driving all over the state of Ohio. Then we will be back on Sunday night just in time to prepare for a new week of school. Monday the 31st is our Beggars night for Trick-or-Treat oooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All the kids are ready, but right now we only have one costume, I think we need to get into gear and get there costumes..... Then on Nov. 3rd we are all off to this huge indoor water park with our family plus Tia's family (who by the way is moving to Texas) What so great about Texas!!!! Oh well never mind about Texas, we are going to have so much fun in that water park. If you know my kids you well know that they are all water babies..... Emily and Benjamin have been going off Diving Boards since they were 4 years old.

Here is a picture of Benjamin off the Diving Board...

Also Benjamin's first trading Card, look out Big Leagues...



Well I hope everyone is doing well, and please keep Benjamin your prayers. We will try to update more often. Benjamin wanted me to tell Alma hello.........

Wednesday, October 26, 2005 8:49 AM CDT

Hey everyone, just sending a quick update. This week has been a little rough, with Dad, Emily and Benjamin all being sick. UUUGGGHHH!!!!! We hate being sick.... Besides being sick, everybody has being having a great time. Mom and her best friend Tia(who by the way is moving to Texas), went to the Amish country and have some alone time and SPEND MONEY, while dad volunteered to watch our children plus her 3 children, who says dad's can't be nice...... This weekend hopefully if everyone is feeling better, we will be heading to Cincy, Ohio for a big soccer tournament. Our daughter Emily plays select travel soccer has us driving all over the state of Ohio. Then we will be back on Sunday night just in time to prepare for a new week of school. Monday the 31st is our Beggars night for Trick-or-Treat oooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All the kids are ready, but right now we only have one costume, I think we need to get into gear and get there costumes..... Then on Nov. 3rd we are all off to this huge indoor water park with our family plus Tia's family (who by the way is moving to Texas) What so great about Texas!!!! Oh well never mind about Texas, we are going to have so much fun in that water park. If you know my kids you well know that they are all water babies..... Emily and Benjamin have been going off Diving Boards since they were 4 years old.
Here is a picture of Benjamin off the Diving Board...

Thursday, September 29, 2005 8:39 PM CDT

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY BENJAMIN!!!!!!!!!

I am thrilled to say, yea, we made it to another birthday! I know that we are truely blessed that we can celebrate another birthday. It has been 3 years and 59 days since Ben's diagnosis right before his fifth birthday. He is at this time a happy, healthy, energetic little boy! We will be having his birthday party next weekend (mom's work schedule, yuck) I just wanted to type a fast note! I will update soon!

God Bless,
The Thomas Family

Tuesday, September 13, 2005 9:23 AM CDT

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Happy Birthday Benjamin
September 29 2005
************************
It has been 3 years since Benjamin was DX with cancer. I was wandering if anyone would love to send Benjamin a Birthday card. Please lets make this a very HAPPY Birthday....... We are so glad to see Benjamin smiling with another birthday.... If anyone would love to send a card please send it to 7332 Arborlee Dr. Reynoldsburg, Ohio 43068.
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Way To Go Benjamin, Happy Birthday...
We Love You!!!!!
*************************************

Wow,

The entire rest of the summer flew by and I didn't update. I am sorry. I have good intentions, but seem to always fall short. The few days that I am not working are filled with cleaning and laundry! (sigh) We got through the rest of July and most of August without any problems. It got a little crazy at the end of August though. One night Jeff had chest pain and had to go to the hospital. He had a treadmill stress test that he flunked, so they took him in to have a heart catheterization. He has one vessel that is 50locked and the other 2 are fine. He has already lost some weight and now has to take zocor, a cholesterol pill. Other than that he is doing ok. A week later, Ben was complaining of his leg hurting. He told me that he thought he hit it on the trampoline, so I didn't think much more about it. The next day though, it got progressively worse, and by that night he refused to walk on it. He was lying on the couch and I went over to check on him and he was burning up! His temp was 102 and he looked miserable. I looked at his leg and he had a baseball sized reddend area over his knee with red streaks all the way up his leg. I called his pediatrician and she told me to get him to the ER. Just like a bad dream, we went off to the ER at 11:00pm. Needless to say he got admitted with a staph infection. He had to stay in the hospital 4 days. The infection had nothing to do with his cancer, but it is always a l;ittle scary. He is doing fine now.

School is in full swing. Ben started second grade this year. It is also his first year for his IEP (individual education plan). Basically, he is in special education, but this is the new way to say it. He is getting help with reading and writting. He seems to be doing ok. He was upset last week and ran upstairs crying because he doesn't want to be in a special class. How do you explain to a 7 year old that we are just thankful he's alive? He doesn't understand the magnitude of what damage we had to do to him to save him! Chemo, radiation, bad cells, good cells, it just doesn't make sense to him. He just wants to be "normal" like everyone else. Sometimes it just breaks my heart. It's seems so unfair that his tiny little body has had to go through so much. We will just have to give him all the support that he needs.

This fall everyone is playing soccer. Dillon and Ben are having a good time. Emily is playing travel ball again and doing great. She is also playing fall softball.

Emily started the 3rd grade and Dillon started Kindergarten. Today, Zoey starts pre-school. It is truely chaotic around here, but I guess I wouldn't know it any other way! Ihope that everyone is having a great fall. Thanks for checking up on us!!

The Thomas Family

Tuesday, July 12, 2005 7:36 AM CDT

Hello everyone,

Well, things are still crazy here at the Thomas household. Two weeks ago we got a new rottweiler. She is very cute and energetic!!! I forgot how much energy a puppy has! She also likes to chew, A LOT!!! I think she has already gotten to three pairs of shoes. Her toys just aren't as exciting as the kids summer sandels. Overall, she's doing ok. She's getting big already! I will have Jeff post some pictures.

All the kids are good. Emily continues to have multiple softball games a week. (A double header on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then a tournament on the weekend that consists of 3 games on Saturday and ususally 2 games on Sunday!!) We finally have this Saturday off, but Emily was invited to play in a 4 on 4 soccer tournament. She has 4 games on Saturday. So much for time off:) Ben just got done with his baseball season. He did a great job. His age group plays machine pitch and he hit the ball everytime up this season!!! He also played a mean second base!!! Dillon finished t-ball (which is a hoot) Zoey continues to live a the ball field. She also has learned to "swim" with her arm floaties on. She loves it. She just goes running and jumps right in!

Everything else is about the same. All the kids are running around healthy and happy! I hope that everyones summer continues to be fun and exciting!!

The Thomas'

Thursday, June 9, 2005 9:03 PM CDT

Hello everyone,

Thanks for checking on us. We have good news. All the scans and x-rays came back CLEAN!!!! NO CANCER!!! This morning I took Ben to his yearly MRI. It can get a little scary because his last one was a year ago. He did great! It still amazes me that he isn't afraid of needles. Thank god for emla cream, or magic cream as we call it in our house. It's truely amazing. It is a topical cream that numbs the skin and he doesn't feel a thing. It was funny because they asked him if he needed to go to the "special proceedure room" where they would have to strap him down to get in his iv. I told them that he did need to be strapped down. Then the sent over three people to hold him down to start his iv. I told them, "you won't need anyone to help you, he will just sit there." When the nurse went to put in the iv they were all amazed that he just sat there calmly and put his am out. He also likes to watch them stick him, which also freaked them out. I guess they need to make it up to the Hem/Onc floor more often. We produce tough kids!!! After they hooked him up to the monitors in went the happy juice and out he went. He woke up fairly well this time. They used a different medication than before and he woke up much better. He was only "grumpy" for about thirty minutes (compared to the usual 3-4 hours). He did complain of double vision for about 20 minutes, but that went away fairly quickly. He also wasn't as unsteady on his feet this time. In the past I have had to follow him around for hours so that he wouldn't fall and hurt himself. He really did walk around like he was totally drunk. This time he came home and went swimming!!! Praise God for the short time of side effects. I also want to thank our former minister, Con Wolf, for coming to the hospital and staying with me the whole time. God Bless you Con, you rock!!

Thank you for everyone for there thoughts and prayers. We really appreciate it!!

The Thomas Family

Tuesday, June 7, 2005 1:23 PM CDT

Hello everyone,

Well, summer is in full swing here!!! Since school has been ut last Thursday we have had 10 different friends and 4 overnight stays. Currently I have my four children and four visiting children running around here!!! I must say, something is wrong with me, becasue I LOVE IT!!! My husband isn't as enthusiastic as I am. I just look out side and see all these children and thank God we are so blessed. We have a house, a car, food, friends, and God willing, our health. God is good!

Today Jeff had to go to a spine doctor and get injections int ohis back for a ruptured disk. He will be on steriods and pain medicine for the next month. He has to have therapy twice a week for the next two months to try to avoid back surgery. He has been having some pain for awhile now.

Well, the big day is this Thursday. Benjamin has his yearly MRI and a chest x-ray on Thursday morning. Our prayer is for clean scans and NO CANCER!!! Please pray for him and for Jeff and I. I try not to get anxious, but it is very difficult to keep emotions in check! I know God is in control and I put my faith in Him. But we are calling on all our prayer warriors to remember us this Thursday!

I will update as soon as I know any info. Hopefully we will now by Thursday night!

Other than that, everything is status que.

God Bless,
The Thomas Family

Thursday, May 19, 2005 9:08 PM CDT

Hello everyone,

It is with a heavy heart that I write to you tonight. It's not Benjamin or any of the other kids, they are all fine. We had to have our beautiful, wonderful 9 1/2 year old rotweiller put to sleep tonight. As you can imagine, it was very emotional for all of us. About 6 weeks ago Sarabi (Sa-rah-bee) she got her name from The Lion King, Sarabi was Simba's mothers name, started limping. I took her to the vet and he thought that she had arthritis. We gave her a pill similar to vioxx. It didn't really help, but she didn't get any worse. About a week ago, she quit using that leg all together. On Tuesday we noticed that she had some swelling in that leg. Jeff took her to the vet and he took x-rays. She had bone cancer. It had also spread to her spine and lungs. We decided to bring her home to be with us until she got worse and we needed to pt her to sleep. Well, later became sooner. She started urinating blood the next day and could barely stand up. We didn't want her to suffer, so we took her tonight. Obviously the kids took it hard, but I think they have done a great job coping. We were all with her when the doctor came in. He just gave her an injection in her vein and she went to sleep. It was very peaceful. Thank you for letting me ramble on. It is always hard to lose a pet. They become a very special part of your family. We will miss her. She was a wonderful dog.

It has continued to remain quite busy here. We went to Marietta this past weekend for Emily's soccer tournament. On Sunday we had a game from 12:00-1:00. We then rushed back to Columbus because she had a softball game at 3:00 and then Dillon had a t-ball game at 6:00. Luckily Ben's baseball game got rained out on Saturday, so he didn't have to miss a game.

I have good news! I had Ben's appointment at school on Tuesday morning and they approved his IEP. He will be getting help in reading and writting, which he needs desperately. His math scores are ok at this time, so he will have math in his normal class. I don't know if I explained last time, but a portion of the handbook was left out that qualified him under traumatic brian injury (TBI). Radiation to the head is inclusion criteria, but the Ohio Board of Education left out that part in the new updated version of the handbook. Well, that has since been changed back. I don't know if it was an error or if they changed it and than got too many complaints, but PRAISE GOD that it got changed back!!! We decided that it would be best to start it all fresh next year. I just pray that this is at least part of the answer!

More good news!!! Only 9 more days of school left!!!! I can't wait. I'm really sick of homework!! It will be nice to just relax a little. No more yelling at bedtime and papaers to worry about. Needless to say trying to keep track of library books! YIKES!!!

Also, a little boy named Mitch www.caringbridge.org/oh/mitchgreegor is on Dillon's t-ball team. He has ALL. I had met his mom once and we have seen them at some Kids-N-Kamp functions, but much to our surprise, he and Dillon are on the same t-ball team!! Way to go Tigers!! They are so cute out there on the field! I love watching them, it's such a hoot!!

Ben has his MRI scheduled for June 9th. This will be his first MRI in a year. Please keep him in your prayers. I will update again before then. Other than that, the rest of us are doing fine. I hope that all of you are enjoying the spring!! Thanks for checking on us!!

God Bless,
The Thomas Family

Tuesday, May 3, 2005 11:04 AM CDT

Hello everyone,

As always, it has been crazy at our house the past couple of weeks. Benjamin is finally walking "close" to normal. He externally rotates his foot a little still, but isn't limping as much. He started baseball and had his first game this past weekend. He did a great job! He had two hits and even threw someone out at first base!!!! Way to go Ben. Emily continues to be busy with soccer and softball. She has two soccer games and two practices a week and three softball practices a week. She will start her first softball game the last weekend in May. Dillon had his first t-ball game cancelled Saturday and missed his game last night (story to follow:) Zoey continues to be drug around Pickerinton and the I-270 loop!!!

This past weekend I was honored and privileged to go to Mom's Retreat Weekend with Kids N Kamp. If you don't know about the organization please check out their web page at: www.kidsnkamp.org They are a wonderful organization that meets the needs of every family member that has been touched with childhood cancer. Not just the cancer child, but mom, dad and siblings too! We went to beautiful Amish country and stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast. WOW, is the food good!! I ate way too much!! It is always a wonderful time to get together with mom's just like me that have children with cancer. We laugh a lot and cry a lot too! Every person's story is so unique, but we all have a common bond. Thank you Kids N Kamp (Bev, Bonnie and June you guys ROCK!!! I love you all!!!) One thing that makes Kids N Kamp stand out as compared to similar organizations, they continue to give help and support to the family and siblings even if the cancer child passes away. This is totally unique to these types of organitations. Please consider a donation to this most giving, generous, special group that touch so many lives. (We are having a garage sale to raise money the week of May 8th. If you have any items that you would like to donate, please e-mail me at thom26@hotmail.com and I will be happy to pick the items up.

Now, as Paul Harvey would say, here's the "rest of the story". Zoey stayed at my parents house this past weekend while I was gone. Dad brought her back Sunday afternoon and she was acting fine. I went to work Monday morning like usual. Jeff called and said that something was wrong with Zoey. That morning Dillon came downstairs and told Jeff that Zoey was crying and wouldn't get out of bed. He went upstairs to get her and she refused to stand up. She kept telling him that her leg was "owie". After a while of her refusing to walk he called me. I told him to just bring her to work and I will have one of our ER docs see her. When he got here she walked a little, but was limping. She also had a fever of 100.4 We did a rapid strep that came back negative and did some x-rays of her leg. The radiologist called back and said the he wanted a different view closer to her knee (this is where she said "ouch" anytime anyone touched her.) So we went back and had more x-rays done. The radiologist told us that it was broken and that she would have to go to Children's ER to have an pediatric orthopedic surgeon set her leg in a cast. When Jeff left, the doctor told him that she would have to be in a spika splint (which is a splint that goes all the way up over her hips and would look like she had shorts on. They cut a hole in the region where pottying needs to be done.) I couldn't leave work so Jeff left and went to Children's. Well, the long and short of it is, they decided that she didn't break her leg. They said, "we don't know why she is limping?" So home they went. Last night she had a fever of 104. So, we are continuing to give her tylenol, motrin, and just are watching her carefully. Jeff says that she seems to be walking ok today.

I just want to say thank you to my awesome husband for creating this awesome web page!! Isn't it COOL!! Thanks honey for all the hard work you put into it!

Well, I need to go now. Thank you for checking on us and for continuing to pray for us!

God Bless,
Tha Thomas Family

Thursday, April 21, 2005 8:37 PM CDT

Hello everyone,

We were privilaged and honored to spend some time with the Jones at Ben's calling hours. We got to share stories and memories with his family. He looked so peaceful lying there with all his favorite toys and games around him. I'm thankful he is in no more pain and is CANCER FREE! Please remember to keep his family in your prayers.

Ben and Emily went to the calling hours with us and handled it very well. Unfortunately, in the reality of childhood cancer, this awful disease takes ones we love. I feel like is a good opportunity for discussion and openess. They both ask those child like questions that are so difficult to answer. Benjamin has been asking us more questions about death and dying. We just try to answer them the best we know how. He continues to ask, "If my cancer comes back, will I die?" It feels like someone is wripping out a piece of your heart everytime he asks. I just pray that I never have to have that discussion! On a good note! He had his clinic check up and all they say that he looks great! His lab values are all normal:
WBC: 8.3 (5-10)
Hemoglobin: 14.2 (12-16)
Platelets 324 (200-400)
ANC: 3984
His liver function, kidney function, and electrolytes are all normal. His thyroid function test are as close to normal as they have been for a long time. He continues to take synthroid everyday. He has been swallowing pills for about a year now and it helps sooooo much!!

Also, he finally got his cast off. He rally limped for the first week, but is doing better this week. He has started baseball practice and is looking forward to his first game! The weather has been beautiful here. It is going to get a little could this weekend, but we won't complain!

Thank you for checking in on our family. We appreciate everyones love and support!

God Bless,
The Thomas Family

Friday, April 8, 2005 7:13 PM CDT

Dear Friends,

It with a heavy heart that I update our page. Benjamin Michael Jones went to be with our Father in Heaven, Thurday morning at 8:20 am. His parents said that he slipped into a coma the night before and went peacefully that morning with his family at his bedside. I can't even begin to imagine the pain and heartbreak they are going through at this time. Please pray for their family. His web page is www.caringbridge.org/oh/benjaminj His obituary is in the Columbus Dispatch today (Friday). Thank you for cheking on us. I will update about our Benjamin later.

Love,
The Thomas family

Saturday, March 26, 2005 7:10 PM CST

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!

HE HAS RISEN! HE HAS RISEN INDEED! PRAISE JESUS FOR HIS GLORIOUS LIFE, DEATH, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, HIS RESURRECTION!!!! WE HOPE THAT YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL, PEACE FILLED DAY WITH YOUR FAMILY AND LOVED ONES!!!

It has been status quo around here. Benjamin is doing much better walking with his cast and cast shoe. I think he gets his cast of this Friday (I have to check the calender). All the kids had a great time at our church's Easter egg hunt this morning. It is such a fun time and a refreshing start to spring (and hopefully warmer weather) We will be going to Newark to have dinner at Jeff's sisters house and then his niece, McKenzie and her best friend Brooke, will be coming back with us to spend 3-4 days here! That ought to be a hoot. To teenagers (they just turned 13), pray for us!!!!! Actually, they are both really good kids. We will have a great time!

Emily played in her first outdoor soccer tournament last weekend. Yes, we stood out in the freezing pouring rain. What sacrifices we make for our children! Her team did great! The won the tournament. Emily had a great time. Her team is so much fun and the parents are great! We always have a good time. She has a tournament in Marietta the middle of May. Her season starts the begining of April. She will also be playing on the 10U travel softball team. Ben will be playing basebal and Dillon will be playing t-ball. Zoey will be going to A LOT of games this spring!!

Well, that's it for us. Please keep Benajmin Jones and his family in your prayers. His cancer is progressing rapidly. He now sleeps most of the day and is on oxygen around the clock. Hospice has brought in a bed that he can stay in downstairs, which has helped a lot. His web adress is listed above.

We pray that everyone has a safe and Happy Easter.

God Bless,
The Thomas Family

Thursday, March 17, 2005 8:51 AM CST

HAPPY ST.PATRICK'S DAY!!!!!!!

Thank you to everyone that has checked on us and sent your words of encouragement. Benjamin is starting to feel a little better. He got his cast cut down now to below his knee. I was very excited because he was going to be able to walk and not use the wheelchair anymore. Well, his leg was in that cast for so long with his leg bent, he still couldn't walk for a couple of days. He was doing better yesterday and went to school without his wheelchair. He is still walking "weird", on the ball of his foot, but I finally don't have to carry him anymore!! He will have to have this cast on for another 4 weeks. Hopefully his bone will be healed by then and the cast can come off. Just in time for basball season!! He is really looking forward to playing again this season. He did a great job last year.

I had my meeting with the school psychologist last week. It did not go very well at all. She was very rude and unprofesional, not only to me, but to Ben's teacher as well. I spoke with the special education teacher that afternoon and she was very encouraging. I was going to do the "wait and see" approach, but the teacher went to the pricipal the next day and complained. He approached Jeff one day after school and said that he would like to talk to me about the whole incident. I have faith that it will all work out. It seems that only the psychologist is the problem. I will keep you all updated on any new developments. I feel like my life could be turned into a soap opera!!!

On a brighter note. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZOEY!!!! She will be three years old tomorrow! Can you believe it??? She has gotten so big. She waS only 4 months old whne Ben was diagnosed. She is talking in full sentences now and I can actually understand her most of the time. She loves to talk on the phone and the first thing she says is, "I go poopie on the potty". She is very proud that she goes on the potty like a big girl! I can't believe that for the first time in 8 years and 7 months (but who's counting) I don't have to by diapers!!!! WHOOOOOOO!!! Half of that time I had two in diapers. Zoey is really doing great. We have had no acidents. Enough of the bathroom talk!

Emily plays her first spring soccer outdoor tournament this weekend. I just pray it won't be too cold, windy, or rainy.

Thanks again for checking in on us!!! God Bless you!

The Thomas Family

Sunday, March 6, 2005 8:01 PM CST

Hello everyone,

Thanks for checking in on us and for all the new uplifting messages. It definatley is never a dull moment around here! Benjamin went to the orthopedic doctor on Friday. Jeff asked the doctor lots of questions regarding Ben's leg and could this be a side effect of the chemo or radiation he had? The doctor looked at Ben's x-rays and told Jeff if he didn't know that he had been treated for cancer he wouldn't have been able to tell it by looking at his x-rays!!!! Praise the Lord! He said his bones look like a normal 7 year olds. Isn't that great news! On top of that, next week he gets to go and get a new cast that is below his knee, so we will have no more wheelchair!!!!! It will be a cast that he can walk on with a cast shoe. This cast will be on another 4 weeks, but at least he can walk. My back is killing me from caring him every place.

I will write back next weekend after our doctor visit on Friday. Please keep our friends, the Jones', in your prayers. Their son, also named Benjamin, is continuing to show signs of his cancer progressing. I can't imagine what a stressful time this is. We have his web page link listed above.

Thank you for all of your prayers. I have a meeting with the school psychologist this Wednesday regarding Ben's plan of care.

God bless,
Sherri and family

P.S. Happy Birthday Daddy (Jeff), we love you!!!!

Thursday, February 24, 2005 9:26 AM CST

Hello Everyone,

I know it's been a while since I've updated. Jeff's incision has healed completely and doesn't have any more pain. Emily has broke her wrist since I last wrote! We went sled ridding at a church here in Pickerington. (It's a great sledding hill) Everyone was doing fine untill a little kid on one of those real heavy old fashion sleds with the wood seat and metal runners ran right into her. It got her right in the wrist. The good news is that the cast comes offf tomorrow! She has been able to still play her ndoor soccer. We just had to wrap her arm up like a mummy.

Last month we got to go to the Monster Truck Show, complements of Jody and Sean White. Benjamin just loves it!! We get treated like royalty! The kids got to go down in the arena and actually stand by the trucks and get their pictures taken! After walking around the arena we got to go to a private luxery box suite where there was all kinds of food and drinks. Not to mention suveniors all over the place!!!! It's like a little mini Christmas. The best part of the evening for the boys is the actual monster trucks themselves! Wow are they loud!! My favorite part of the evening is when all the drivers come up to the suite and sign autographs!!! All of the drivers a great with the kids and it just makes a fun night extra special! We want to thank Jody and Sean sooooo much for the wonderful time we had! Thank you , thank you, thank you!!

Well, as you know, if you kknow anything about our family, there is never a dull moment. Unfortunately, it isn't any different this week! On Tuesday I went to school to pick up Emily for a dentist appointment. The nurses room is right off of the office and when I walked in I heard crying that sounded like Benjamin. I kind of pooked my head in and there he was. The secretary, needless to say, was very surprized to see me standing there. I guess another little boy on the playground had jump off of the slide ladder and landed on Ben, who was the next in line. So, I gathered him up and took him home. I went ahead and took Emily to her appointment. When I got back home, Ben still refused to put any weight on his leg. the problem was that we only have one vehicle at this time (Jeff's transmission went out one his truck last Friday--- I know, we have the best LUCK!!!! ha ha) I had to go to Ben's parent teacher conference. After that, Jeff was able to take Ben to Children's close to home. Well, if you have been a hundred yards near a hospital or doctors office, you know it is just crazy right now. So, they had to sit there for hours. Luckily, they had taken his x-ray prior to him going back to see the doctor. Once they looked at the x-ray, they took him back. That's right, he has a spiral fracture of his tibia (which is the bigger of the two bones in your lower leg) It is also the weight bering bone. So, he is in a cast from his toes to his hip. I spent all day on the phone getting him a wheelchair. He has an appointment next week with the orthopedic, but he will probably be in his cat for six weeks. We have able to keep his pain under control with motrin. Today was going to be his first day at school with the wheelchair and cast, but we woke up to a couple inches of snow! We will try it all tomorrow. I'm not sure how he will be able to go to the bathroom (I have been talking to the wonderful school nurse, Tina, about all of the issues the school needs to deal with) Someone will have to go into the bathroom with him, because the cast is very heavy and it makes him unsteady when he's standing. He needs to be picked up and dropped off at school now, too. In general he's not in very much pain, which we are thankful for. I'm sure that the itching to come will not be fun!

On top off all this, Ben's teacher conference was very upsetting. Last year we had him tested to see how he was doing. At that time, he was doing ok. He was just a little behind his classmates. This year he started off well, but as the year has progressed, he is falling more and more behind. The special education teacher came to the confernece and was very nice and helpful answering all of my questions. She thinks that the school psychologist will want to re-test him again (even though he was just tested one year ago) and this will take 90 days for them to do all the testing and make their recommendations. I am going to try to fight this, because a three month delay is huge and totally unnecessary. Even though I know this is the best for him, I am having a hard time with it.

I just ask for you to pray for all of us during these times of change. I know that God is in control and He loves us and wants what's best for us. We just need to be faithful and trust in His sovereignty.

I will try to update more frequently on all that is going on. Thank you to all of our friends that check in on us. Thank you to all the new people who have recently left messages on the guestbook. Continue to keep Benjamin Jones in your prayers. He is having increasing symptoms. Please remember him and his family during this trying time.

God Bless,
The Thomas Family

Thursday, January 13, 2005 8:05 AM CST

Hello everyone!

Well, as usual, there is nothing boring about the Thomas house. Jeff was admitted to the hospital yesterday because one of his incision sites became hard, red, and swollen. It was also vey painful. The surgeon had him admitted for IV antibiotics. He had a CT scan last night to make sure there wasn't a hernia or an abcess. The CT scan was ok. He just has to be there for the antibiotics. The surgeon had to open up his incision, so now he has a hole in his abdomen that has to be packed two times a day! One more thing for me to do!!! (haha) Hopefully he will be feeling better soon.

Benjamin also had his follow up appointment on Tuesday. At this time, everyone seems to think that the small, pea sized, rock hard, lumps in his neck are lymph nodes that aren't draining well due to the radiation he had on his neck. I asked our nurse Stacey if we could get a MRI just to be safe and she said no problem. So, he should be getting an MRI at the end of this month, begining of next month.

We hope that everyone is staying dry. Thanks for checking in with us. God Bless.

Sherri

Monday, December 27, 2004 10:34 AM CST

Wednesday December 29th
PLEASE KEEP BENJAMIN IN YOUR PRAYERS

UPDATE ON BENJAMIN!

On Monday Jeff had Ben in the clinic because of his swollen lymph node. (see below) Stacey and Dr. Ranalli were very concered about his neck and wanted a CT scan right away. Unfortunately, they didn't have time (or felt the need to try) to use the magic cream on his arm for his iv and it took 5 people to hold him down. To make a long story short, we had to wait until yesterday morning at 10:30 to find out the results of the Ct scan. It took a long time because they wanted to have a couple different radiologist look at scans. It appears that the lymph nodes on the left side of his neck are ok, but there were some glands swollen on the right side of his face. They think that due to the radiation on the left side of his head and neck it shrunk all those glands, making it look like the glands on the right side of his face are bigger. At this point, he will have another check up in two weeks and then possibly an MRI. I will update if I recieve anymore news.

Have a wonderful and Blessed begining to the new year!!!





Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and enjoyed the holiday with their families. We were fortunate not to loose any power during the ice storm. It sure is beautiful here! It looks like everything is made of glass. Jeff's brother and his family still don't have any power!

It had been a little busy around here prior to Christmas. Jeff had been having severe abdominal pain, vomiting, and and he had been losing a lot of weight. It turned out to be gallstones, over 2 dozen of them!!! He had successful laproscopic surgery December 7th. He was sore for the first cople days, but it feeling much better now.

Benjamin has been dealing with another ear infection. This time it is in his left ear (which is his cancer ear). He is on oral antibiotics and ear drop antibiotics since last Tuesday. We took him to his pediatician instead of going to the clinic. (Since he has been in remission 19 months now, they encourage us to start transitioning his "normal" complaints to his doctor.) So, last week Jeff took him to our pediatricians office. Our doctor wasn't there, so we saw another doctor. She said that he had an ear infection, (which we weren't surprised at, because he was complaining of ear pain) but she kind of freaked out because there are two swollen lymph nodes in his neck. This is how his cancer originally presented. He has a follow up appointment today at the Heme/Onc clinic. I will update everyone on what they say today.

All the kids had a great Christmas! Now we are stuck opening all the rediculous packaging that drives me crazy!! I'm not sure why every toy piece has to be twisty tied in place with metal pieces? When I was little we opened the box and the toy fell out!

I hope that everyone has a good week and a great new year! I will let evryone know what they say at the clinic. Thanks for checking up one all of us! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and God Bless!

The Thomas Famliy

Friday, December 10, 2004 8:58 AM CST

Hello everyone,

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had our annual Thanksgiving dinner at my step fathers house and then we all stayed at Jeff's sister, Kelli's house. This was our 7th annual day after Thanksiving shopping spree! We always have such a blast!! We sing songs and embarass are selves as much as possible! We usually do a good job of that!

The kids are doing great. Benjamin had his three month check up with our nurse Stacey on Tuesday. Other than the fact he has only grown 4cm since September 2002, he is doing great. He has lost his two bottom teeth and one of his top teeth is loose. He had a chest x-ray and blood work which all came back fine. We thought that his round of scans were coming up this January, but it seems on his protocol that they aren't due until June. This makes me happy and anxious at the same time! This would mean that he would go a whole year before getting a new MRI. He doesn't have any complaints other than his chronic sinus infections, but cancer doesn't come out waving a red flag eiher. Jeff and I will have to talk about it some more and discuss it with Stacey and Dr. Ruymann. I'm sure if we really push it, we could get another scan done. Aother than that, Ben's doing great.

Jeff on the other hand, has had a couple of hard weeks. The week before Thanksgiving we had the stomach bug go around our house. Jeff got it right along with the kids, but his seemed to stay around longer. Well, after 3 weeks of nausea, vomitting, and 20# weight loss, he went to the ER where they found he had gallstones. That week he had an ultrasound and then went to see a surgeon. This past Tuesday (12/7) he had his gallbladder taken out. He is at home recovering and doing fairly well. His belly is all black and blue and his throat hurts from having the tube put down his throat, but overall he is doing fine.

Everyone else is doing fine. I hope that everyone is trying to enjoy the rush of the holiday season. Remember to stop and take time to reflect on what the true meaning of Christmas is and what is important! Jesus is the reason for the season!

God Bless,
Sherri

Wednesday, November 10, 2004 10:30 AM CST

Hello everyone!!!!!!

I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to update. As you can imagine, we are very busy.

With great sadness I want to share that Brittany Crabtree went to be with our Lord and Saviour last Wednesday November 3rd. Jeff and I had the opportunity to go to her beautiful funeral on Sunday. Please keep her parents, Anne and Damon, and her little brother, Drew, in your prayers. She is totally free of pain and is completely healed now.


Emily just got done with her first season of travel soccer. We are so proud of her. She did absolutley great! Benjamin is doing well, too. I am glad to report that he is doing so much better in school this year! He goes to a reading teacher that helps him during the day, but other than that, he's doing fine. He had an appointment with Dr. Zipf (his endocrinologist) last week. His thyroid counts are still a little low, so we had to increase his synthroid. He has a doctors appointment next week with ENT and a clinic appointment the week after that. He continues to run and play and be a happy kid. He did loose his first two bottom baby teeth. Of course, the tooth fairy came and left way too much money:) Dillon just had his 5th birthday and is enjoying pre-school. Zoey continues to be a little (naked) terror. She was schedulled to have her pictures taken this Friday, but she kept irritating the cat and he swatted her across the face and now she has a huge scratch mark and a bruise! Somethings never change.

We hope that everyone has a peaceful swing into the holidays. Remember, Jesus is the reason for the season. I know we all have many things to be thankful for. We are very blessed for all that we have.

God Bless you and your family this holiday season.
The Thomas family

Friday, September 17, 2004 7:55 AM CDT

***************************************
SPECIAL EDITION!!!!
Just wanted to let evryone know, our dear friend Brittany Crabtree passed away at the age of 11. She fought a courages 2 year battle with Ewing's Sarcome. Please keep her family in your prayers.
***************************************




Hello everyone,

I hope this letter finds you all healthy and happy. It has been a crazy start to the new school year, but we are finally getting into a routine. I am very excited to announce that Ben informed me that he decided that he wants to learn how to read! And to that I say, thank you Jesus! Last year in Kindergarden we had him tested to see if he needed an IEP (which stands for Individual Education Plan). After all the testing they decided that he didn't need one and that he wasn't anymore behind than any of the others in his class. He can be very stubborn and I new first grade was going to be much harder. He has greatly surprised us though! He gets out of bed and ready to go without the daily fights we had last year. He comes home and is willing to work on homework. He even likes to read his books that he brings home!! All these things were such a struggle last year on a daily basis. Maybe it is that he has matured some, maybe even tht he feels better and not so run down. I don't know, but we praise Jesus! He does have to go to extra reading from the reading teacher, but so do a lot of other kids. I am thankful for his change in attitude. What a great school we have in Pickerington. Tussing Elementary is the best!

Ben's health is doing fine. He did have a nasty ear infection at the start of school, but it is all cleared up now. Dr. Tobin (our ENT) says that his cancer ear looks great! It was the other ear with the infection! He has another clinic appointment coming up (we have made it to every three months now!) He continues to love to play outside with his friends and to fight non-stop with his brother. He has his 7th birthday on Septembe 29th!!!

Emily is in the full swing of her travel select soccer season. She has practice/games three nights a week. She has always loved school and is continuing to do well. Dillon started pre-school at Brice Christian Academy this past week and he loves it! Every night he sits down at the table and wants to do his "homework" too! Zoey continues to be a little hellion. This week she took an ink pen to my cream colored couch and markers to herself. She is starting to talk more, but wow! Now I know why you have children when your young!

At the end of August we went to family camp at Recreation Unlimited with Kids-N-Kamp. Even with the massive thunder storms that rolled in, we all had a great time! We love to go spend time with the other families that we've met throughout this trying, but humbling journey. We all have a special bond that we share. It was a great weekend to get away and just have fun. Kids-N-Kamp always spoil us. The kids came home with bags full of toys and presents.

We want to send out special prayer requests. One is for our good friends the Crabtree's. Their daughter, Brittany, has had a relapse of her Ewing's Sarcoma and it appears to be spreading quickly. She is in a lot of pain. We just pray for the doctors, nurses, and her parents to decide the best plan for her. Also, we want to Praie God for Benjamin Jones. He was given 2-4 months and he has surpassed that and is doing exceptionaly well with little signs of disease progression. We just pray for total healing of this precious little boy.

Thank you for continuing to pray for our family as well. It means so much to us. I hope that the change of season brings you a renewed spirit and that as we swing into the start of the holiday season you can be thankful for all that God has provided. It is in His name that we give thanks!

God Bless,
Sherri

Sunday, August 22, 2004 4:38 PM CDT

Hello everyone,

I can't believe it's been a month since I wrote last. Wow, the time sure does fly! I will update on what's been going on. First, Dillon got his cast off on Friday (it was just one day short of six weeks). His arm is still a little crooked, but the doctor says this is normal and he will have to "grow" into his curved arm. Emily just turned 8. I can't believe it! Yesteday I was just bringing her haome from the hospital. We had a huge party today (18 kids- yikes!) They had a great time swimming, doing crafts, and egg tossing! Zoey is a little pistol. All that red hair! She's starting to get potty trained. Benjamin is doing well. He has an appointment with ENT tomorrow. He has another ear infection in his tube ear (I know this because nasty, smelly, gross stuff is draining out of it).

School starts on Tuesday. (Jeff is jumping up and down doing the hallelujah dance) 2 down and 2 to go. Actually, 2 1/2 down. Dillon will be in pre-school 3 days a week (M-W-F) from 12:30 to 3:00. He is eally excited to go. So, is Emily. Ben on the other hand... oh well, just pray for us!

Next weekend we will be going to family camp at Recreation Unlimited with Kids-n-Kamp. We can't wait! This will be our first year. We can't wait to hang out with the Householders!

Benjamin is hanging in there. He now only has to go to the Heme/onc clinic every three months. Please keep our friends in your prayers; the Crabtree and Jones families. Both children have relapsed. Ben Jones web page is above if you want to send them a message.

I leave you, hoping you are filled with God's love, peace, and comfort. Luke 22:42 "Not my will, but yours be done."

God Bless,
Sherri and family

Tuesday, July 20, 2004 4:43 PM CDT

Hello everyone!
I know, I know, it has been forever since I have updated. Well, as most of you know, Benjamin's MRI was CLEAN!!!!! Praise the Lord for this most wonderful, awesome news! Every day is another small step towards reaching that 3 year goal, CURED! He is feeling fine. He just finished another round of anti-biotics for his "green googies". That poor kids sinuses run continuously. He had another appointment with Dr. Zipf, his endocrinologist, (a specialist in hormones). They said that he actually grew a litle bit! He is going to continue taking 75 mcg of synthroid every day and continue to see if his blood counts remain stable. Maybe he will continue to grow and not need the very pricey growth hormones!

Last weekend Jeff and I went the wedding of one of my good friends from college. We played ball together at OSU and alot of my teammates flew in from all over. We had a great time seeing everyone again. There reception was at the Hunungton Club in the OSU football stadium. We were having a great time, when I got a phone call from my sister, that Dillon was on his way to Children's in the ambulance. So, Jeff and I left the reception to meet them at Children's ER. The story goes something like this. The older kids were riding a little dirt bike around the house (like they usually do). Dillon went and sat on the bike and the older kids started it for him. There's only one problem with this. HE CAN'T RIDE IT ALONE!!!! He took off across the yard and down in the street and then hit the curb where he was ejected off the bike and flew about 12 feet! He landed on his arm and broke both lower bones (ulner and radius) in his right arm. Thankfully, this is not the arm that we suck our thumb, nor is his dominate hand. Other than the fact that he can't swim, he is doing fairly well. He has had to have multiple repeat x-rays to make sure his bones are growng back straight. The doctor said that his type of break has to go to surgery about 50f the time because it just doesn't grow straight. So far so good!! He has another set of x-rays tomorrow. The cast will be on 4-6 weeks. Actually, the first cast only made it 4 days. Why, you ask? He "accidentaly" fell in the pool. So, we had to have it re-done only 4 days after it was put on. Well gotta run company is here, I will update more later.

Monday, June 21, 2004 9:13 PM CDT

Hello everyone,

It's been a couple weeks since you heard from me. Sorry about that. I think I left off the week of Ben's MRI. Well, I didn't update because it didn't happen. There was a big mix up and the wrong sedation was ordered for Ben's test, so the anesthiologist decided to cancel the test and reschedule it. It is this Wednesday at 5:00pm. (more about that later)

On Sunday, we packed up and headed off to Lake Erie. A friend of mine, thank you Marie and Steve, that I work with, was gracious enough to let all of us stay at their lakeside condo in Port Clinton. We drove up late Sunday night and ran into some ferocious weather. Jeff had to actually pull over for about thirty minutes because the wind and rain were so bad! We got up there late Sunday night and much to are surprise, walked into the most beautiful condo ever!!!! Now, I didn't expect a dump, but I didn't expect a castle either! Just to give you a hint. The exact same condo, two doors down, is for sale for a paltry $349,000. This place made my house look like a shack!! It was a three story, 2-3 bedroom, 3 full bath, 2500 square foot, beautiful house. The top two floors had balconies and the bottom floor had a walkout patio with approxametly 20 yards of grass and then a board walk and then a private beach that lead into Lake Erie!!! It was a great spot because you can walk about a hundred yards out into the lake and it only was waist deep! We also met a wonderful family that lived next door, the Humphree's. Our kids and their kids became best buddies instantly and had a great time playing, and swimming, and riding bikes together. The kids were so upset when it was time to leave. Ben asked me, "can we just live here now". We had such a great time. Thank you Howard, Sandy (Ghee), Abigail, Olivia, and Isaiah. You all made us feel right at home. Thanks for being so wonderful!!! We look forward to visiting again!

We did all kinds of fun stuff while we were there. We rode the Jet Express across the lake to Put-in-Bay. We rented a golf cart there and toured the island in style!! We got to go down in the worlds largest geode (a rock formation with these cool crystals). Also, we took a tour of the winery and tasted some wine (grape juice for the little ones). We played at the park, took some bike rides, swam in the lake, and a pool, ate out a lot and also got to spend an afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa Winland! We headed back on Saturday. I forgot to mention that we took Steven Householder's sister, Jennifer (14), with us. (www.caringbridge.org/oh/stevenmichael) If you recall, Steven has leukemia and we met his family last year at the Kids-n-Kamp Fourth of July parade. She was a huge help!! Thank you Jenny for all your help! Zoey keeps asking for you, "denny, denny". Saturday we dropped off Jenny at her house in Deleware and ended up going out to eat with their family and spending the night!!! Thanks guys, we love you! Sunday morning we headed back home bright and early so we wouldn't miss church. Oh, by the way, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!! Especially, to my wonderful husband and father, who truely knows what it's like to raise a family. I love you and your children love and adore you. Thank you for all that you do! I hope that everyday is father's day. Also, we must not forget our Father in Heaven. Thank you that you are are perfect Father; full of mercy and grace.

Now we are back home and I am surronded by LAUNDRY!!!! HELP!!!!!!!!! Oh well, it will get done sometime. We are busy getting ready for our VBS this week and things have returned to normal. Jeff had to take Ben to the doctor today because he was playing basketball yesterday and jammed his finger really bad. They took and x-ray and said it wasn't broke, but he has some major swelling and bruising. They put him in a partial cast for the next week and we will just keep an eye on it! Back to normal in the Thomas house as usual! Ha Ha!!

Wednesday we will try Ben's MRI again. Please continue to pray with us that his scan comes back clean and that we are one day closer to remission from this horrible monster. Thank you for checking on us!

God Bless,
Sherri & family

Thursday, June 3, 2004 9:17 PM CDT

Hello everyone,
Well, some of you have heard about our trying week and some of you have not. On Saturday, we went to my cousin, Teresa's, graduation. Is this is the same little girl that was the flower girl in my wedding? I can't believe that she is headed off to college. Man does time fly! We were at Bob and Betty's house (Bob is my dad's youngest brother. Dad is 18 years older than he is. I am closer in age than my dad is!) We always have a great time at the Winland gatherings! As usual, we were all sitting around having a good time, when Zoey decided to take a nose dive and spit her forehead open. The laceration went through her eyebrow, so she needed stiches! Jeff was kind enough to volunteer to take her so that I could continue to hang out with my family. There was a Children's Close to Home about 15 minutes away (wow do we love those places!) Poor Zoey had to get 5 stitches in her forhead. Jeff said she just screamed and screamed. Thank you honey for being the best daddy and husband. Your willingness to stay with your daughter and thoughtfullness to let me stay and visit with my family means a lot to me. I love you!!!

That, in itself, was not the trying part of our week. Emily had a fever on and off Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. She threw up once Saturday night, but would feel better after taking some advil. Sunday morning she woke up with a fever again and I gave her some more advil. After church we all went out to eat, like a group of us usually do! I had to go to work at 3, so off I went. Emily laid on the couch and slept for 4 hours. Now, if any of you know Emily, you will know that this is not natural. After she woke up she started vomiting and complaining of her belly hurting. As the night went on, her belly pain got worse and her fever came back. Jeff decided to bring her to me at work. After one of the doctors examined her, they felt that she should go to Children's ER. So, at midnight, off we went. Thankfully, Dr. Bahner called them to say we were coming. We got right back to a room and the surgeon came down to see us. They decided to keep her overnight for observation and would re-evaluate her in the morning. Well, on Monday morning, her fever was gone and her belly no longer hurt, but her labs came back very abnormal. Her WBC was 1.7 (5-10 normal) and her platlets were 106,000 (150-400,000) normal. Her spleen was also slightly enlarged. The surgeons decided that the hemotology doctors needed to come see her. We were told at this point that they had to rule out leukemia. As you can imagine, Jeff and I thought someone was playing a cruel joke on us. Your kidding, right? Well, since Monday was a holiday, and nothing gets done on holidays, we had to stay another night. Of course at this point, we summoned all the wonderful prayer warriors that we knew!! Thank you everyone who prayed for us!!! My most wonderful friend (and Emily's future mother-in-law :) Inge Huseholder came and sat with me at the hospital. Thank you Inge, for sacrificing time with your precious family, to comfort me with your wonderful friendship. You are a true friend and I love you!!! Some of Jeff's family came to hung out with us at night. Thanks Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Sherrie, Chelsey, Heather and Tammy for visiting us.

Tuesday afternoon the hemotology doctor came along with his nurse practitioner. Guess who that was? Stacey!! Ben's nurse!! Dr. Yeager (who was a fellow the year Ben was diagnosed and now has a specialty in childhood cancers) looked at Emily's blood, along with a pathologist, and they felt that she had a virus that had attacked her bone marrow, which made her blood counts so low. They took a whole bunch of blood to try to find out which virus it was, but discharged us home with a diagnosis of viral infection. Thank you Jesus! So, within 48 hours we had a possible appendicitis, leukemia, and then a virus. Thank you to our minister Con for being at the hospital with us Monday and Tuesday, and to our youth minister, Caleb, for coming to the hospital and hanging out with us all day Tuesday. He even got to push Emily to the van in a wheelchair!! You ROCK Caleb!!! So, we went home late Tuesday afternoon and things have been good since. Emily is still a little tired in the evenings, but in general, she's feeling fine. She played a softball game tonight and did great like usual!

Today was also another big day! Benjamin had his bone scan. Well, like everything, it seems, in the Thomas household, cannot go smothly. Benjamin wasn't to eat anything after 7 this morning, because he gets sedated for his tests. Well, when Jeff came down stairs, he was eating some cereal. He had only had one bite before Jeff had intercepted. Well, they went to the hospital and Ben got his IV started and the dye that absorbs in his bones, was pushed in his IV. This was at 10 in the morning and the actual test was at 1 that afternoon. Well, they found out that Ben had had that bite of food and they said that they would have to cancel the test. This seems a bit overboard if you ask me (because in the past I've let him eat and he did perfectly fine). Well, it ends up that Jeff talked him in to doing the test without sedation! And it worked!! Of course, I am now out $45, because he had to bribe him with a new play station game. But I think it was worth it! He had to lay on a table perfectly still for one hour and the machine was an inch away from his face!!! I am so proud of him. They didn't even have to re-do any pictures!! We found out from Stacey late this afternoon that his scan was CLEAR!!!! Thank you Jesus. Only one more test to go! MRI is next Thursday.

With that I would again like to say thank you to everyone who knew about Emily and/or Ben's scan this week and have continued to lift our family up in prayer. We are humbled and thankful! At that, I would like to leave with scripture that was preached on Sunday at church. I think it says it all.

Who shall seperate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." NO, in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to seperate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 8:35-39

God Bless,
Sherri and family

Saturday, May 15, 2004 5:43 PM CDT

As I write to, I come with a very sadened and heavy heart. Our most wonderful friends, Ann and Brian Jones, and there two sons, Benjamin and Zachary, just recieved the most awful, gut wrenching news that this beast, called cancer, is back. Benjamin, 7, who is in first grade at the same school our kids go to, and until most recently, were our neighbors. They have just found out that his brain tumor, neuroblastoma, has come back and has spread to his spine. This was found during his one year check up, MRI. Both Ben's finished treatment around the same time last year. Please keep this family in your prayers. If you are interested in visiting Benjamin Jones' web page, just scroll up and clinc on his web page site. Also, if you go to his page, please sign in. I know that they don't know you, but just tell them that you heard about him from Benjamin Thomas' web page. It means so much to us cancer families, knowing that people that we don't know from all over are praying for you and your family!

Everyone here is fine. Benjamin has his repeat scans coming up at the end of this month. I will update again when I found out when!

God Bless,
Sherri

Wednesday, May 5, 2004 1:57 PM CDT

IT's BEN'S ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!!!

Today is Ben's anniversary. He had his last chemo one year ago today!!!! Thank you Jesus for one year of clean scans!!!! He is truely merciful and gracious. We are so blessed to have a happy, healthy Ben, cancer FREE!!!!

I would like to take this time to thank everyone who continues to pray for us and check up on us. We appreciate everyones generousity, kindness, and thoughtfullness. We continue to take one ay at a time. We will have another full set of scans this May. Benjamin continues to be a little behind in school. He will have tutoring this summer (thanks to Kids-n-Kamp, a wonderful organization that gives support: finacially, spiritually and emotionally to families with children afflicted with cancer. They will pay for his tutor!) We are truely thankful for all that we have.

Benjamin is busy playing soccer and baseball. Emily is busy playing softball and soccer. Dillon and Zoey are busy being carted form one place to another!!

I hope that everyone is having a great spring! Summer is right around the corner! God Bless!

In His love,
The Thomas family

Thursday, April 8, 2004 10:37 AM CDT

Then Jesus answered, "I am not an earthly king. If I were, my followers would have fought when I was arrested by the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom in not of this world."
Pilate replied, "But you are a king then?"
"Yes," Jesus said. "I was born for that purpose. And I came to bring truth to the world. All who love the truth are my followers."
John 18:36-37

Mary returned to the tomb and was standing outside crying.
"Why are you crying?" the angels asked her.
"Because they have taken away my Lord," she replied, "and I don't know where they have put him."
She glanced over her shoulder and saw someone standing behind her. It was Jesus, but she didn't recognize him!
"Why are you crying?" he asked her. "Whom are you looking for?"
She thought he was the gardener, "Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him."
"Mary!" Jesus said. She turned towards him.
"Master!" she exclaimed.
Mary found the disciples and told them, "I have seen the Lord!"
John 20 13-16,18

HAPPY EASTER!!!!

Praise our Risen Lord!!! Even Thomas, one of the original 12 disciples, who followed Jesus for 3 years, doubted. Jesus told him, "You believe becasue you have seen me. But blessed are those who haven't seen, but still believe!" John 20: 29 So blessed our we that we believe!!! We are truely blessed. We live in the greatest country in the world. We have four beautiful children, food, clothing and shelter. Thank you Jesus for being faithful even when we aren't.

We all had a great time on our mini spring break vacation! Splash Lagoon was lots of fun. The kids just swam and swam. Even Zoey loved it! Everyone there was amazed at her. She is so much like Emily, NO FEAR!!! She went down the kids slide over and over and over again. I made a mistake and took her down one of the bigger slides. Well, she loved it! We had to go down that slide over and over. There were lots slides and a big pool with basketball hoops. That was Emily's favorite. Ben and Dillon went from the basketball pool to the smaller pool with slides, back and forth! We're all back home now. Back to reality and LAUNDRY! UGH! I really do hate laundry. I probably shouldn't have had four kids then! Soccer practice and games are underway, as well as baseball and softball practice. Ben tried out for the 7-8 year old machine pitch team and made it! Jeff says that he is doing well at practice. I am Emily's softball coach, but we just started this week. I hope that the weather will cooperate! Dillon wants to play so bad, but he is only four. Next year!

Ben is feeling fine. He will be having a repeat MRI in May. He also needs to have his blood draw and checked here in the near future to see if the new medication, synthroid, is doing it's job.

Thanks for checking in with us. We hope that you have a blessed Easter and are able to reflect on the great sacrifice that God sent his Son to die for us that our sins may be washed clean by his blood. May you all be blessed and ive in His truth.

Sherri and family

Friday, April 2, 2004 10:09 AM CST

OK, OK, OK!!!!

Inge Householder has been harassing me to update Ben's page. Since she's on vacation in sunny Florida, she gets to kick back and check e-mail everyday! (have a safe trip back guys!) Thankfully, no news is good news in our world. FINALLY, everyone is healthy again. I ended up getting sick and missing two days of work. Zoey got that awful diarrhea and her little butt was just raw meat. I felt so bad for her. She had diarrhea for 7 days straight. Finally, after tons of bananas and applesauce, her diarrhea stopped and her little bum had time to heal.

Other than that, we are all doing fine. Spring break for the kids starts today at 4:00. We are going to take them out dinner and to see Scooby Doo 2 tonight. On Monday, we are headed for Erie, Pennsylvania. We are going to stay at Splash Lagoon. It is a huge indoor water park!!! The kids are so excited! It will be lots of fun. They all love the water. It will be nice to get away for a couple of days!

I hope that everyone is healthy and hanging in there. The weather has to get better sometime!!! We hope you have a good week.

God Bless,
Sherri

Thursday, March 18, 2004 6:58 PM CST

Praise the Lord, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Psalm 103:1-5

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY ZOEY!!!!!!!

I can't believe it's been two years already! It just seems like yesterday I was blessed with my little redheaded fireball! She is obstinate, stuborn and down right trying most of the time, but we wouldn't want it any other way! (smile)

Benjamin had his doctors appointment last Friday. He has to take a pill everyday for the rest of his life. He is on Synthroid 50 mcg. It is a replacement hormone for his now dead thyroid. He has to take this medicine for the next three weeks and then we have to draw more blood to see if it's the right amount. Our concern now is for his pituitary gland. He has only grown 4cm in 19 months. We will be following up with our Endocrinologist, Dr. Zipf. Eventually he will have to be given growth hormones, but I don't know when or how? We will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Emily is finally feeling better. Dillon still feels "kind of yucky". He fell asleep on the couch last night at 6:00pm and didn't wake up until the next morning! I sure wish that I could have a couple 14 hour nights worth of sleep. Zoey's nose is healing nicely, but the other day she fell and hit her eye, so now she has a black eye. Actually it is in that ugly yellow-brown stage. I hope I can finally schedule her pictures. Keep your fingers crossed!

Thank you for continuing to check up on us. I hope that spring comes soon! Those couple of nice days are just teasers!!! God bless you and your family.

Love,
Sherri

Tuesday, March 9, 2004 5:35 PM CST

Hello everyone,
I know that I have been bad about updating lately. For awhile it was because not much was going on except the normal (as normal as our hause can get!) daily routine. Well, the past two weeks have been filled with multiple ER and doctor visits, so I have actually been to busy to write. Let's see. Where to start. On Tuesday the 24th, Zoey started having this awful diarrhea. Thankfully, it only lasted 24 hours, but then Dillon and Ben started. Dillon also started vomiting on Wednesday. On Thursday the 26th, I was getting ready to leave for work and Jeff was heading out the door to go to the store and Zoey fell down the basement steps! I don't know what happened. She had her boots and coat and hat on, so I don't know if she tripped or was trying to catch the cat or what? But down she went! Of course she split the bridge of her nose wide open! Jeff and I packed everyone off and headed to the ER. Thankfully, she didn't need to get stiches because her laceration was a perfect straight line and the doctor was able to pull the wound back together and use something called dermabond (this is basically medical superglue!) Well, Benjamin's diarrhea continued into Friday and Dillon was still vomiting. Now, without being too gross, this was the watery nasty stinky diarrhea. Finally, Friday evening Benjamin felt better. Dillon was a little better also, but still had an upset stomach. Well, around midnight Emily just started vomiting everywhere. Do you remember that movie Poltergist? It looked something like that! And man did it stink!!!! Her entire dinner from that evening had been sitting in her stomach churning for hours. Well, it didn't take long for her diarrhea to start. For most of the night she sat on the toilet and vomited in a bucket at the same time. I felt so bad for her! We all know how miserable that is. Poor thing. It probably doesn't help that she NEVER get's sick! By Saturday afternoon everyone was feeling better, so Jeff and I let Ben and Emily go to their very first school dance!!! They had a great time running around and playing with their friends. We got to dance with Benjamin and his mom, Ann Jones. We had a great time! That evening Jeff and I went out to dinner (to our favorite restaurant, Genji Japenese Steakhouse) with three other couples that I work with. We had a great time, and believe me we needed it!!!

On Sunday, Benjamin broke out into this horrible looking rash. He had these raised, red, round, bull's-eye looking targets all over his body and he was just screaming because they itched so bad. I gave him some benadryl and off to the ER we went. It ended up that it was a rash called erythema multiform. It is caused by a virus. The doctor just figured it was from that nasty bug that had gone around our house. Two days worth of benadryl took care of the problem. Well, Sunday night Emily started vomiting again. Neither Emily or Ben went to school on Monday. Tuesday Emily felt better so she went to school. That night at bedtime she threw up again!!! Wednesday evening I was at work and Jeff called me and said that Emily was projectile vomiting again and that she was really complaining 1of her belly hurting. We were afraid that it could be her appendix, so back to the ER we went. Three times in 7 days. Not bad if I say so myself!!! Luckily it wasn't. She did have a ear infection though. She started on antibiotics the next day. We didn't get home until 3:00 in the morning and I had to be at work at 7:00am. Needless to say, I was exausted by the end of the day.

Friday was actually a normal day with no ER visits!! Thank you Jesus!! Friday night Jeff and I got to go out on a date. Yea!! Saturday afternoon we headed up to the Householders (Steven is a 7 year old boy that we met through treatment while at Children's Hospital. He has lukemia.) Steven is Emily's boyfriend!! Luckily Steven has three older sisters, so we dumped all the kids off at their house and went out to dinner with his parents, Tom and Inge. After a nice relaxing, quite dinner we saw Passion of the Christ. All I can say is WOW! I could barely control my sobbs throughout most of the movie. It was very powerful. I recomend it highly. Warning: go prepared with tissues in hand. When we got back to the house alll the kids wan't to stay all night. Since they live in Delaware, we thought, what the heck, we'll stay! Tom and Inge have this humungous, beautiful house. My entire house could fit in their basement!!! The best part is that they are such gracious hosts!! The kids had a great time playing!! Sunday we all got up and ate a huge breakfast! Believe it our not we all consumed 2 1/2 dozen eggs, 2 pounds of bacon, two pounds of sausage, a loaf of bread and a pot of coffee!!!! What a hoot! Hey, I know that sounds like a lot, but there were 12 of us! We headed back home Sunday afternoon. Thanks Householders!!! We had a great time!

Well, Monday night Benjamin started screaming that his ear was hurting. I gave him some motrin before bedtime. Of course he had to sleep with us! Around 12:30 he woke me because he was thrashing around in the bed. Well, Iouched him and he was burning up! I took his temperature and it was 102 degrees. Luckily, all his blood counts are normal so we don't have to go rushing to the ER in the middle of the night! This morning we he woke up he had another fever and there was drainage pouring out of his ear. He was just miserable! Well, off to the clinc we went. He had ruptured his eardrum. Now he is on more antibiotics! Thankfully he is able to swallow pills, so we don't have to deal with the nasty taste of liquid medicine! He took a four hour nap this afternoon!! He is feeling better tonight after another round of motrin.

Hopefully things will start getting back to nornal around here!!! On Friday Benjamin has to go to a new speciaist. His lab tests have shown that his thyroid gland is pretty much dead. He will be going to an Endocrinologist, which is a doctor that specializes in hormones. I will be getting a lot of information about his thyroid gland and his pituitary gland and hopefully form a plan of attack on how we will start to fight off all the damage we have done in the process of killing this awful beast called cancer!

Thank you for allowing me to ramble on and on. I will update next week and share what the doctor has to say. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers!!

God Bless,
Sherri

P.S. Please excuse the mistakes. I am not going to proof read!!!

Tuesday, March 9, 2004 5:35 PM CST

Hello everyone,
I know that I have been bad about updating lately. For awhile it was because not much was going on except the normal (as normal as our hause can get!) daily routine. Well, the past two weeks have been filled with multiple ER and doctor visits, so I have actually been to busy to write. Let's see. Where to start. On Tuesday the 24th, Zoey started having this awful diarrhea. Thankfully, it only lasted 24 hours, but then Dillon and Ben started. Dillon also started vomiting on Wednesday. On Thursday the 26th, I was getting ready to leave for work and Jeff was heading out the door to go to the store and Zoey fell down the basement steps! I don't know what happened. She had her boots and coat and hat on, so I don't know if she tripped or was trying to catch the cat or what? But down she went! Of course she split the bridge of her nose wide open! Jeff and I packed everyone off and headed to the ER. Thankfully, she didn't need to get stiches because her laceration was a perfect straight line and the doctor was able to pull the wound back together and use something called dermabond (this is basically medical superglue!) Well, Benjamin's diarrhea continued into Friday and Dillon was still vomiting. Now, without being too gross, this was the watery nasty stinky diarrhea. Finally, Friday evening Benjamin felt better. Dillon was a little better also, but still had an upset stomach. Well, around midnight Emily just started vomiting everywhere. Do you remember that movie Poltergist? It looked something like that! And man did it stink!!!! Her entire dinner from that evening had been sitting in her stomach churning for hours. Well, it didn't take long for her diarrhea to start. For most of the night she sat on the toilet and vomited in a bucket at the same time. I felt so bad for her! We all know how miserable that is. Poor thing. It probably doesn't help that she NEVER get's sick! By Saturday afternoon everyone was feeling better, so Jeff and I let Ben and Emily go to their very first school dance!!! They had a great time running around and playing with their friends. We got to dance with Benjamin and his mom, Ann Jones. We had a great time! That evening Jeff and I went out to dinner (to our favorite restaurant, Genji Japenese Steakhouse) with three other couples that I work with. We had a great time, and believe me we needed it!!!

On Sunday, Benjamin broke out into this horrible looking rash. He had these raised, red, round, bull's-eye looking targets all over his body and he was just screaming because they itched so bad. I gave him some benadryl and off to the ER we went. It ended up that it was a rash called erythema multiform. It is caused by a virus. The doctor just figured it was from that nasty bug that had gone around our house. Two days worth of benadryl took care of the problem. Well, Sunday night Emily started vomiting again. Neither Emily or Ben went to school on Monday. Tuesday Emily felt better so she went to school. That night at bedtime she threw up again!!! Wednesday evening I was at work and Jeff called me and said that Emily was projectile vomiting again and that she was really complaining 1of her belly hurting. We were afraid that it could be her appendix, so back to the ER we went. Three times in 7 days. Not bad if I say so myself!!! Luckily it wasn't. She did have a ear infection though. She started on antibiotics the next day. We didn't get home until 3:00 in the morning and I had to be at work at 7:00am. Needless to say, I was exausted by the end of the day.

Friday was actually a normal day with no ER visits!! Thank you Jesus!! Friday night Jeff and I got to go out on a date. Yea!! Saturday afternoon we headed up to the Householders (Steven is a 7 year old boy that we met through treatment while at Children's Hospital. He has lukemia.) Steven is Emily's boyfriend!! Luckily Steven has three older sisters, so we dumped all the kids off at their house and went out to dinner with his parents, Tom and Inge. After a nice relaxing, quite dinner we saw Passion of the Christ. All I can say is WOW! I could barely control my sobbs throughout most of the movie. It was very powerful. I recomend it highly. Warning: go prepared with tissues in hand. When we got back to the house alll the kids wan't to stay all night. Since they live in Delaware, we thought, what the heck, we'll stay! Tom and Inge have this humungous, beautiful house. My entire house could fit in their basement!!! The best part is that they are such gracious hosts!! The kids had a great time playing!! Sunday we all got up and ate a huge breakfast! Believe it our not we all consumed 2 1/2 dozen eggs, 2 pounds of bacon, two pounds of sausage, a loaf of bread and a pot of coffee!!!! What a hoot! Hey, I know that sounds like a lot, but there were 12 of us! We headed back home Sunday afternoon. Thanks Householders!!! We had a great time!

Well, Monday night Benjamin started screaming that his ear was hurting. I gave him some motrin before bedtime. Of course he had to sleep with us! Around 12:30 he woke me because he was thrashing around in the bed. Well, Iouched him and he was burning up! I took his temperature and it was 102 degrees. Luckily, all his blood counts are normal so we don't have to go rushing to the ER in the middle of the night! This morning we he woke up he had another fever and there was drainage pouring out of his ear. He was just miserable! Well, off to the clinc we went. He had ruptured his eardrum. Now he is on more antibiotics! Thankfully he is able to swallow pills, so we don't have to deal with the nasty taste of liquid medicine! He took a four hour nap this afternoon!! He is feeling better tonight after another round of motrin.

Hopefully things will start getting back to nornal around here!!! On Friday Benjamin has to go to a new speciaist. His lab tests have shown that his thyroid gland is pretty much dead. He will be going to an Endocrinologist, which is a doctor that specializes in hormones. I will be getting a lot of information about his thyroid gland and his pituitary gland and hopefully form a plan of attack on how we will start to fight off all the damage we have done in the process of killing this awful beast called cancer!

Thank you for allowing me to ramble on and on. I will update next week and share what the doctor has to say. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers!!

God Bless,
Sherri

P.S. Please excuse the mistakes. I am not going to proof read!!!

Tuesday, February 24, 2004 2:49 PM CST

Hello everyone,
I just want to thank everyone out there who checks our web page and keeps track of Ben's progress. We know that it is your care, concern, and prayers that have...will...and continue to sustain us! Benjamin is doing great! We got through the week of nose flushings a lot better than I thought we would! If you remember, Ben had surgery on his sinuses on Feb. 5th. Jeff and I had to flush his nose out with salt water 3 times a day for an entire week! This was not just an easy flush of the nose, either. We had to use a newborn bulb syringe (we always called it the booger sucker)and shove water up his nose so hard that it would come out his mouth. How did we do this, you ask? Bribery! We told Ben if he let us flush his nose (or should I say, ram water up his nose)we would let him pick out a video game. Well, it worked like a charm!!!! He didn't complain once! I was so proud of him! He followed up with Dr. Tobin a week later and he was amazed ow clean his nose was. Way to go Ben!!! He has another follow up appointment this Friday. Last Tuesday he had a appointment at the clinic. Dr. Ruymann said both of his ears look great. His biopsy also came back negative for cancer from surgery (this is what we expected). Unfortunately, his thyroid is dying. We knew this was going to happen, we just didn't know when. We will have to go to an Endcrinologist and Ben will have to start on medication. I am waiting for the official word and then we will be making an appointment to see the specialist.

All the kids are doing well. We can't wait for spring break!!! I hope this letter finds you all well and looking forward to spring!!! God Bless you and yours!

Sherri

Friday, February 6, 2004 7:16 AM CST

Well, we are all here at home safe and sound. Benjamin's surgery went great. He is a little sore, but pretty much back to his old self. Yesterday started off bright and early. Jeff had to be at the hospital at 7:45. He signed Ben in at the surgical center. Then they were off to CT scan for a scan of his sinuses. This is the funky CT where Ben has to lay on the table with his head hanging off the back of the table looking at the wall behind him! Jeff said he did a great job. Then it was off to his room at the surgical center. I dropped off Emily at the neighbors and Dillon went to our youth minister's house. (Thanks Caleb)and I met the boys at the hospital. There was a little delay, but we brought Ben's gameboy which helped with the waiting. I know I'm a little sadistic because I love the next part! They gave Ben a medicine called versed, which makes him "drunk". It is quite funny to watch him try to play video games as he is falling over. He looked at me and told me I have two heads! Actually, I truely am thankful for the medicine, because when they wheel him away to surgery he just protested a little. I think the medicine is given more for the parents than the kids. I don't think I could stand it if he were screaming for me! The surgery itself took 2 1/2 hours. Dr. Tobin placed a tube in his right ear because he said there was tons of fluid behind his eardrum. He couldn't put a tube in his left ear because we (Dr. Ruymann, Dr. Tobin, and us) aren't sure if his ear will be able to heal due to the massive amounts of radiation he recieved in that ear. So instead, he just put a tiny hole in his eardrum to try to get that fluid to drain. After his ears he started on his sinuses. He called from the operating room and asked me if he hald come down with a cold the past fews days. I told him no, why? He has been fighting this for 5 months and multiple doses of antibiotics. He said that he had a lot of snot in his nose and that his CT scan was impressive! Now usually, if someone tells you that something is impressive, that's a good thing. Not in this case I'm thinking!! Dr. Tobin said that both of his sinuses were totally impacted and all his tissue was severely inflammed. The good thing is that he said the tissue looked normal. Just to be safe, he took a biopsy of his tissue and cultures from the drainage in his ears. Overall, he felt the surgery went great. Two and a half hours is a long time to wait, but thank you to Jeff's sister and cousin who kept us busy. Also, Caleb came over after he dropped Dillon off at pre-school. Thank God that Sherrie (Jeff's sister) was there, because I got a call from school, right as Benjamin was hittng the recovery room, stating that Emily was throwing up! Ugh! You've got to be kidding. Emily hadn't missed one day of school the entire year and today, off all days she gets sick. Sherrie graceously volunteered to leave the hospital and go get her. Poor Sherrie didn't know what she was in for, Emily threw up all over her van. Thankfully it was al liquid by now and no chunks! Anyway, she just felt awful, and everyone knows, if you feel awful you want your mommy. So Jeff ended up leaving the hospital around 2:30 to drive to Newark to get Emily. Benjamin was in the room sleeping at that point, so I kicked up my feet and fell asleep too! Around 4:30 he woke up. He sucked down a cup of apple juice and wanted his IV out immediately. Thankfully he was in a good mood. Usually, if he is able to sleep off the anesthesia, he will wake up ok. He was also very excited because Aunt Sherrie brought him a bag of toys and goodies!!

Finally, after a long day we all made it home. Poor Emily felt awful, but she didn't throw up anymore. She continues to have a fever. I am taking her to the pediatrician this am. Ben's nose had some bleeding last night, but not a ton. Jeff went to the store to get all of his prescriptions which cost $85! Can you believe that!! And that's with insurance! He has to take antibiotics by mouth and in both ears. He also got some pain medicine. So far he's only in a little pain. I have been giving him pain meds around the clock. It has gone well up until now. I have to start flushing his nose with warm salt and baking soda water every four hours. That is going to be fun!!! He is already protesting! I wish I could just half-heartedly do it, but Dr. Tobin told me if it's not cleaned out well, he will have to take him back to surgery to clean it! So, flush flush flush it will be!

I also wanted to mention what an awesome doctor Dr. Tobin is! Last night he called here to see how Ben was doing! At first my heart sunk in my chest. But he was just calling to see how he was doing. Isn't that awesome!!! We just admire and love him.

We want to say thank you for checking in on us and for all your love, prayers and support. God Bless.

Sherri and family

Wednesday, February 4, 2004 2:08 PM CST

Wow! Have I been bad or what??? I can't believe it's taken me this long to update! Everytime I try to sit down and type, some kind of crisis arises. Ben is hitting Dillon, or Zoey has a hold of the cat by it's tail, or Emily is bugging me to play a game with her. You know, those normal, everyday events that are always time consuming. I've been wanting to type at night after the kids go to bed, but most nights I fall into bed exhausted. I never dreamed six people could generate that much LAUNDRY!!!! I feel like the Dunkin Donuts man. Remember those commercials? It's time to do the laundry. I did the laundry! I, too, feel like I meet myself coming and going! I do belive that I have now crossed the threshold from being informative to whinning!!! Sorry!

Let's see. Everyone here has been fairly healthy. Dillon and Zoey have runny noses right now, but no one has had fevers or the need for a doctors visit! Benjamin has his surgery tomorrow. He has to be at Children's at 7:45 to register and then he is off to CT Scan. Dr. Tobin has requested a CT of his head before surgery. Dr. Tobin is his ENT (ear, nose, throat) doctor. Ben is continuing to have sinus problems (continuing infections even with antibiotics, ear infections, eye drainage). The plan is to go in and clean out all the infection, take a biopsy, make larger holes for the sinuses to drain, remove his adnoids, clean out both ears and look at them with a microscope. Just your typical morning, hugh??? Even though this is considered minor, it is still very anxiety producing! Obviously there are multiple risks to any surgery. He will have to have a tube placed down his throat to breath for him. He will be under anesthesia which is always kinda scary. He tends to not wake up well either. I have seen other kids have similar proceedures done and they come out of surgery looking like someone beat the tar out of them. We don't know if he will have to stay all night. It will depend on how he comes out of anesthesia and how much trauma is to his face. I know that God is in control and he will take care of my precious little boy. I personaly am praying for peace of my spirit and for total trust in God's sovereignty. Please remember our family in your prayers, especially Ben. We give all the glory to God that we have come this far! Thank you for checking in on us!! God Bless!

Sherri and family

Thursday, January 15, 2004 10:54 AM CST

Hello everyone,

I'm sorry I didn't get to update until today. Ben's appointment went fine on Tuesday. All his blood counts are totally normal and back to where they should be. Dr. Ruymann feels that our concern about his hands are valid, but unfortunately there is nothing we can do. Hopefully, with time, they will get better. He recieved an extremely large amount of Vincristine (a type of chemo) on his protocol, in a short amount of time and this seems to be a side effect of that. If he was in pain, which he is not, then we could discuss some medication options. Jeff and I don't feel, and niether does Dr. Ruymann, that we are even close to having to do that. His sinus remain an ongoing concern due to the damage done by the radiation. I think we will have a better idea after his surgery on February 5th. They other thing we talked about was the status of Ben's thyroid. When will we have to start on medication and hormone replacement? Next month at his regular visit we will be drawing special blood tests to se how well his thryoid and pituitary glands are working. Dr. Ruymann said that the longer we can wait to start him on hormone therapy the better. The hormone therapy stimulates growth which is good, but it must be used cautiously, especially in kids with cancer, because it can stimulate the any cancer cells that might be left over. He said that it is good that he is so young because we have awhile to worry about his size (as oppossed to a teenager).

I also have an update on Brittany. The surgery went fine and she is still very sore. Jeff and I visited her this morning and she is very depressed. She thought that her nightmare was over and it seems that it is just begining. The surgeon was able to remove the spot from her spine, but the biopsy from her tailbone is a re-occurance of her Ewings sarcoma. Since she had already recieved the lifetime maximum of radiation to her tailbone they are meeting with doctors tommorrow to find out all of their options. Please keep Brittany and her family in your prayers. They have some major decisions ahead of them. Pray for their wisdom and guidance.


"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of god.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven."
Matthew 5:1-12

God Bless,
Sherri

Tuesday, January 13, 2004 6:58 AM CST

Hello everyone!

I hope that everyone had a nice weekend. On Friday we had an extra special day. Make-a-Wish called Jeff last week and asked us if Ben would like to go to the monster truck rally in nationwide arena? Are you kidding? He would LOVE that! On Friday they called and told us they had extra tickets so we got to invite some friends to go with us! We were also excited because our friends, the Jones, were coming too! As we learned from the Blue Jackets game we went to, Make-a-Wish does nothing half-way! We went into Nationwide via the private security door and took a private elevator to our deluxe box suite! On arrival to the room we were greated with wonderful food, our own bartender, and a room full of toys!!!! There were Grave Digger trucks and light up necklaces and four wheelers and hats and program guides everywhere!!! We had a great time. And when you think it couldn't get any better, it did! At intermission, drivers came up to our suite to sign autographs and take pictures with the kids!! Can you believe that?! Wow! Thank you so much Clear Channel and Make-a-Wish for a truely fantasic night!!

As I write, Benjamin and Jeff are off to his monthly doctors appointment at Children's. He will have some blood drawn, an x-ray, and a physical. Today is the day that he is being evaluated to see if he may need occupational therapy for his hands. He may be having residual effects from the chemo vincristine. I am wondering with great anticipation what his evaluation shows.

Thank you for checking in on us and for your continued prayers. We would ask for a special prayer for our friend Brittany Crabtree, who after 6 months of being in remission, now has active disease again. She will be having surgery today. We love you Brittany!! God answers prayers so keep the faith! Please pray for her and her family.

I will update tommorrow on Ben's appointment today and I plan on having great news to tell of Brittany's surgery!

Thanks and God BLess,
Sherri

Monday, January 5, 2004 8:21 AM CST

Happy New Year!!!!

I hope that everyone had a great celebration ringing in the new year! We always go to church and have a great time playing games and eating tons of food!!! The kids get to run around and play with their friends and Jeff and I get to play with our friends too!!!(big people need to have fun too!) Friday night we had some friends over to watch the BUCKEYES WIN!!!!! Sorry Michigan! The kids have gotten into the bad habbit of staying up late and sleeping in, so did I have a fun time this morning...NOT! I had to physically carry Benjamin to the van after he was threatened that he would be grounded from all things fun (which didn't work) if he didn't get in the van. When we got to school he refused to get out so I had to drag him into the school. After about 2 minutes he saw on of his buddies from his class and ran over and started talking. The bell rang and he came over to me as if nothing had happened and got his backpack and said, "bye mom". Now mind you, I was happy that he went so willingly, but I had just spent 30 minutes of non stop fighting with the boy and "poof" TJ, his buddy, takes it all away in 2 seconds! Kids! So, now here I am rambling on.

Ben's next appointment is January 13th. It is a routine appointment, but Jeff and I have some questions. Ben's continuing to do (for lack of a better word) weired things with his hands. He constantly bends and stretches them. Like they are stiff. We ask him if they hurt or bother him and he says no. He will be having a series of tests done to see if he needs extra help at school. He is doing ok, but we want to make sure that he doesn't fall behind. He has some problems with impulse control and fine motor activities. These are all probable side effects from the radiation. His sinus surgery is scheduled for February 5th. Hopefully it will be a minor outpatient surgery with little trauma to his face. He is looking and feeling good. And constantly aggravating his sibblings (some things never change)!

We want to ask everyone for a special prayer request. Our good friends, the Crabtree's, that we met at Children's as Ben and their daughter, Brittany, an absolutely adoring, wonderful, sweet 10 year old girl, went threw treatment together. Last week here repeat scans showed that her Ewings sarcoma, a type of bone cancer, had come back. They are still doing tests and scans to find out the coarse of treatment and all of their options. Please remember them and pray for complete healing in Brittany. I know they are all devistated. This disease is a monster that can rear it's ugly head at any given time. Please pray not only for healing, but for Ann and Damon's wisdom for the decisions they have to make in the near future.

Thank you for checking in on us. We hope that everyone has a great start to the new year.

God Bless,
Sherri and family

Monday, January 5, 2004 8:21 AM CST

Happy New Year!!!!

I hope that everyone had a great celebration ringing in the new year! We always go to church and have a great time playing games and eating tons of food!!! The kids get to run around and play with their friends and Jeff and I get to play with our friends too!!!(big people need to have fun too!) Friday night we had some friends over to watch the BUCKEYES WIN!!!!! Sorry Michigan! The kids have gotten into the bad habbit of staying up late and sleeping in, so did I have a fun time this morning...NOT! I had to physically carry Benjamin to the van after he was threatened that he would be grounded from all things fun (which didn't work) if he didn't get in the van. When we got to school he refused to get out so I had to drag him into the school. After about 2 minutes he saw on of his buddies from his class and ran over and started talking. The bell rang and he came over to me as if nothing had happened and got his backpack and said, "bye mom". Now mind you, I was happy that he went so willingly, but I had just spent 30 minutes of non stop fighting with the boy and "poof" TJ, his buddy, takes it all away in 2 seconds! Kids! So, now here I am rambling on.

Ben's next appointment is January 13th. It is a routine appointment, but Jeff and I have some questions. Ben's continuing to do (for lack of a better word) weired things with his hands. He constantly bends and stretches them. Like they are stiff. We ask him if they hurt or bother him and he says no. He will be having a series of tests done to see if he needs extra help at school. He is doing ok, but we want to make sure that he doesn't fall behind. He has some problems with impulse control and fine motor activities. These are all probable side effects from the radiation. His sinus surgery is scheduled for February 5th. Hopefully it will be a minor outpatient surgery with little trauma to his face. He is looking and feeling good. And constantly aggravating his sibblings (some things never change)!

We want to ask everyone for a special prayer request. Our good friends, the Crabtree's, that we met at Children's as Ben and their daughter, Brittany, an absolutely adoring, wonderful, sweet 10 year old girl, went threw treatment together. Last week here repeat scans showed that her Ewings sarcoma, a type of bone cancer, had come back. They are still doing tests and scans to find out the coarse of treatment and all of their options. Please remember them and pray for complete healing in Brittany. I know they are all devistated. This disease is a monster that can rear it's ugly head at any given time. Please pray not only for healing, but for Ann and Damon's wisdom for the decisions they have to make in the near future.

Thank you for checking in on us. We hope that everyone has a great start to the new year.

God Bless,
Sherri and family

Saturday, December 20, 2003 7:36 AM CST

The shepards were keeping watch over their flocks by night and suddenly and angel of the Lord appeared to them. The glory of the Lord shone around them. They were badly frightened, but the angel reassured them. "Don't be afraid! I bring you good news of great joy! Tonight, in the town of Bethlehem, the savior has been born to you. You will find a baby wrapped in a blanket lying in a manger." The angel was joined by a host of angels praising God and singing, "Glory be to God, and on Earth, peace to all men."
Luke 2


Merry Christmas everyone!!!
Well, we are in the middle of the hussle and bussle of Christmas!!! Last weekend we had Christmas with my dad's side of the family. This is always fun because we don't see each other very much and it's such a large group, it's hard not to have a great time. We were in Cambridge at my Uncle Rusty and Kendra's house and some of us stayed at the local hotel Saturday night. That was a great time! You should of seen that poor pool area with all of us wild Winland's there! There we 7 adults and 10 kids going absolutley crazy. Running, splashing, and just overall having a good time! As you can imagine, it was a little crazy. Then we went up to are rooms and played games and at pizza. I can't believe that we didn't get a knock or two on our door!! Well, after the weekend it was back to reality; work and school! Today, Saturday, my family is coming over for Christmas. Thankfully it is a smaller group than last weekend. My dad and his wife, my older sister and her husband, my younger sister, and us. That's pretty doable! The kids are pretty excited, as you can imagine.

Last week Ben had a scheduled doctors appointment. He had a chest x-ray, blood work and a physical done. Everything is going great. He will be having his sinus surgery the begining of February. Wow, what a difference a year makes! Last year at this time, Ben had that awful tube down his throat and we were feeding him food down that tube. His skin was all burned from radiation and his blood counts were really low. We are so thankful that we can sit here and say that things are going great!

I hope that this letter finds you all looking forward to Christmas and the celebration of Jesus's birth. Joy to the World, the King has Come! We hope that you holiday is filled with love, hope, peace, and joy!

God Bless,
Thomas family

Sunday, December 7, 2003 7:11 PM CST

Wow, we had a really busy day today! But first I will tell you what Dr.Tobin said on Friday. It wasn't really anything that we didn't expect, which is good. Ben will have to have surgery to open up his sinuses. The radiation to his face damaged the small little hairs that are responsible for moving the mucous out of the sinus cavity and into your nose (where you swallow it) Yummy!!! Dr. Tobin will go in and make the holes from his sinus cavity to his nose bigger. He is also planning on taking out his addnoids (two small glands behind your nose that I have no idea what they do?). It sounds like routine surgery (as routine as you can get when placing a tube down your throat and breathing for you while someone has instruments shoved up your nose and are digging around like their digging for gold!) We don't k ow when the surgery will be, probably the end of January. Other than that, everything is going great.

Today we went to two different Christmas Party's. Adventures for Wish Kids and Kids-n-Kamp both had their Christmas party's today. We had fun seeing some friend's we hadn't in a while. The Crabtree's. Brittany is looking great!!! Her hair is getting longer. Emily didn't even recognize her. We also got to see Delaney and her family, who we hadn't seen in a while. Delaney also looked great and Emily was really glad to see her. All the kids got some great gifts!!! It was like a mini Christmas morning around here today.

Well, I need to get the kids to bed, so I will go. Emily, we didn't get the snow that you did. I hope that your not too burried in!!

Take cae everyone and God Bless!!!
Sherri

Thursday, December 4, 2003 7:17 PM CST

Hello everyone,

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We went to my step-dad's, Roy, Thursday morning and had dinner with my two sisters. Later on in the afternoon we went to Jeff's brother's house. It has become an annual tradition that we stay at Kelli's (Jeff's sisters) on Thanksgiving night. Then on Friday morning we hit the stores. Yes, we are one of those crazy people at Wal-Mart waiting in line at 5:00 in the morning. We actually have a good time going store to store hunting bargins!!! Anyway, I always spend way too much money, but we have a great time!!

Tomorrow morning Ben has an appointment at the ENT doctor to try and figure out what to do with his sinuses that are so messed up! He will probably have to go to surgery sometime in the near future. Hopefully, after tomorrow's appointment, we will have a better understanding and plan. Please keep Jeff and I in your prayers that we may make the right decisions regarding Ben's care.

I will update tomorrow and let you know what Dr. Tobin says. Thanks for checking in with us.

God Bless,
Sherri and Family

Tuesday, November 25, 2003 2:19 AM CST

A PSALM OF THANKSGIVING. SHOUT WITH JOY TO THE LORD, O EARTH! WORSHIP THE LORD WITH GLADNESS. COME BEFORE HIM, SINGING WITH JOY. ACKNOWKEDGE THAT THE LORD IS GOD! HE MADE US, AND WE ARE HIS. WE ARE HIS PEOPLE, THE SHEEP OF HIS PASTURE. ENTER HIS GATES WITH THANKSGIVING; GO INTO HIS COURTS WITH PRAISE. GIVE THANKS TO HIM AND BLESS HIS NAME. FOR THE LORD IS GOOD. HIS UNFAILING LOVE CONTINUES FOREVER AND HIS FAITHFULNESS CONTINUES TO EACH GENERATION.

PSALMS 100

Hello everyone,

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Sorry it has been so long since I have updated. (not as long as the householders though!!!) Last week was busy like usual. I worked everyday and Jeff was in charge at home! On Tuesday Benjamin had his regular check up. They drew blood and he had a check up. All his blood counts are great! On Friday he had his MRI. Thankfully his wonderful nurse Stacy called me in the afternoon and let us know that his scans came back CLEAN! The small spot is still there and it hasn't changed. It was interpreted as a small area that is scar tissue in his ear. What wounderful news! We have so much to be thankful for. Thank you to all of our family and friends who hav e kept Benjamin in their thoughts and prayers. God hear's us!!! Please continue to diligent in your prayers for all of these children and families afflected with this horrible disease!

I hope that you all have a wonderful and blessed thanksgiving! May God bless you and keep you safe during this holiday season. Let us remember that all that we have is from Him. God Bless.

Sherri

Saturday, November 8, 2003 6:09 AM CST

Hello everyone,

It has been a very busy week here. Today is my only day off in a 12 day span. I worked 68 hours this week. Why, you ask? Well, there is this little holiday just around the corner. You may of heard of it? Christmas! And when you have four children and multiple family members to by for it takes money!! I keep saying I'm not going to go crazy this year. I hope I can keep my word. I just have the best time watching the kids opening the presents and having an exciting day. I know the day should be more centered around Jesus's birth and not the presents, but we try to incorporate both.

Last week Ben had to go to the clinic because he has this strange little light red "spot" on his face. Jeff and I noticed it at the end of our vacation. We saw Stacy, our nurse, at the clinic and she didn't know what it was. She had a doctor come and look at it and she didn't know what it was either. They wanted him to come back this week if it didn't go away. Well, Wednesday night Ben said he wasn't felling well. He felt warm to me and whe I took his temp it was 101.4 He had been hacking up a lung for the past couple of days, but with no fever. I gave him some motrin and called Stacy. That night he felt a little better and still wanted to go to his year end pizza party with his soccer team. We had a good time eating pizza and cake! His coach got them all trophies! Ben was so excited! Thanks Mr. Brady for being such a great coach!!! Anyway, that night he started coughing really hard again and threw up his pizza and cake (all over me I might add). The poor little guy couldn't stop coughing. I gave him some medicine, but it didn't help. I had him go downstairs with Jeff, because it was already 10:30pm and I had to get up at 2:00am to be at work! He came back to bed with me at 11:45. After about thirty minutes he finally fell asleep! Thurday morning Jeff took him to the clinic. Stacy thinks that it is his sinuses again that is causing the fever and that his sinus drainage is probably causing his coughing. He is back on antibiotics, again! Thankfully, he has learned to swallow pills. (the antibiotic he is on, clindamyacin smells like old dirty sweat socks!) It is much easier than drinking all the liquid medicine, even with all the wonderful new flavors they can add. Who wants bubble gum flavored sweat socks? Anyone, anyone? His little red "spot" is still there also (but I think it is getting lighter). Anyway, the decision was made to bump his MRI up to this month. He will be getting his scan on the 21st, I think. (Jeff told me while I was at work). He is already feeling better after only one day of antibiotics!

Now I will continue to ramble on and finish with the second part of our vacation. If you can recall, it was on Tuesday and our time was done at the Give Kids the World Village. We had one last breakfast and packed up the van and headed east to Daytona. Actually, we stayed 20 milles south in New Symirna Beach. I have to tell you about the wonderful people we met there! Jeff had been looking on the internet for place to stay. We like to stay at Holiday Inns, so he made some phone calls. He called this particular Holiday Inn at New Symirna Beach. The receptionist was very nice and asked Jeff why we were coming to Florida. Jeff told him about Ben and that we were staying at GKTW, but we also wanted to come say at the beach for awhile. He told Jeff that he wanted to talk to his manager about getting us a reduced rate and that he would call us back!! So, a couple of days later, Richard, the hotel manager, called Jeff and spoke with him. He was very interested in Ben's story and thrilled that he was getting to come to Florida. He told Jeff that there was no way that he could possibly charge us for staying at his hotel!! Can you believe that! Five nights, right on the beach, and not charge us a thing! Wait, it gets better! Not only did he not charge us, he gave us a two bedroom suit with a kitchen and it was ocean front with a deck!!! This guy must be a saint! (At least he is in our book!) He also had his day shift supervisor stock the room with mountain dew (Ben's favorite) and chips and candy!!! The kids each got little goodie bags too! Wow, this was truely amazing! Thank you so much to all the staff at the Holiday Inn at New Symirna Beach!!! You helped make our trip extra special!! Thank you Richard! After we checked in, we headed right down to the beach. Zoey just absolutely loved it. First of all, she was finally out of a stroller and the sand she just loved! She kept running towards the water and when the tide came in she would run away. She kept doing that over and over. It was so fub to watch. Ben is afraid of the ocean (or any body of water that doesn't contain chlorine). He thinks that fish will bite him. He did go out a little, but not like Emily. I had to stay close by her because she would have been to Europe by now if I didn't keep reeling her in! Dillon was the in-betweener. He liked in and out. There was also an outside pool that we spent a lot of time in. We drove down to Cocoa Beach on Wednesday and we drove to Daytona on Thurday. We took a tour of Daytona International Speedway. (We can't help it, we love Nascar!) It was a cool place. We even got to go out on the track! I could belive how step the racetrack was. It was a thiry three degree angle in the corners. We also got to stand in victory lane and take our picture! Jeff was disapointed because he was planning on riding in one of the cars, but they only do that from May to Septmber. Sorry honey, we will come back again so you can go 180 mph and attempt to kill yourself!!! We found a nice park on Daytona Beach and we stayed there that day and played in the ocean. On Friday we just hung around the hotel and relaxed. Friday evening when we returned from dinner there was a huge party going on around our pool. The kids wanted to swim, so I went down to the pool with them. The party turned out to be a large rehearsal dinner party. There was another little girl there and Emily wanted to talk to her, but she wouldn't go by herself. So I went up and introduced Emily. Her name was Tammy and she was a beautiful little 6 year old that was at the wedding with her dad. Well, that was the end of that. Tammy and Emily were hooked at the hip. They played and colored and ran around. You would have thought they had known each other for years. We made a date to meet again at the pool the next mornign at 9:00. Emily woke me up extra early and we ate breakfast. Sure enough, at 9:00am we were off to the pool. The girls played and swam. Jeff was out fishing on the beach, so Tammy's dad took them out to the beach (Ben wanted to stay at the pool). We all decided to clean up and go to lunch together. We went to a Burger King that had a play land and the kids had a great time there too! After a while, they had to leave to go get ready for the wedding. We exchanged adresses so the girls could write back and forth. Emily was very sad to have to leave her new best friend, but I promised that we could write back and forth. We had to stop at Kmart and buy a large duffel bag so we could pack to go home. Sunday morning we headed back to Orando and back home (It was great to get back to 40 degree weather, not!). The extra 5 days at the beach were so relaxing. I'm so glad we choose to stay a little longer! Thank you again to everyone that made our trip extra special! Thnak you Make-a-Wish foundation for everything you did!!

Now it's back to reality; work, laundry, homework, cold weather. I will continue to update you on Ben's progress. Thank you for checking in on us and keeping us in your prayers!!

God Bless,
Sherri

Sunday, November 2, 2003 8:05 PM CST

I apologize that it's taken so long for me to write. It has been very hectic here since our return. Monday was spent unpacking and trying to get laundry done. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and today I worked tweleve hours. At this moment, I can barely keep my eyes open, and it's only 9:00pm. Wow, when did I get this old!!!

I will attempt to coherently tell you about our wonderful Florida trip!!! It was broken up into two sections, so I will only ramble on about the first part.

On Wednesday the 15th a limousine picked us all up at our house and took us to port Columbus to catch our flight to Orlando!!! It was a small 54 passenger plan that was not fun to travel on with small children!! Zoey didn't have her own seat and she didn't want to sit on my lap!! Finally she feel asleep. The flight went great and we had clear sunny skies for the entire flight down.

This is where I am going to explain about Give Kids The World (GKTW). There was a man (I don't remember his name right now) that owned a Holiday Inn in Orlando. Many years ago, a family contacted him and asked if they could come and stay at his hotel because they had a sick daughter and she wanted to go to DisneyWorld. Before arrangements could be made, the little girl died. This man swore that this would never happen again. He went and purchased a large amount of land in Kissimee and that is where his dreams began to happen and Give Kids the World Village was born. The Village sits on many acres. Everything in the Villa is entirely free! There are 100 2 bedroom and 2 bath villas with full kitchens, washer and dryer that the wish famillies stay in while on there Make-a-wish trip. On site there is a restaurant open in the morning and evening for the families. Perkins donates all the food and wokers to fix the food. They donate over a million dollars a year!!! There is an ice cream parlor that is open 9am to 9pm for all the ice cream that you want. Friendly's donates all the ice cream and toppings! (wow, did we spend a lot of time there!) You could also eat lunch there (hotdogs, chips, fruit, pop, etc...). There was a building with free video games, pool table, etc... There was a movie theater that played movies in the evening. There was also a large castle with toys and games for the kids to play. There was a carousel right outside the castle that Zoey absolutely loved. There were two pools and a small water play area. There was a large pond where we went fishing. As you can imagine, this is a very special place. It's actually hard leave to go out and do things because there are so many activities right at the villa.

Now, back to my story. Opps, I almost forgot the most important part about GKTW. It is run almost entirley by volunteers!!! There are only 65 full time staff and 3,000 volunteers. There are volunteers from churches and youth groups. We met people from all over Europe that were there volunteering. Many people are retired and have moved to Florida and volunteer 1-2 times a week. This place is just amazing! Now back to my story.

At the airport in Orlando, a voluntee met us with a big sign for Benajamin. He helped us find our way to the luggage and car rental, where we had a beautiful Chevy Ventura awaiting us (and it had built in car seats!) Off we went to the villa. We were all starved and hit the ice cream parlor first thing (I told you we went there a lot!) The kids were anxious to swim, so it was off to the pool. We swam everyday but one. That night we had dinner in the Gingerbread House (the name of the restaurant). All the table and chairs are kid size. The table tops have thousands of real peperment candies covered by glass. There are dolls from all around the world that decorate the rooms. Volunteers are there to serve your food and get anything that you want like drinks or seconds. They also cleared the table and cleaned up after everyone. All this and that's only the first day!!!

Thursday we all meet Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, and Goofy right after breakfast. We got to take our picture with them and hang out. That was really cool. Zoey didn't like the characters very well!! Only from a distance. After meeting all the characters we went to Animal Kingdom. This was my favorite park. They had a Lion King show that was geat. All the animals were neat to watch.

Oh, I have to interupt myself again. At all of the parks we had a special pass and buttons that allowed us to go to the head of all the lines. That's right, no waiting in lines! We didn't even have to wait in line to see any characters in the parks. All the employees are trained to see the special make-a-wish buttons and wisk us off right to the front of the lines. The employees would just tell other guests that Benjamin was a special friend of Mickeys and that he got to go right ahead and not wait. How cool was that!!! We will never be able to go to Orlando again.

Ok, back to my story. Thursday was Animal Kingdom. Friday morning we went to Gatorland. This is a really cool place with... gators. There most be hundreds of these things. Big ones and smalls ones. There were snakes ans spiders. It was really fun. There was also a place with the squirt water park (where the water comes out of the ground). The kids really liked that. It was nice and refressing during the hot afernoon. Did I mention that it was 85 degrees everyday and didn't rain once!!! After lunch at GKTW, we went to Downtown Disney. It is whole bunch of shops and stores together. That night was a fishing tournament at the villa. Benjamin caught the first fish!! We also went swimming that night. Everyone went to bed early bacause Saturday was Magic Kingdom!!! Saturday we were up early and off to Magic Kingdom. We spent the entire day there and was able to do everything!! (remember that special pass!) The kids had a great time but we were all pooped by 10:30 that night. The kids fell asleep before we left the parking lot!

Sunday was Seaworld and Monday was Universal Studios!!! I told you we did a lot. The kids really liked everything. On Tuesday we packed up and checked out of GKTW. We all hated to leave and had the most wonderful, teriific, marvelous time ever!!! Thank you to everyone who gave of there time to make our trip so special!!!

That afternoon we packed up and headed east to New Symirna Beach (20 miles south of Daytona). This is where the "second" part of our trip starts. I will leave you for now. Thanks for checking in on us!!!

God Bless,
Sherri

Monday, October 27, 2003 2:06 PM CST

Hello everyone,

Yes, we are back! It is very cold here in Ohio. We had 80-85 degrees everyday! Everyone had a great time. I have a whole notebookfull of stories to tell, but that will have to be later. We are really busy trying to get unpacked, wash clothes, and catch up on missed homework. I will be writting this week. And look foreward to some new photos!!!

Thanks for checking in!

The Thomases

Sunday, October 12, 2003 11:03 PM CDT

Hello everyone,

We have had a busy weekend! On Saturday we went to Adventure for Wish Kids Fall Party at Jersey Farms. The kids had a great time running through the corn maze, going on a hayride (multiple times), playing and eating! Of course, the best part about the day is that the Householders were there!! We just love their family. The kids play so well together and Jennifer loves little kids. She spent the whole day chasing Zoey around and letting me get some much needed rest. On Sunday after church, we did the same thing again!!! Only this time it was at Fishers Greenhouse in Obetz given by Kids N Kamp! They had a few more activities which kept the kids busy for hours. Not to mention really good donotos pizza!! And ice cream, cotton candy, chips and cookies. I only mentioned half of what they had!!! They do such a great job planning these wonderful parties! The kids have such a great time. Jennifer, my savior, was there again chasing my little monster named Zoey. Thanks Jennifer, I don't know what I would have done without you!

On top of all this, I have been doing tons of laundry. We leave for Walt Disney World on Wednesday!!!! I can't believe that the time is here already. Jennifer from Make-a-Wish came over last Thursday and gave us our itinerary for our trip. We are all so excited. The only problem is, we don't know how we are going to fit it all in!!!

It will definately be a great time. We will be leaving Wednesday the 15th and be returning Sunday the 26th. I will have to take daily notes and write them for you when we return. We don't have a lap top, so the updates will have to wait until then!!

I hope that everyone is enjoying the beautiful fall weather. It is refressing to live where the seasons change. Someone will have to remind me of this in the dead of winter!!!

Take care and God Bless,
Sherri

Wednesday, October 1, 2003 4:05 PM CDT

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to write and say thank you for the birthday wishes. On Saturday, Jeff's family and Ben's favorite cousins came over and we had a great time. There was defintely a theme this year-- HULK. Everything from the presents to the cake and decorations! I have a super hero fanatic on my hands! He's our super hero too!

There's not much new. He went for a regular check up at his ENT (ear, nose and throat)doctor. He has to go there every three months to have his cancer ear cleaned out. Due to the radiation, his ear has all this wax and it doesn't drain properly. I must say, it's really nasty what he pulls out of that thing!!! He looked at his MRI and wants to take out his adnoids and maybe put a tube in that ear so it will drain. He thinks that this will decrease the amount of sinus drainage and help with his hearing and constant runny nose. Ben is on his second round of antibiotics in the past two months. Dr. Tobin (the ENT doc)is going to talk with Dr. Ruymann (our oncologist) and come up with a plan. I will defer to Dr. Ruymann and what he thinks is best.

Other than that, we are just trying to stay warm! Wow, fall came really quick this year! We will be leaving for Walt Disney two weeks from today!!!!! I can't believe it. It will be here before you know it! The kids (Jeff and I too) are getting excited!

Last week I had the privilege of having one of the kids friends, Benajmin Jones, a fellow cancer survivor, accompany us to soccer practice. I wanted to share with you how awesome these kids are. Ben and Ben were sitting behind me having a medical disscusion. Ben J. was explaning to Dillon that he had a scar on his head from his surgery. Ben T piped in that his scar wis on his neck. Then they both proceeded to talk about radiation and chemotherapy. It seems strange, but there conversation was "cute", for lack of a better word. It was just two little boys having a matter of fact discussion about the past year of hell they just went through and they had no idea! Innocence is a blessing. They made me laugh and want to cry at the same time. I know that God has a special plan for these young boys who will grow to be great men someday! Praise the Lord!

I will leave you now. I hope this letter finds you healthy and happy and secure in the knowledge that God is merciful, kind, and gracious! God Bless!

Love,
Sherri

Monday, September 22, 2003 4:22 AM CDT

Hello everyone,

Once again, we have had a busy week. Benjamin's doctor appointment on Tuesday went fine. Dr. Ruymann didn't tell Jeff anything new. He still thinks that the "spot" in his ear is scar tissue and not a return of his cancer. We will continue to monitor him closely and we will have an MRI done every other month now instead of every three months.

On Saturday, Jeff took Ben and Dillon to the KIDS-N-KAMP hike a thon, at Slate Run Farm. They had a good time getting their faces painted and meeting up with some friends. I was with Emily at her soccer game. After the game we got to meet up with Jeff and the boys for lunch with the Crabtree's!!! We just love their family and the kids have so much fun together. Brittany looks great. She will be having scans at the begining of October. Drew and Ben have a good time hanging out and being ornery. Imagine that!!

Saturday night, after Michigan lost, sorry honey, we went to the grand opening of an indoor baseball/softball facility that was just opened by a former OSU softball teammate of mine. The facility is just beautiful and the kids had a great time running all over the place! Emily wants me to sign her up for private pitching lessons. We are looking in to it.

On Sunday after church Emily and Ben had soccer pictures and then we headed up to Deleware to spend the day with the Householders!!! It was perfect weather and we had a great day visiting a wonderful Christian family!! They have ponies and dogs and cats and a huge yard to run round in! They even fed us dinner!!! Thanks guys, we had absolute great time!!!! Their house is just beautiful and we are so thankful that we have been able to meet such great people this past year.

Tomorrow starts another school week. Ben is doing ok. I wouldn't say great, but ok. His coloring is atrocious. I don't know if that's the 5 year old boy in him or because of the radiaiton to his brain. (He's never been a colorer anyway). We will continue to watch him closely. Emily is doing fine and Dillon starts pre-school this week. He is going to the same place that Emily and Ben went, Seton Parish. It is a wonderful Mom's Day out program. He will be going on Thursday's from 9:30 to 1:30. He is very excited and told me that he wants to stay there by himself!! The staf there is wonderful. His teachers are Miss Pat and Miss Sherry. Chris is the director and we just love them all. Thanks guys!!

This weekend coming up we will be having Ben's 6th birthday party!!! Yeah!!!!! The Lord is merciful! We are truely thankful for each day and birthday's are especially a reason to celbrate!

Thanks for checking in! God Bless.

Sherri

Monday, September 15, 2003 8:38 PM CDT

Hello everyone,

We had a great weekend this past weekend. Emily and Benjamin had soccer games on Saturday. They both did great! Emily is a natural athelete and Ben's not bad either!! They both scored 3 or 4 goals (of course this is on a small field with fewer kids). Benjamin is pretty fast and he moves to the ball very quickly. Not bad after going through a year of chemotherapy!!! God definetly is faithful and merciful.

Tonight we went to Magic Mountain complements of Adventures for Wish Kids ( www.afwkids.org )Everyone got in free of charge and we got to play games all night! Not to mention the huge pizza buffet. The best thing about the entire evening is we got to meet up with our friends the Householders. If you remember, Emily's "boyfriend" Steven, just happens to have the last name Householder. Wow, was she excited. Ben was very excited also. They had a great time playing games, crawling through the tubes and playing together. Cancer is a horrible, awful monster and I would never want to go through it again. If we could take back the last year we would, but the friendships we have made along the way I would never trade for anything. As a cancer "family" we build such strong bonds together. We know each other fears and concerns, the emotional rollercoaster that this terrible disease causes. It is through this bond, with other families, that we can survive another day to fight, to dream and to conquer this beast that is now and forever a part of our lives. "Normal" for our families is now in the past. We must choose day by day to trust in God for His strength, wisdom, and courage. This is how we survive. This is how we go on.

Tomorrow we will see Dr. Ruymann. It is for a checkup, chest x-ray, blood draw and to discuss last weeks scan. We want to thank everyone for their continued support and prayers. We can never thank you enough for all that you have done. I leave you with this scripture:

If God is with us, no one can defeat us...Can anything separate us from the love Christ has for us? Can troubles or problems or sufferings or hunger or nakedness or danger or death?... In all these things we have full victory through God who showed His love for us.
Romans 8:31, 35, 37


God Bless,
Sherri

Friday, September 12, 2003 1:29 PM CDT

Hello everyone,

Dr. Ruymann called today to let us know what the group of radiologist decided about Ben's scans. He said that there is a "very tiny" spot in his left ear that is near his eustachian tube (the tube that drains the middle ear). Because it is where it is, they are unable to biopsy it, which is the only definitive way to know what it is. Dr. Ruymann said that he and the other radiologist don't think that it is cancer. He said it doesn't have any tumor characteristics and it hasn't gotten any bigger. He said it could be edema (swelling) or fibrosis tissue (hardening of the tissue from radiation and chemo).

The plan is to increase his MRI scans to every other month and to keep a close eye on him. He is feeling fine and has had no complaints. He continues to like Kindergarden (that you GOD) and he likes his teacher, Mrs. Ralph! We have a doctors appointment with Dr. Ruymann on Tuesday. I will update then and let you know if anything has changed or of any new news. Thank you so much for keeping our family in your prayers. Through Him, all things are possible! AMEN!

God Bless,
Sherri

Friday, September 12, 2003 3:59 AM CDT

Hello everyone,

We didn't get to talk to Dr. Ruymann yesterday. He had his secretary tell us over the phone that he was still working on his case. I will update again as soon as I find out anything. Thank you for your continued prayers!

Love,
Sherri

Wednesday, September 10, 2003 8:39 PM CDT

Hello everyone,

Yesterday Ben had his repeat MRI. He woke up soooooo much better this time. The great nurses at Children's told me to give him mountain dew. The caffeine in the mountain dew counteracts the sedation in his system that makes him turn into a crazy person. This time he just had mild to moderate craziness, not the all out psychotic episode we had last time!

Today Jeff called Dr. Ruymann to find out the results of Ben's test. The MRI still showed up as abnormal. Dr. Ruymann isn't sure if it is healing that is taking place in his ear from all the chemo and radiation, or if it is reaccurance of the cancer. Tomorrow Dr. Ruymann will be presenting Benjamin's case to radiologist (the doctors that read x-rays) to see if he can get a better expert opinion. Please keep Benjamin and our family in your prayers as this is a trying time. We try to remain uplifted and to keep fear out of our hearts. Sometimes it is difficult! I must say to myself, God is in Control!!! Thank you again for your prayers.

I will update tomorrow.

God Bless,
Sherri

Wednesday, September 10, 2003 5:45 PM CDT

Hello everyone,

Well, yesterdays scan went better than last time. Ben only woke up moderately aggitated. The nurses there said to give him mountain dew, the caffeine is a stimulant and helps counteract the seditive he was given. It seems to have helped some. He went to sleep very easy this time. After he was all done and was waking up, he asked me when they were going to do the test? He was very surprised to find out that he was already done!

Jeff called and spoke to Dr. Ruymann today about the MRI results. He said that he still has an abnormality in his left ear. He doesn't think that it is cancer, but he can't say that it isn't. He says that it may be the ear trying to heal itself. He is going to present Benjamin's case tomorrow at a radiology confrence and see if he can get some other opinions. Dr. Ruymann will call us tomorrow and tell us what they discussed. I will update tomorrow. Please keep him in your prayers! Remember, He is always faithful!

God Bless,
Sherri

Saturday, September 6, 2003 12:06 AM CDT

Hello everyone,

Now that everyone has had a chance to read the update (yes Emily, I was waiting on you!), I will tell you about our vacation. On Monday the 25th, we packed up and headed off to Hershey, Pennsylvania! So much for my diet! It only took about 5 minutes for the kids to start, "when are we going to be there?" That was a fun six hour drive, NOT! We stayed in downtown Harrisburg, PA's capitol, at a the beautiful Hilton Towers. Of course, the first thing we had to do was go swimming. I think that my children are little fish in human bodies! After swimming, we headed over to Chocolate World! The kids really enjoyed riding this ride that showed how chocolate is made from begining to end. It was very interestng. I was surprised how many steps it takes to make a candy bar! We only stayed for an hour and then went and had some dinner. After we got back to the hotel, we went swimming! Surprise, surprize! Tuesday we went back over to Hershey, which was only a 15 minute drive from our hotel. There is an outlet shopping center right there, so we did some shopping first. I love the Osh-Gosh outlet!!! Jeff was dragging me out of there! We went back over to chocolate world and saw there 3D movie. The kids really enjoyed that! The seats shook and water sprayed out of them. Confetti came from the ceiling, they also sprayed chocolate scented spray! Boy did that make us hungry! I'm glad they handed out free chocolate after the movie! We decided not to go to the amusement park since we had already been to Kings Island twice and have yet to go to Walt Disney World. We walked around for awhile and headed back to the hotel. Downtown Hariisburg was really cool! Like Columbus, it sits on a river. We walked across the river and walked around downtown. We found a little pizza joint and ate dinner. After dinner it was, yes, you guessed it, back to the pool! On Wednesday, we checked out of the hotel and loaded up the van. We decided to go down to Gettysburg. Jeff has always wanted to go there and we were only an hour away. We could have spent multiple days there! We went through the cemetery and saw the place where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address. We were standing on the field where Pickets charge happened. The museum had tons of pictures and artifacts. It was just great! We want to come back again when the kids are older so they can appreciate everything. After we toured Gettysburg, we decided, what the heck, we are so close to D.C., why don't we go there! We were concerned about where to stay, but Jeff stopped at the welcome center as we pulled into Maryland. There was a very nice lady there that helped so much. She told us where to stay and how to get in and out of D.C. She also told us where not to go, which was probably the info we got. We drove about an hour and stayed in Gaithersburg, MD. We stayed at a beautiful Holiday Inn. It was great!! There was a huge pool with a shallow end that Zoey and Dillon could play in. The kids ate free and we for $40 less a night than there normal fee, because of the coupon we got from the visitor center!! the next morning we got up nice and early and loaded up in the hotel van, which took us about 15-20 minutes to get to the metro station. We were a little nervous to try the metro with 4 kids, a stroller, and two adults that didn't have a clue what they were doing! I was happily surprised how clean, safe, and easy the metro was to use! And it only cost us $24 for all of us to ride the metro the whole day!!! We only got on the wrong train one time, but it worked out. We went to Arlington National Cemetery first. We knew we were in for a long day when the first thing Ben and Dillon said was, "we don't want to waaaaaalllllk." We got to see the changing of the guard and Kennedy's grave. We also went to the White House, Washington Monument, Smithsonian Museum of American History and the Air and Space Museum. It was a very hot day (around 95 degrees), but overall we had a great time. The next time when we go to D.C. we will allow three to four days to be able to see everything and to be able to take our time! We rod the metro back to the station and called the hotel and they came and picked us up! How cool is that! We had dinner and did some more swimming. On Friday we headed back to Columbus. We had good weather until about half way through, then the rain came. We made it back in good time though. Jeff added new pictures of our vacation, just click on photos.

Now that I've rambled on and on, I'm thrilled, thankful and glad to announce that Benjamin has started Kindergarden!!!! Yeahhhhhhhhhh! Wow, what a year has this been! The picture at the top of the page is Ben amnd Emily going to school on the first day!!! On Tuesday the second, I took Ben to school for his Kindergarden assessment with his teacher. Well, it didn't go so well. He sat under a desk and cried for 20 minutes. I made him go in the room with his teacher and he just put his head on her desk and refused to talk to her. I wasn't very happy!! I will just say that we had a little "talk" on the way home to set a few things straight. On Wednesday we returned to try it again and he did great. Thurday was his first day of school and he got on the school bus no problem and off he went. He came home that day and even admitted to having fun. What? Fun at school? This will not be aloud!!! (Ha ha) I knew he would do fine, we just had to get him to believe it!!! Thank you Mrs. Ralph for being so awesome!!!

Today was Ben and Emily's first soccer game and the both did great!! Ben scored four goals and Emily scored more than I can remember. They both had a great time and the weather was just beautiful!!! I hope this letter finds you all well. Thanks fo rchecking in on us!!!

Love,
Sherri


What's next: Please keep Ben in your prayers this week. He just finished his antibiotics and has his repeat MRI on Tuesday. We have our follow up doctors appointment on Friday. I will up date soon! Thank you for your prayers!!

Friday, August 29, 2003 4:58 PM CDT

Hello everyone,

I meant to write more last time, but do to time constraints it was cut a little short. Emily had a good birthday party with her friends. They swam and threw water balloon's at each other. My dad and stepmom had Zoey for the weekend (Ben was at Heme Camp...more to follow) and they brought her back to town. (They take her up to Lake Erie and stay on my dad's boat at Bay Point. She gets spoiled rotten!!!) They took us all out to dinner at our favorite Mecican restaurant, Mazatalan. Emily had her two best friends along also, Elaine and Jenny. The two girls stayed the night. Emily had a great time!

On Friday the 15th, Benjamin went to his first Hemetology/Oncology camp!!! We went to Children's Hospital Friday morning to load Benjamin on a bus to Camp Cotubic! It is a camp started many years ago by Dr. Ruymann, Ben's oncologist. Every year the staff of J5 and the cancer clinic have a three day get away filled with fun and laughter. Jeff and I were a little concerned that Ben would get homesick, especially at night, so we went and stayed in Bellfontaine, only 5 minutes from the camp. We didn't want to be an hour and a half away and get a call at 10:30pm. We got to children's Friday morning and he started to waver a little bit about going, but then we found his good friend Benjamin Jones and that seemed to help a lot. They ran around and played a little. When it was time to go he was a little scared. We lied to him, because he thought that we were going to follow the bus to camp. I knew if I could get him there he would have a good time. He got on the bus and it seemed like it took forever for it to pull out. Finally they left and he was just waving and having a good time. Jeff and I actually had a nice relaxing day with NO KIDS!! Thank you to my friends Dawn and Maria for keeping Emily and Dillon (they tag teamed for the weekend. Thank you Sheila for watching them Saturday night!) Jeff and I had a nice lunch and went to Tuttle Mall and walked around for awhile. We got to our hotel and went swimming. It was a hot day and the outdoor pool was very refreshing. After the dip in the pool, we went exporing to see if we could find the camp. It was only about 4 minutes away from our hotel, which made us both feel better. We could only see the main entrance of the camp and it was killing us not knowing what was going on!!! I'm sure it was harder for us than for Ben. After trying to "spy" we went out to dinner and a movie. We went past the entrance of the camp another two times that night (I know we're sick and need help!!!) We just couldn't help it. We hadn't got a call on the cell phone, so we figured everything must be ok!

The next morning we got a call from camp!! The night before they had been trying to reach us at HOME! They mixed up the paperwork and didn't realize that we were right down the road!!! I guess he did great all day, but when it got to be bedtime he started crying for us. I knew that this would be the hardest part of the day for him. The counselors just stayed with him. Nurse Linda from the clinic came over and rubbed his back for 40 minutes trying to get hime to relax. He fell asleep thankfully. The next morning is when we got the call. They felt terrible for the mix up. I think it was probably good for him to stay, just so he knew he could do it! The next morning Jeff and I went over to the camp (we actually got to go in this time since we were invited) The camp was beautiful. Kids were swimming in the lake. People were fishing and playing volleyball. Benjamin was very happy to see us, but I think he would have made the rest of the day! He went horseback ridding that afternoon and had a great time. Jeff and I spent the entire day with him and had a great time! I knew that he wouldn't stay there that night, so we went ahead and took him with us to our friends the Crabtree's. We met them this past year at Children's. Their daughter Brittany has Ewing's Sarcoma. We all had a great time eating all kinds of great food and Benjamin played with Brittany and her younger brother, Drew. Ben now says that Drew is his best friend and he wants to stay there again, without me!!! Sunday afternoon they had a small cookout and we left that aftrnoon. We had a great time. There are good things that have come out of the past year and the Crabtree's are definately one of those. Thanks guys for your hospitality, we love you!!!

On Sunday, the 24th, we had Emily's family birthday party. All of Jeff's family came over and we had another birthday party! On Monday, the 25th we left for vacation. I am going to leave you here!!! You will have to check back in and see where we went!!! Thanks for checking on us!

Love,
Sherri and family

Monday, August 18, 2003 12:12 AM CDT

Wow! I can't believe how long it's been since I wrote last! For all of you who check in regularly, I'm sorry!!! As you can imagine, it is total chaos around here. The week of August 4th was pretty uneventful. I have been working 50-56 hours a week. I have been tired and just keeping up with the laundry around here is a full time job! (I have a month supply of underwear for everyone! hehe!) On Ausust 10th (Sunday) Jeff's entire family went to King's Island! Jeff's mom works at Park National Bank and it was there annual day at King's Island. Jeff's mom got some people to donate their tickects to her and she paid for the rest. Thank you Gloria. The kids had a great time, again! Since we went to Kings Island earlier this year, we hit the water park this time. The kids had a blast! I think they could have stayed there all day! They rode some of the water slides, but then we hit the wave pool!!! I had to drag them out of that after 2 hours!!! They had a ball jumping over and over in the waves. It's just like the ocean, but no salt water! Yeah! The kids had a great time with all of their cousins. Benjamin rode the racer again with his best friend (and cousin) Nathan.

On Friday the 8th, Benjamin had all of his repeat scans. We got to the hospital at 11:15am. He wasn't aloud to eat anything after 9:30. He eats every two hours at home, so he wasn't liking this too well. We got to nuclear medicine where they started his IV. I wasn't very happy because he has huge veins and she missed on the first time. I tried to remain calm, but it's hard when it's your kid. She got it in the second time, but the IV was terrible. It barely worked. Thankfully, we didn't have to stick him any more, thanks to Lana, our wonderful, personal nurse we had all day. (I will explain later) After his IV they shot dye in it for the bone scan. Lana was kind enough to get his CT scan of his lungs bumped up, so we walked over to CT and only waited 5-10 minutes. Ben does really well holding still for CT's, but it only last's about 3-5 minutes and I stand beside him and hold his hand the whole time. After Ct scan we went up to J5, but didn't really see anyone we knew. We still had 1:15 minutes to wait, so we went back to the play room and the kids (Emily came with us) played air hockey and then they took me on in a game of foosball. Of course I lost (wink wink). After that Emily was hungry. We went down to the caffeteria and got her something to eat. This was really hard on Ben since he couldn't eat. I just kept encouraging him. I too go on hunger strikes with him. I don't think it's fair that he can't eat and I can. So I don't eat either. We suffered through Emily's lunch together and then made our way back to nuclear medicine. He went to sleep fairly well. After he was out, I took Emily to the awesome children's play place. It is a huge playroom where siblings can go when brothers or sisters are at the hospital for tests, proceedures or appointments. I didn't even say goodbye and she was gone of playing! The kids are aloud to be there for 1 1/2 hours at a time, twice a day. It worked out perfect. After Ben's bone scan I went and got Emily and we went to MRI. Benjamin needed some more sedation, which Lana gave him. And into the MRI scanner he went. I took Emily to get something to eat, again. After food and a restroom break, I took her back to the play place. I sat in MRI and listened to that loud annoying bang, bang, bang for 1 1/2 hours. Lana was great. She kept me updated on what was going. We were lucky enough to have her for bone scan and then she took us over to MRI and took care of Benjamin there too. Thanks Lana. After his MRI (it was now 6:05 pm) we headed home. Well, I don't know if I told you before, but he does not wake up well form anesthia. That's why we combined all the tests in one day. He turns into a crazy lunitic. One of the side effects they tell you about they say that the child may be cranky and irritable. Well, let me tell you, it goes way past cranky and irritable. He kicks and screams uncontrollably. He is unconsollable. He also isn't supposed to walk unassisted and when I was in the bathroom he got up. Well, he fell and wacked his lip and chin. Now I have this psychotic child thrashing all around with blood flying everywhere. Needlesss to say, it was not a good time. Thankfully this "episode" only lasts 2 hours and then he becomes semi-normal again.

On Monday, the 11th, I called Children's hospital to see who was covering for our nurse practitioner, Stacy, who is out on maternity leave. I spoke with Suzanne who was covering for Stacy. I asked her if she had the results from Ben's tests. Well, this turned out to be a blessing and a curse. The curse was all his scans came back abnormal, the blessing was he had a doctors appointment the next morning that I didn't know about. His scans showed that he had inflamation in his left ear (his cancer ear)that was abnormal. His bone scan was also abnormal. What did this mean: had his cancer come back? She wasn't sure, but our questions would be answered the next day. That was 17 hours away!!! How in the world could we keep it together for 17 hours. I tried to remain calm, but it was hard. I was at work and called Jeff. He had a million questions that I couldn't answer. We did the only thing we knew how to do. We called our church family! We called everyone at Pickerington Christian Church and asked them to pray! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful church! I was having a hard time controlling my thoughts, so asked my friend, co-worker, and fellow Christian to pray with me. Thank you Monica. As soon as we prayed I felt a total peace. Thank you Jesus for the Holy Spirit you sent as the Comforter.

Tuesday morning we headed off to the dreaded appointment. I know Jeff and I were both very nervous and somewhat scared. I try not to worry, in general, but even sometimes it gets the better of me! Our minister, Con, surprised us and met us at the clinic. Thanks Con, your awesome!! It was grat to see everyone in the clinic! All their smiling faces and "wow, doesn't he look great!" We went back to see the doctor, unfortunately, Dr. Ruymann, was on vacation, so we saw a new doctor that I don't even remember the name of. Good news! They said that Ben had a bad sinus infection and they think that all the swelling that showed up on his scans was due to the sinus back up into his ear cannal. The plan is to treat Ben's sinus infection with antibiotics for three weeks and then we will repeat his MRI (yeah--more sedation!) Needless to say, we are thrilled that the doctors think this is just a sinus infection!! Thank you Jesus! Thank you everyone that was praying for us.

I have to go now, because today is Emily's birthday and the guests are arriving!!

Love,
Sherri

Saturday, August 2, 2003 11:42 AM CDT

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

Actually, it was yesterday, but I was too tired to write last night! What anniversary you ask? Yesterday was the 1st anniversary of Benjamin's cancer diagnosis. Wow! It seems like a lifetime ago. As you cn imagine, we were all devastated. It was a time of shock, disbelief, denial, sadness, and fear. What did all this mean? What was to happen? Would he die? How were we going to fight this terrible disease? Many tears flowed and a multitude of questions asked. The uncertainty of what was to come was definately the scariest part of it all.

After we got to know the staff in the clinic and on the heme/onc floor at Children's, and once I learned the daily routine, it got much better. We learned exactly what worked and what didn't. How Ben responded to certain medications and proceedures. There is great fear in the unknown and comfort in familiarity. The time between October and February was definitly the hardest and scariest, RADIATION! Jeff and I absolutly dreaded every single day of it. Benjamin would nearly stop breathing every single treatment. He was very tired, lost a ton of weight, and he had second degree burns on his face, ear, neck, mouth and in his throat. I would go through any amount of chemotherapy before I would want to do that again!

Now, he we are, one year after that terrible day that changed our lives forever. One of the lessons I've learned is that we cannot live in constant fear. I know people that do and they are constantly misserable. We must realize that God is in control, not us. Jeff and I made many changes just months before Ben was diagnosed. We look back now and see that God was preparing us for what was ahead. We give all glory to God for Benajmin's healing and remission statis! He will never leave us or forsake us. The Bible never promises we won't have any troubles or trials, but it does promise that God will give us the strength to get through it, no matter the outcome!

That is why this is a celebrated anniversary! We know many families that didn't have the chance to celebrate their anniversary, so we will continue to be thankful for everyday and pray for many more anniversaries to come.

Thank you to EVERYONE who helped us get through this past year. We could never done it without the prayers and support of our families, friends, and total strangers that have touched our lives so deeply. A million thank you's would never be enough to say how blessed we are that you support our family and remeber us in your prayers!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

May the love of Christ shine in your life and bring peace to your hearts and may he continue to bless you richly in His Kingdom and in His Glory.

God Bless,
Sherri and family

Monday, July 21, 2003 1:55 PM CDT

Hello everyone,

Ugh! This is the second time that I am writing this letter because I accidentaly forgot to hit one key stroke before and all was lost!! I willl attempt this again!

Benjamin had his doctors appointment last Tuesday. He weighed 41.8 pounds, which is about what he has been weighing. He also had a chest x-ray done. Dr. Ruymann told us that it looked good. The radiation techs at Children's are so good! Benjamin took Emily's new cat that she got at Kings Island last week with him. The techs asked if they could take a picture of the cat too! Of course, Benjamin said Yes!!! You could see little beads in all of the cats paws and tail. They actually printed out the x-ray so he could take it home for the other kids to see!! Thanks Children's for giving us some fun, even in the middle of these tests!!!

On Thursday, we were all off to Deer Creek State Park for 4 days of camping!!! We were lucky enough to go with four other families from our church!! We went hiking and swimming and boating and more swimming. Did I mention swimming? There is a sandy 400 yard long beach. The kids enjoyed going back and forth from water to sand, water to sand. We played frisbes and games in the water. We also dug holes in the sand and filled them with water and played with tons of toys. It was great!!! On Saturday we went boating and inner tubing. The kids road around on the boat. Emily was the only kid brave enough (imagine that)to ride in the inner tube. I am still so sore! My arms and shoulders feel like I've been lifting weights for thae past week!!! We also docked the boat out in the middle of the lake and swam. We all looked like lobsters, even after I coated us head to toe multiple times with sun screen. We also had some great food! Bob, one of the guys there, is an avid fisherman. He brought with him tuna steaks that we cooked over the open flame! We also had parsley potatoes, grilled onions and peppers, and grilled portabella mushrooms!! Of course, we also had your "normal" camping food like hambergers, hot dogs, and brats! We also had many visits from a multitued of little critters! The first night, Jeff and I were sitting around the campfire after the kids had gone to bed. Jeff said, "Don't Move"! I turned around to see a skunk right beside my chair! Jeff jumped up and the skunk decided to turn around the other way. We also saw raccoons (which liked to circle our tent) and groundhogs. The park ranger said that the critters are so used to people they will practically come up and eat out of your hand. Thanks, but no thanks. We didn't try that trick! One night a coyote howled all night long. Jeff didn't like that too well. I was able to sleep better than he was! By the last night we were both pretty sore from sleeping on the hard ground. We decided if we were going to do this often, we will need some sort of camper!!!

This week should be a lot less hectic. Emily and I are going to Round Lake Christian Assembly on Friday for day camp. Jeff is going with the junior/senior high youth group to Cedar Point on Friday. My attempts to pon my other three children off on some unsuspecting person has been thwarted thus far. I will continue onward though! (haha)

Benjamins next appointment is on August 8th. He will have a repeat of all of his scans. Pray for continued remmission. Thanks for checking in!

God Bless,
Sherri

Monday, July 21, 2003 9:36 AM CDT

Hello everyone,

It has been another fun filled exciting week at the Thomas household. Benjamin's doctor appointment on Tuesday went well. He is weighing 41.8 pounds, which is abouit the same as he has been weighing. He had a chest x-ray done, which doctor Ruymann said looked fine. The x-ray techs at Children's are so good with the kids. Ben had taken Emily's new stuffed cat that she had gotten from Kings Island with him. The techs asked him if he wanted an x-ray of his cat too! Of course he did, so now we have an x-ray of the stuffed cat! It's really pretty cool. You can see the little round balls inside and it makes an outline of the cat. They are so good there! It helps make all the scarry and cumbersome tests go smoother and adds a little fun too!

On Thursday we headed of to Deer Creek State Park to go camping!!! We met four other families from church there. We had a great time! We hiked and swam and boated and swam some more, not to mention eat!! Bob, one of the guys in our group, is an avid fisherman and he brought fresh tuna steaks from his last fishing trip. Wow, was that good. Fresh fish baked over an open fire. My kids aren't like most kids I've found out, they love fish. We have fish regularly at our house, but I guess this isn't the normal practice! Ben and Dillon both ate 3 pices each!! McKenzie, our niece, came with us and Emily were very daring, as they tried raw fish! (We were with a group from our church that are native Hawaiians; they eat raw fish all the time). I don't think they liked it (it didn't taste bad it just had a strange texture). We also had potatoes and roasted peppers and portabella mushrooms (boy weren't we roughing it!) We also had your normal "camping food", hamburgers ans hotdogs and beans, etc.. The food was great!!

We went boating and inner tubing all of Saturday. There was a huge sandy beach there (300-400 yards long) which the kids loved to play and swim at. Evenings were very exciting too. Every night we had visits from little critters. The first night I was sitting by the fire in a chair and Jeff said, "don't move!" There was a skunk right behind my chair. Jeff stood up and that made it turn around and walk the other way! He sure wasn't in a hurry. The park ranger said that the will get close enough to eat right out of your hand. Needless to say we didn't try that!!! We also had raccoons and groundhogs. One night we heard a coyote howling. Jeff didn't like that to well! We had a great time, but Jeff and I decided we need a real bed to sleep in instead of the ground! It gets very hard very fast! I think we all really enjoyed the time away!

This week will be slower. Friday Emily and I will be going to day camp at Roundlake Christian Assembly. Jeff will be going to Cedar Point with the junior/senior high youth group. I'm not sure what I will be doing with the other kids. My plans to pon them off on some unsuspecting person have been thwarted. It will work out though!

On August 8th, Ben is due for his round of scans. I know we will continue to have good news! Praise Jesus! Thanks for checking in on us!!

God Bless,
Sherri

Saturday, July 12, 2003 10:35 AM CDT

Hello everyone,

Our busy summer continues to fly by so quickly! This past week was our Vacation Bible School at church. Let me tell you, it is anything but a vacation for those behind the scenes! It takes a lot of planning, preparing, and execution to pull off a successful VBS! I think we did a great job again! We had 105 kids this year. Our theme was "Son county harvest fair". All the kids had a great time making crafts, listing to stories, eating, and singing. On Friday, (yesterday) we had a big carnival with games and food and the kids got all kinds of prizes and candy! We even had a petting zoo with ducks, rabbits, horses, alpacas (a small, nicer version of a lama), and goats.

On Wednesday we all went to Kings Island complements of Adventures for Wish Kids. Kings Island provides parking, admition to the park, and had a big picnic for us. Each kid also got ten scooby bucks to spend wherever they wanted. It rained once at 3:30 and then at 7:30 the thunderstorms really came through. It worked out ok. We just left and went to eat. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant that was really good. We stayed right on Kings Mill road at Holiday Inn. The storms went through by 10:00pm and we even watched the fireworks from our hotel room. After the fireworks we went swimming. We stayed in the pool until 11:30! We slept in the next mornign and then came home. The kids had a great time! We even ran into Steven Householder, Ben's new friend and Emily's new boyfriend!! They were too cute! The held hands all around the park and road the rollercoasters together. I think they were both scared, but neither wanted to tell the other one, so they ended up riding the Beastie, and Reptar. Benjamin road the Racer with me and loved it. I couldn't believe he wasn't scared. Emily wouldn't ride, because the first thing that morning I took her on the Beast. I forgot how high and fast that ride is! Needless to say, she was freaked out! I don't think she will be riding anymore big coasters for awhile.

This Tuesday Ben has a clinic check up appointment. I am interested to see how his weight is holding up. On Thursday we are going camping with a group of people from church. I will update next week! God Bless!

Sherri

Tuesday, July 8, 2003 11:59 AM CDT

Hello everyone,

Well, nothing has changed! It has been absolutely crazy around here! Benjamin had his swallow study on July 3rd and it was pretty much normal. He doesn't have any strictures in his throat. He does slightly aspirate (fluid goes into the lungs instead of the esophagus) when he drinks from a straw. This is good news except now we have to try to break him from this weired, move my head around thing!

On July 3rd we all packed up and went to the Adams Mark Hotel downtown for a little party hosted by KIDS N KAMP, before Red, White and Boom. The kids and Jeff got to ride on the KIDS N KAMP float. I walked along side with a lot of the other parents. It was great! When we got to the hotel they had a big bag of goodies waiting for us! We all got t-shirts. The had made head dresses for Emily and I, made out of red, white and blue streamers and stars! The boys got white hats (Benjamin has his on in his new picture above). The also had little battery operated flashlight flags for the kids to hold and wave. Those were a big hit! They had a tattoo table with all kinds of american flags and stars and hearts and everything you can think of. The kids had a great time putting them all over themselves and Jeff and me. We had hotdogs and chips and cookies! We all had a great time. After dinner, we were off to the float. The kids loved waving to the croud. The croud was really great. Many times down the parade route people clapped for the kids. It brought tears to my eyes everytime. They definitely deserve a standing ovation for everything they've gone through. It was nice to see that the croud recoginized that! We met some new people families. One had a six year old boy named Steven. He was diagnosed with ALL (acute lymphocytic leukemia) this past October. Emily made friends with a him fast. They were holding hands by the time the parade was over!!! Jeff put Stevens web page address on our home page. He was just too cute!!!

On the fourth we went to the parade in Pickerington. This has been an annual event for the kids and I every year! They love it! It was really hot, but there was a slight breeze. Jeff bought everyone snow cones and it was really fun. They especially like the fire trucks and policemen. Dillon kept yelling, "that's what I'm going to be!" at the firetrucks!! After that we went to church for fun and games. The kids got to do relay races and water games! We didn't go to any fireworks that night. We were all pretty tired and I had to be at work at 11:00 pm. It stormed here really bad at 9:45. I think that they let off the fire works early. We have gotten a big storm here everyday since. Last night there were 60-70 mph winds. Trees were blown down everywhere and most of Columbus lost their electricity. We were spared most of it, as it went North of us.

This week is vacation bible school at church. It is a farm theme this year and the kids are having a great time. Everynight I load up the van with all of the neighborhood kids and away we go! Tonight I will have eight kids! I think it's a great way for the kids to be exposed to church, while having a fun time singing and playing. This church really goes above and beyond! The crafts are always a major project. Everyone works really hard to make sure the kids have a great time!

Tomorrow we are going to Kings Island with Adventures for Wish Kids. I think they are a subsidiary of Make-a-
Wish Foundation. (don't quote me on that) They pay for all of us to get in and we have a big lunch in the afternoon. I hope it's not too hot! We went ahead and got a hotel room so if we need to take a break in the afternoon we can. Also, we will be able to stay for the fireworks and then go crash in bed! My dad and Carolyn has graciously offered to keep Zoey for us. We thought that it would be way to hot and too much for her. Thanks guys!!

Benjamins repeat scans will be on August 8th. I really haven't have time to think about them much. He has been very active this summer. I know that they will show no cancer. The kids bible verse fits well this week: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. Psalms 3:5 We will continue to trust in Him and take one day at a time. God Bless you and your family.

Love,
Sherri

Wednesday, June 25, 2003 9:49 AM CDT

Hello everyone,

Boy, have a lot of things happened since I wrote last! The summer is in full swing here and we are have been very busy. Last week Jeff went and got a pool. It is 15 feet wide and 3 foot deep. The kids absolutly love it! It is so much easier than loading up 4 kids, towels, snacks, drinks, sunscreen, and whatever else I need to pack to make a successful pool trip! They just get in and out multiple times during the day. It has been great! I need to thank friends at work, Ohio State University ER, for donating money for us to get the pool! I would love to thank them personally, but they gave anonymously. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Benjamin had his "bump" taken out last Friday! Yea!!!!! It went off without a hitch. The surgery only lasted about 30 minutes and he did very well. Even though surgery is very scary, I sat there and reflected back on the last year. Wow, has it gone by fast and slow at the same time! A short 11 months ago we were sending our son to the OR. We had no idea what was going on and obviously didn't know what was in store for us! That night we were told that he had cancer. One week later, we were sending him to the OR again, but this time we were in the fight of our lives! He had his "bump" placed, a double hip bone marrow biopsy, and a lumbar puncture. Well, now we can look back and say thank you Lord for sparing him! Thank you that this nasty disease wasn't in his brain or lungs or liver or spinal fluid or bone marrow! What a different feeling it was to send him off to OR knowing what he had gone through and knowing that after all the terrible, horrible days and nights of chemo and radiation it was worth it! To be disease free and in remission, thank you God for your grace and mercy!

I was prepared for him to wake up extremely grumpy from surgery, but he didn't! His chest is still pretty sore. He has been taking motrin to help relieve the pain. Grandma and Grandpa Thomas were there and came over to the house after surgery to visit! That evening Jeff and Benjamin went to the Relay for Life in Pickerington. Ben's little friend Benjamin Jones was also there. Jeff said they had a great time! I was in Newark at Emily's baseball game with Dillon. The night before, Thurday night, Jeff and I and the kids drove up to Mansfield and met my dad and stepmom at the Dutch Kitchen. We all had a good time at dinner and then they took Zoey with them to Lake Erie for the weekend! They so she did great! She must of, or they are really good liars!

Bright and early Saturday morning we all packed up (minus Zoey) and headed off for the Northwest corner of Ohio. My cousin Jeff got married. We got to the hotel early and the kids swam. Emily and I headed off to the wedding (it was a full Catholic Mass)so Jeff and the boys stayed back at the hotel. The reception was wonderful. It was only about 100 yards from the hotel we were staying at, so the party went on for hours!!! I left around 9:00 pm and went back to the pool and swam with the kids until about 11:00! We had a great time. The next morning we packed up again and headed off for Dayton. We took the kids to the Air Force Museum. It was a fun time and the kids really enjoyed it. We watched an IMAX movie on the Blue Angels. The kids really enjoyed the big movie screen. We were planning on staying in a hotel in Dayton, but I got on the wrong road. When we got back to the interstate, we were in Springfield! Since we were almost home, we just stopped for dinner and headed back. We had a nice weekend away from home!

What's next? Benjamin has a swallow study on July 3rd. His scans are going to be repeated the first of August. I hope that you are all enjoying the hot weather we are finally having. God bless!

Love,
Sherri

Saturday, June 14, 2003 4:11 PM CDT

Hello everyone,
It very strange for me to be writting to "everyone". The reason why I say it is strange, because I don't know if anyone is reading ny journal entries or not. I know that his treatment is over and I'm not sure if people are still checking his web page. Recently I read another childs web page and her mom stated that it is very theraputic for her to write all that is going on and that it helps her to deal with her emotions! This is very true. Also, someday I wold love to print out all of my journal entries and keep them in a notebook for Benjamin to keep, so when he is older he will know how brave and strong he is and how God has a special plan for his life. Thank you Emily in RI for checking in on us everyday and for signing Ben's guest book! You are wonderful! I do know that other mom's we have met this year at Children's and grown close to check our page. So I will continue to write and update, if only to myself, what's going on!

We've had a busy week. I worked a whole bunch and Emily had two baseball games. She is playing baseball, in Newark, this year because they wouldn't let her play softball in Pickerington because she is too young. Boy did they make a stupid mistake! She is playing in the minor league at North Newark. She is playing in the 7-8 year old league that hits off the pitching machine. The league was nice enough to let her tryout snce she is younger than seven. She made the team and is the only six year old and the only girl! She is doing great! She bats anywhere between 3rd and 6th in the line up of 13. She also catches! She came home one day and told me to ask the coach if she could catch. I asked her why and she said, "because I'm not afraid of the ball and the boys are"! There was another little boy, Kevin, who went home after their first practice and told his mom that there was a girl on their team and she wasn't afraid of the and she was good! It's been really fun. She's hitting 650. Not to bad!

I took Zoey to get her pictures taken yesterday. They turned out great! One picture she is in a little 2 piece bathing suit sitting on a lounge chai with pails and shovels all around her. Too cute!!!

Dillon is getting so big. He is excited to start pre-school this fall. I think he will do great!

Benjamin is still eating well and he has been off the megace (the medicine that stimulates his appetite) for 4 days now. Next Friday, June 20th, he has surgery to remove his implantafix (the bump) in his chest. On July 3rd he will have a swallow study done to see if his esophagus is ok after all that radiation. He still makes that weired bird neck stretching thing, so we will try to find out what is causing that. Other than that, his energy is great and he has been running around playing great!

Yesterday we had the privalege of hosting a cookout for Brittany Crabtree, a friend of ours from Children's, who just finished her treatment for Ewing's Sarcoma, a type of bone cancer. Brittany is playing in a softball tournament this weekend in Pickerington, so we got to see her play and then she and her mom, aunt, and cousin came over to our house. We had a great time. Please keep Brittany in your prayers. Even though she has finished treatment, they have found some "spots" on her lungs on her CT scan. She will be undergoing surgery to have them biopsied to see what they are. Please pray for complete healing and this "spots" would be nothing or even gone by the time she is scheduled to go to surgery.

Today we had Ben's benefit fund luncheon. We have to thank Miller Essenplatz for donating everything!!! The food, the banquet room, the servers, everything!!! Thank you Ruth and Marlin Miller! You guys are great friends and wonderful people. We can't thank you enough! Thank you to everyone who came! We had a great time. Also I want to thank Mark Quisenberry, a friend of ours for donating the Ohio State Football that he had Jim Tressel sign! He also gave Benjamin a football signed by the New York Jets!!! How cool is that! Thanks Mark and Belinda.

Thank you checking in and for your continued prayers.
God Bless,
Sherri

Wednesday, June 4, 2003 1:13 PM CDT

Hello everyone,

Benjamin had another clinic appointment yesterday. His weight has continued to go up. He has been off the TPN (iv nutrition) for two weeks. Our nurse, Stacy, will be making an appointment for surgery to have his mediport in his chest taken out! He is very excited.

Like most things, once you get one thing fixed, something else happens. Benjamin has started to do this really weird things with his neck. He lifts his chin up to sky like a little bird getting food from its mother. He also has been chocking a little on sosme food. Dr. Ruymann is going over his last MRI to see if he notices anything different. He doesn't complain of any pain and when I ask him why he's doing it, he says he doesn't know. If they don't find anything on his MRI we will just wait and see. Other thatn that he feels fine. He has been playing outside. His stamina is starting to come back and he isn't as tired in the evening.

On Sunday Jeff and I re-inacted the no more sleeping in mom and dad's bed policy! As you can imagine, this has not gone over very well!! It all started when Ben got diagnosed. We got a toddler bed in our room beside our bed for him to sleep in. When he started sleeping in our room the other two cried. So, for a while they would come in our room and fall asleep and then we would carry them to their beds. Well, it go to a point where they were all three in our bed and they didn't go to sleep until we did!! On many a nights, I told Emily to turn off the tv before she went to sleep. Emily and Dillon have taken it a lot better than Ben. He cries and begs and then starts with the list of complaints: my stomach hurts, my legs hurt, I'm going to throw up, I'm scared, and on and on, and on, it goes. I know it will get easier and I'm at the point of where I'm tired of kids sleeping on top of me all night!

Moday we got to play with Ben's friend Benjamin Jones. He lives down the street from us. We all had a great time playing ion their back yard. We met Ben at Childrens. He has just completted a long year of treatment, but is looking great!!! Go Ben! Thanks Ann for letting my crazy crew take over your backyard!!!

Emily has her last day of Kindergaden on Friday! I can't believe it! Dillon is doing great and poor Zoey keeps falling and wacking her face, so I haven't been able to get her 1 year pictures taken yet! As soon as one bruise clears up, WACK!, there's another one! Benjamin should start kindergarden on time this fall. That should be interesting!

We are having a benifit luncheon on Saturday June 14th @ 11:30. If you are interested contact us on the web page listed below!

God Bless,
Sherri

Saturday, May 31, 2003 1:49 PM CDT

Well, so much for not having anymore doctors visits for 4 weeks. Ben has to go to the Clinic this Tuesday for more blood work, a physical, and his weight. He has been off his TPN for 110 days and is eating well. We are continuing him on his megace (medicine to stimulate his appetite). If he has gained weight and if his counts are all ok on Tuesday, we will make an appointment to get his "bump" out of his chest. He is very excited and wants to know if he can keep his bump after they take it out. I told him that I'm not sure, but we can ask the surgeon. I will update again on Tuesday.

Remember to keep Saturday June 14th open for a great lunch at Miller Essenplatz in Newark to reaise money for Benjamins benefit fund! If you have questions, just click on Jeff's email at the bottom of this page!

God Bless,
Sherri

Thursday, May 22, 2003 7:38 AM CDT

Hello everyone,
I know it's been awhile since I've written. I just wanted to take a little break after that last chemo!!! Ben is doing well. We've still had multiple doctors visits and blood draws and one ER visit. On Saturday the 10th, I was working and Jeff was home with the kids. Ben and a whole bunch of neighbor kids were out playing and running around. Well, Emily and Ben collided, and Benjamin kept complaining about his chest hurting where his mediport was and he wouldn't use his left arm. We were afraid that maybe he cracked the port or dislodged it somehow. Thankfully we weren't busy at work, so I left and met Jeff at Children's ER. They did a chest x-ray and the port was fine. We flushed it with the usual saline and heparin and it worked ok, so we got to go home.

We had are regular clinic appointment on Tuesday the 13th. Ben's weight has been steady, but Stacy our nurse, wanted him to stay on the TPN (the IV nutrition that he gets every other night) until his counts came back up. We got a call that night from the clinic that his hemoglobin was only 7.0 (normal is 12-15). Benjamin gets a transfusion when his counts are below 8.0. So on Thursday, we were back at the clinic to get a unit of blood. The next day, Friday, he had to have more blood drawn to see if his white count was up enough to stop his GCSF shots. His WBC was 6.1, which is great and he got to hopefully take the last GCSF shot that he ever had to take again!! On this past Tuesday, the 20th, he had another clinic appointment. Finally, we are weening him off of his TPN. This week he will cut his TPN calories in half. We also started him on a medication called megace. It works as an appetite stimulant to help him to eat more. He's been eating, but he doesn't start until about 5:00pm. I must say, it is very annoying to be fixing food at 10:00pm while I am trying to get all the kids to bed. He just started on it yesterday, so we will see. It has worked wonders in many of the kids we know from Children's. As soon as we get to maintain his weight, we can have his "bump", as Ben calls it, taken out of his chest! We get to monitor his weight here at home and finaly, after 11 months, we don't have a weekly doctors appointment for 4 weeks! Yipeeeee!

I am busy working at full capacitiy again (40-50 hours a week) and Jeff is just as busy watching all these rug rats at home. We are busy with Emily playing soccer and baseball right now. She is doing great. School will be done on June 6th, (thank God) and hopefully we can have a much needed fun summer. I need to talk to the people at make-a-wish, but we are planning on going to Disney World this October. The kids are very excited and so are we!!! Dillon and Zoey are doing fine. Zoey is starting to get her two front teeth (all she has is the bottom two) and she is now running around like a little maniac. Dillon keeps us laughing and is really starting to grow up. Jeff is trying not to go crazy at home with all these kids, but we've decided that it's best for him to stay home right now. Benjamin is to start Kindergarden this fall and Emily will be in first grade, so things should start to get a little easier!! Work for me is the typical busy ER. I love the people I work with though, so it makes it much easier to go in everyday.

If anyone is interested, we are having a benefit luncheon on Saturday June 14th @ 11:30 at Miler Essenplatz Amish Restaurant in Newark, Ohio. It is located near the Longaberger Basket Headquaters on route 16. I will be writting more later on that. You can e-mail us with any questions!

I hope this letter finds you all well, thanks for keeping up with Ben and are family. God Bless.

Sherri

Wednesday, May 7, 2003 1:16 PM CDT

OUR LAST CHEMO IS DONE!!!!!


I WILL PRAISE THE LORD NO MATTER WHT HAPPENS. I WILL CONSTANTLY SPEAK OF HIS GLORIES AND GRACE. I WILL BOAST OF ALL HIS KINDNESS TO ME. LET ALL WHO ARE DISCOURAGED TAKE HEART. LET US PRAISE THE NAME LORD TOGETHER, AND EXALT HIS NAME! PSALMS 34:1-3

IT IS GOOD TO SAY, "THANK YOU" TO THE LORD. PSALMS 92:1a

HALLELUJAH! I WANT TO EXPRESS PUBLICLY BEFORE HIS PEOPLE MY HEARTFELT THANKS TO GOD FOR HIS MIGHTY MIRACLES. FOR HIS MIRACLES DEMONSTRATE HIS HONOR, MAJESTY, AND ETERNAL GOODNESS. PSALMS 111:1,3


These are a few verses from the Old Testament that thank God and also say a little of how we feel. We want to thank God for being so faithful, merciful and gracious!

Benjmain is home and feeling fine. He did throw up this morning, but he made it through his chemo treatment without getting sick!! We had a small party on J5 for immediate family and staff. We are planning a bigger party this summer for everyone to come and celebrate!

Benjamin's last stay was actually not fun for him. He had to be sedated on Monday for a bone scan and also on Tuesday for his MRI. Needless to say, he slept pretty much the entire two days at the hospital. He was awake for his party though and he got some really cool gifts! It was a superhero kind of day! He had a big cake decorated in Superman. We want to thank Rene, the owner, of Matzalans Mexican Restarant on 256, in Pickerington, for donating all the delicious food. (It is Benjamins favorite restarant) We had enchilatas, refried beans and rice! Thanks Rene!

We were thrilled to have Delaney and her family (Renee, Emily and Josh) come and join in the celebration! You all look great!!!

Well, one chapter is over and another one is about to begin. We are thrilled to be done with chemo, but I must admit, it is also a little scary to think that the treatment is done. Now is time to pray and wait and see if everything we've gone through this year has truely killed this terrible disease! We have good news already! His bone scan, CT scan, and MRI all came back with the same results as in January-- NO CANCER!!! Thank you Jesus!

The plan now is to get him eating and off of the TPN (IV nutrition that he gets at night) that he gets every other day. He wants his "bump" (the large port that sits under his skin) taken out, so eating is a good motivational tool for that. Hopefully his food intake will pick up. The plan right now is to cut him off of the TPN cold turkey on May 20th. After he maintaines his weight, he will have to have surgery to remove the port. Then it will be monthly blood draws, doctors visits and every three months he will need to have the bone scan, CT scan, and MRI repeated.

Things will hopefully start to get back to normal and here (if you can call our family normal?!) and good time too, just for summer!!!

Well, it's time for me to go and feed the clan dinner. Thank you for your support through the last ten months!

God Bless,
Sherri

Saturday, May 3, 2003 8:37 PM CDT

Hello everyone,
The kids, Jeff and I have had a busy week! Benjamin's blood counts on Tuesday were een better than last Friday's. His platlet count went up on it's own, so he didn't need a transfusion and he isn't bruising as bad as he was. Thursday Emily had soccer practice and the kids were able to play on a playground before and after her practice. It is great to see Ben up running around. We kind of pay for it in thew evening though. He gets very tired and extremely grouchy. He also gets very emotional and cries at the drop of a hat. When I tell him to take slow breaths and to try to calm down he just cries harder and says, "I'm trying but I can't". Our nurse practioner tells us that it is a side effect of his chemo. We will be done with that soon thank the Lord.

Back to our schedule. We had a play date in Deleware Friday morning. A good friend of mine recently built a beautiful house off of Route 36. The kids had a great time playing with her kids. Thanks Nicole. Friday evening Emily had a baseball game. Her team ended up tieing, which was great, because they were behind 9-0. Emily is doing good, especially for being the youngest player and only girl on the team.

Today was a busy day also. We went to the Ohio State University Softball game today. My friend and former team mate, Belinda Cernava, is now the Assistant Coach. They had a raffle for t-shirts, jerseys, helmet, signed posters, and all kinds of good stuff. The grand prize was a signed autograph football from Archie Griffin! They raised $763.00! Thank you OSU softball and Belinda for helping us!!! After the game, we were of to the Barnum and Baily Circus with our friend Michelle and her daughter Danelle. The kids loved it, but boy were the prices expensive! It cost $10.00 for a snow cone! No, I am not kidding! Cotton candy was $10.00 also! Needless to say, we didn't get much there!! We did go to the Spaghetti Wharehouse afterwards! The kids had a good time. Thank you Sheila for watching Zoey!

Monday is our last chemo! I can't believe it!!! We our going to have a party on J5 at 6:30. We are so excited. I know we are a long way from being done, but this is one chapter that has come to a close. Thank you to everyone who has helped us get to this point! God Bless you! Thank you for your prayers and support! We love you all!

In Christ name,
Sherri

Tuesday, April 29, 2003 9:00 AM CDT

Hello everyone,
Thankfully it has been an uneventful week. Benjamin had to have his blood drawn last Friday and that was the only doctors visit we had!!! His counts were good except for his platlets, which were 43,000. That explains why he looks like we've beat him! They weren't low enough to have to get a transfusion though. His supposed to get his labs drawn again today.

Next Monday is his LAST CHEMO!!! We are all very excited! I can't believe it's been 10 months since this all started. Benjamin has been playing outside and running around. He does get tired by the end of the day and he occasionaly has to take a nap, but in general, he's doing great!

I will update again soon.

God Bless,
Sherri

Tuesday, April 22, 2003 6:45 PM CDT

CHRIST IS RISEN, HE HAS RISEN INDEED!!!


Hello everyone,
I'm sorry it's taken so long to write. As you can imagine it has been very chatoic around here. Since I wrote last on Friday morning a lot has happened. Friday night was very scary and a long night for Jeff and I. Benjamin's temperature got as high as 106 degrees. He had to be packed in ice and placed on a cooling blanket. We were giving him tylenol (the maximum amount he could get) every four hours, but he would spike a fever every two to three hours. Even with the tylenol, his temp would only go down to 101.6 degrees. Thank God that his blood pressure didn't drop or he would have been put in the intensive care unit. I left at 7:15am to pick up Zoey from my Aunt Julie, who was kind enough to keep her. I also got to take Emily, Zoey, and Dillon to our Easter egg hunt at our church. They all had a great time. Dawn and Caleb were gracious enough to take Zoey for the day and we headed off to the hospital. We met with the doctors and they told us that Benjamin grew two different types of bacteria. One was Pseudomonas. A type of bacteria that is found in water. He could have gotten it anywhere. From a bath tube to drinking water. The second infection was in one side of his port of his IV and this was the scary one, e-coli. The doctors told us that he was very sick, but holding his own. Actually, they were suprised that he wasn't in the ICU. The good news was, he wasn't in the ICU, and we finaly knew what was causing the fevers. He was started on two additional antibiotics. His fevers continued to spike up to 104 degrees. Saturday night I went home with the kids and had to get ready for the Easter Bunny. I also had to peel potatoes for Easter dinner. We also were having Zoey's birthday party, along with her cousins (Nathan and McKenzie), on Easter day. Sunday morning we all got up and went to church and then we came home to cook and mash potatoes, very quickly. Off to Newark we went. We had wonderful, beautiful weather and the kids had a great time. The went fishing at my sister-in-laws pond. We had great food and a fun time. Zoey got tons of new clothes. The kids just had a great time playing. I must say Jeff didn't have as great of time at the hospital. He was getting a little stir crazy, not to mention grumpy. Ben was doing a little better. His temps were down to 103 overnight and they weren't as high during the day. Sheila came over to the house so that I could go to the hospital Sunday evening. Ben was feeling much. He was sitting up playing video games. Jeff went home for some much needed rest and I stayed with Ben. Sunday night was the best night we had had. They stopped his tylenol every four hours and they finaly stopped taking his temperature every hour. Finaly, some sleep! He went all night Sunday without a fever. Praise the Lord! Monday was a regular day at the hospital. Jeff brought over Zoey and Dillon after Emily went to school. My Aunt Julie was gracious enough to pick up Zoey again and keep her for us. Jeff got to go home again. Much to our suprise, Ben and I got to go home late Tuesday afternoon. We have to give him two different IV antibiotics every 8 hours for the next 10 days, but we're home. Ben is feeling much better now and is acting like his usual ornary self, fighting with his brother and sister. Isn't it great!!!! Praise the Lord for coming to be our sacrifice. He is gracious and merciful and I know that Benjamin is a walking miracle everyday. Thank you Pickerington Christian Church for your constent support and prayers. We are truely blessed to be members of your congregation. I know I wrote a lot, but I know people want to be updated. Thank you for hanging in there with us. We love you all.

God Bless,
Sherri and family

Friday, April 18, 2003 4:28 PM CDT

Well, this letter is brought to you from Children's Hospital. Last night at 1:00am Benjamin started throwing up. Jeff and I rushed to his bedside to grab the puke bucket and when we felt him he was burning up. We took his temperature and it was 103.2 degrees. He also told me that his heart was beating really fast. I took his pulse and it was 150. We called the doctor on call and he told us to bring him to the ER. Jeff got dressed quickly and headed off to the ER. I called our wonderful, terrific, servantly (is that a word?) youth minister Caleb and his wife Dawn who were soundly sleeping. They came over right away and I went to the ER. When Jeff had got there with him his fever had gone to 103.8 and his heart rate was 170! They started him on I.V. fluids right away. His blood pressure dropped to 80/30 and the gave him even more fluid to try to stabilize his vital signs. After the motrin kicked in around 4:00am he was doing much better.

Our youth minister called the senior minister, Con, to let him know we were on the way to the hospital. I must say that I was a little shaken up. He's never had a fever this high before and I was worried. I prayed most of the was to the hospital. This is what prompted Con to meet us in the ER at 2:30 in the morning. Dawn told me that she had never seen me that worried or up set. Thank you Con for getting up in the middle of the night to come to the ER to be with and Benjamin and to give us comfort and prayer when we needed it! Thank you Jesus for being so faithful!

Well, now it's Friday evening and Ben continues to spike fevers. At 5:00pm it was back up to 103. The medical staff thinks that it is his sinuses again and we are playing the wait and see game to see how he responds to the antibiotics. The tylenol brings the fever down for a while then up it goes again. He feels terrible with the fever spikes and I can tell when it's going up because he starts shaking uncontrolably and complains of being cold. Hopefully by tomorrow his fevers will be down and we will know a little more of what's going on.

Thank you to my Aunt Julie who is keeping Zoey for us tonight and thank you to my sister Sheila for keeping Emily and Dillon. Thank you for your continued prayers!

God Bless,
Sherri

Tuesday, April 15, 2003 1:38 PM CDT

Hello everyone,
Well, we just got home from another chemo! We only have two outpatient and one more in patient left!!!! Benjamin did fairly well. The actual problems started at 3:00 am Monday morning. Benjamin woke up in the middle of the night screaming that his legs hurt. I went and laid on the floor beside his bed. He got on the floor with me and begged me to rub his legs. This went on until 6:30 in the morning. Finally I said, lets get in the bathtub. This seemed to help a lot. We got to the hospital early this time and the chemo was hung at 12:00 noon. He had to get a blood transfusion because his hemoglobin was down to 8.0 He reiceves tylenol and benadryl before his transfusions to help keep him from having a transfusion reaction. (After having multiple transfusions your body will start to form antibiodies which increases your chances of having a transfusion reaction. That is a fancy way of saying your body doesn't like foreign objects. And the more times you introduce those foreign objects the bigger chance of a reaction.) So, we give benadryl and tylenol to help reduce those antibodies. Benadryl hs multiple uses. One is that it is a histamine blocker and another is a sleep aid. So, needless to say, Ben fell asleep after the benadryl which was given at 2:00pm. Now, you have to remember that he was up all night too. So he was already tired. Well, he slept until 7:00pm. He must of really been tired!!!

Before he got the benadryl, he was having a great time. He was running around shooting water at the doctors, nurses, and techs. He was filling up a 5cc syringe full of water and hidding it behind his back. It was quite funny and the staff there is wonderful. They love to see the kids up running in the halls acting ornary, because they know that means they are feeling better!!

After he was done soaking everybody on the floor, we were going back to his room and he acidentaly stepped on his IV tubing and he ripped the needle out of his chest. The needle then went back into his skin, but it was well below where it was supposed to be. The poor little guy! We had to take that needle out and start all over. He was so upset! I'm sure that it had to hurt terribly to have it ripped out like that! I think all this trauma also had an impact of him sleeping all day!

He threw up three times this time, but he realy handles it like a trooper. He gets asks for his throw up bucket and away he goes. He did sleep well this time and he was sick before he went to sleep. He also got sick this morning. This is fairly typical for him. He usually gets sick 24 hours after the chemo has infused. He got more "belly medicine", zofran and decadron. We got to leave at 12:30pm today!!! This is the earliest we've gotten out of there yet!!

He got home and went straight outside! He is running around and ridding his bike. I think he is starting to slow down now. The sun and the wind are wonderful!! It is such a joyous time with Easter coming and this being Holy week. We hope that you have a great holiday and have good times with you family and friends. We are so thankful that this coarse of chemo is almost over. God is so merciful and gracious. We are blessed to of haved a relatively "good" year. I know this sounds strange, but we have met and mad friends with kids and families that have had tremendous challenges, relapes, illnesses, complications and even deaths. So, we are truely greatful that Benjamin has had so little side effects. We know we have a long road ahead of us. We don't know what the future will bring or how many surgeries we will have to endure to make him look "normal", but we will keep our faith, continue to thank God everyday he is with us, and be thankful.

In Christ name,
Sherri

P.S. Today is our friend Delaney's last chemo! Way to go Delaney. She too has a long road to go, but we are thankful for the end of the awful, terrible chemo and it's yukies!!

Tuesday, April 8, 2003 3:30 PM CDT

Hello everyone,
Benjamin had his weekly clinic appointment today. Good news! He didn't loose any more weight. He didn't gain, but he didn't loose. He is starting to eat a little more. This morning for breakfast he at two pieces of toast (with no crust)and butter. His favorite drink at the moment is milk, which is really weired because he hasn't had milk for the past 4 months. Who knows! Whatever he will eat and drink we are happy about. At least it's healthy!!! He has been eating more cereal too. His hemoglobin was down today to 8.0 He will need to get another blood tranfusion next week when he is admitted for chemo. He just finished the last round of antibiotics on Sunday. Time will tell if he gets another fever. Last time he got a fever four days after he finished the antibiotics. Pray that this round of meds have wiped out the infection!

Emily is proud to announce that she lost her first teeth last week! She lost her first middle bottom tooth on Monday (last week) and her second bottom middle tooth yesterday. She is so excited. I cried. Boy, do they grow up too fast. Zoey is starting to try to walk. She will be going pretty soon. Dillon is still the handsome little guy that he always is.

I hope that you and yours are doing great. Thank you for your continued prayers.

In Christ name,
Sherri

Tuesday, April 1, 2003 2:41 PM CST

Hello everyone,
I just noticed it's been a week since I've written last. Everything is pretty much status quo. Benjamin has been feeling fine. He had chemo today. The outpatient chemo doesn't effect him too much. I don't think that I mentioned that Benjamin started on every other day TPN (the food that he is getting at night). We are trying to start weening him off of the TPN on to solid food (it sounds like I'm talking about a baby!) He actually lost 2.5 pounds since last week. He still has a good appetite and wants to eat, but when he starts, he becomes nauseaed. I feel like a short order cook most days. He asks for something and I fix it, but when he takes a bite or two he decides it doesn't taste right and then I have to fix something else. This happens over and over again. I think it will just take some time for his system to start proccessing the food again. His little body hasn't had to digest food since last November!! It has been all liquids! I think that most of the problem is from the radiation and that his taste buds are way off. Hopefully over time, it will improve.

Benjamin's counts were really low today. His WBC (white blood count) was onl 300 (normal is 5,000-10,000). This just means he is at a greater risk of getting an infection. This is fairly common for him to go really low about 7-10 days after his hospitalization chemo. He is continuing to get his nightly shots of GCSF to stimulate his growth of white blood cells. Thank you Jesus that he doesn't get the side effects that a lot of the kids get. He has never complained of bone pain and hasn't ever needed pain medicine. His counts should be back up by this Friday. He has another blood draw then.

Last week was a fun week for us. Not only was the weather nice, we also had are niece and nephew staying with us! McKenzie (10) and Nathan (11) were on spring break and spent the week with us! All the kids just adore and love them. On Monday, when Benjamin was in for chemo, we were all at the hospital. The kids had a good time playing on the playground on top off Children's Hospital roof. They also played in play rooms on the floor and we all had a good visit with Ben. When he got home from Children's we played at the park and outside and took walks and slept in the tent(in the living room). We had a great time!

I hope that everyone is doing well and is enjoying the warming weather. Thank you for all of your prayers and continued support. Without people like you, we would've never made it through this year!

God Bless,
Sherri

P.S. Praise the Lord! Our friend Delaney finally got to go home last Friday after 50 days straight in Children's. We love you Delaney!

Tuesday, March 25, 2003 2:24 PM CST

Hello everyone,
Wow, have we had a busy week. Last Thursday our neighbors, who work at Palace Theatre, got our whole family tickets to Spiderman Live. Neddless to say, Benjamin was exctatic! I was very impressed. It was very athletic and most of the actors were great gymnasts. They had trampolines hidden in the set, so it looked like Spiderman was scaling the walls. They also had the Green Goblin swinging in the air on his hover board. There were also pyrotecnics and a lot of action. The kids absolutly loved it. The highlight of the night was when Spiderman ran out into the audience at the end and Benjamin got to give him a a five as he ran by. He was so excited. Emily was mad because she was sitting in a few sets and didn't get to hit his hand. Overall, we had a great evening!

The rest of the week we spent painting. We just got new carpet(boy did we need it) and new furnature for the back room. Benjamin had gotten sick on the couches one to many times.

We just got home from the hospital. We had another round of chemo. It went well and Benjamin didn't get sick. He had to get another transfusion of blood for a hemoglobin of 8.0 We only have two more scheduled chemo admissions!!! Can you believe it! Praise the lord. We are almost done with this most horrible, terrible year. We have chemo weekly and an admission on April 15 and May 5. He has a repeat MRI in either May or June. He will continue to have MRI's every three months for awhile. He will also have to take antibiotics for the next six monthes until his own immune system can rebuild enough to fight off infections by itself.

Continue to pray that Ben's sinuse infection is fought off and he will not get another fever when he finishes this coarse of antibiotics. Thank you for your continued support.

God Bless,
Sherri

Wednesday, March 19, 2003 8:59 AM CST

Hello everyone,
Well, Benjamin finally made it home yesterday. His cultures didn't grow anything and we aren't sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing? He had been on strong antibiotics before the surgery, so maybe that is the reason? He is back on antibiotics by mouth at home. He has to take another 21 day course by mouth. Believe it or not, he actually feels pretty good. Yesterday he came home and played outside and was riding his bike. We will continue to moniter his blood counts and check to see if he spikes any more fevers. Please continue to pray for us.

On a lighter note, yesterday was Zoey's birthday! My Baby is now a ONE YEAR OLD! I can't believe it! Time sure does fly by.

I must go now, I am at work. I will update again soon!

Love,
Sherri

Saturday, March 15, 2003 5:14 PM CST

Hello everyone,
We are in day 4 of our stay at the hospital. Benjamin had minor surgery yesterday on his sinuses. They went up his nostrils and put a needle into his sinuses to flush them out. We are continuing to wait and see what bacteria grow from this fluid. The good news is that the doctor seems to think that the fluid isn't a fungus. This is great news because a fungal infection is the most serious and most difficult to treat. Of course we have to wait on the cultures, but we still look at this as a positive! He continues on antibiotics, vancomyacin and ceftaz around the clock. He hasn't had a fever since Wednesday night. He actually looks really good. We went outside today for about an hour. There is a playground on top of the roof! The doctors told us that we would be here until at least Monday! Yea Ha! Oh well! I will write again soon.

God Bless,
Sherri

Thursday, March 13, 2003 12:28 AM CST

Hello everyone,
Well, we are back in Children's. Benjamin spiked a fever Tuesday night (actually very early Wednesday morning) at 2:00 am. Jeff took him to the clinic Wednesday morning because I was at work. His hemoglobin came back very low at 6.7 (normal is 13-15) He recieved a blood transfusion and bought himself an admission. His temperature was 100.8. His ANC (the equation that tells us how well he can fight off an infection) was 60. Anything below 500 is bad. Last night he had a CT Scan of his sinuses. They have told us today that they are completely full of fluid, which is most likely infection. We are waiting for an ENT consult, but he will need to have surgery to clear out his sinuses. We don't know when the surgery will be. I'm hoping tomorrow. After surgery they will culture the fluid to see what tyoe of "bugs" grow out of it. We are praying that is not a fungus. They are very difficult to treat and to get rid of, not to mention that the antibiotics are very hard on the body. There is a little girl here, Delaney, that has been going thru the same thing. She has had three of these sinus surgeries and has been in the hospital for 35 straight days. Unfortunately, she has a very nasty fungal infection, hence the long stay.

Please pray for us! Also, keep Delaney and her mom Renee, in your prayers. I can't even imagine being here for 35 days and counting!!! It is also Delaney's 7th birthday!Happy Birthday! Emily and Dillon are here at the hospital now playing with her and Ben.

God Bless,
Sherri

Monday, March 10, 2003 7:27 AM CST

Hello everyone,
Ben is doing fine. There are no real changes since the last update. He has chemo tomorrow (outpatient). I will update to let you know his blood counts and his weight.

We all really enjoyed the wonderful weather we had on Saturday and took advantage of it!! It was nice to be outside for a change and out of the house! So much for that, it was freezing this morning on the way to work.

I hope that everyone is well. God bless.

Sherri

Tuesday, March 4, 2003 11:01 AM CST

Hello everyone,
We are back in the hospital for our schedulled chemo. Benjamin did good last night. No vomiting! He did have another reaction to the phenergan. He kicked and screamed for about 30 minutes. We had to give him more benadryl. Finally, he calmed down and fell asleep. He woke up this morning asking, "when can we go home?" He really hates being in here! Can you blame the kid? We will be going home this afternoon. We are praying that he doesn't get an infection this time. (he has gotten post chemo infections the last two admissions which landed us in the hospital for an extra six days). We hope that this letter finds everyone well. Hang in there, spring is just around the corner!

God Bless,
Sherri and family

Wednesday, February 26, 2003 7:42 AM CST

Hello everyone,
I haven't written for a week, but I am thankful to say it has been very uneventful!!! Benjamin is feeling great. He is up and running around like before radiation. I think this is because of his TPN (getting fed through his IV). He has so much energy! He still takes a nap almost everyday, but he is feeling much better. He is now up to 42 pounds! His face actually looks like a chipmonk!!! Thank you for all of your continued prayers! We can't thank you enough.

God Bless,
Sherri

Monday, February 17, 2003 7:05 PM CST

Hello snowboarders and cross crountry skiers,
I hope this letter finds you all safe, warm, and cozy. Can you believe all of this snow? Emily, Dillon, and myself were out playing for 2 hours today. We had a great time. It wasn't cold, nor was the wind blowing, so it was really nice to be out. Ben wanted to go out, but I wouldn't let him. Jeff ended up taking him to Blockbuster so he could pick out a movie.

We got home from the hospital on Saturday and ended up driving in to Newark, because that is where Emily and Dillon were. We stayed at Jeff's sisters (Kelli) house. We also went to a NASCAR party on Sunday, but we left early due to all the rain delay's. The roads were really bad and that was before we got a lot of the heavy stuff Sunday night. Zoey now has two bottom teeth that are breaking thru. She has been a little fussy today. I think it's a combination of her teeth, a small cold that she has, and being shuffled around so much. She took a three and a half hour nap today.

Benjamin has a doctors appointment tomorrow for a check up and blood work. I have to go to work, so Jeff will be on his own. Good luck! I hope that everyone has a safe week!

God Bless,
Sherri

Friday, February 14, 2003 4:50 PM CST

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

Hello everyone,
Well, we are back in the hospital again. We got home Tuesday after chemo. Ben did really well this time. On Wednesday, he started complaining that his ear hurt. Jeff took him to the clinic and at that time his ear was a little red. Our nurse, Stacy, told us to see how he did overnight. Well, I was up most of the night because he was tossing and turning, coughing and running a fever of 101. So here we are. We were admitted yesterday and he had a CT scan of his head. It showed that his sinuses were blocked and the fluid also was backed up to both ears. He is now on two types of antibiotics IV. He is feeling better now that his fevers have gone down and the antibiotics have had a chance to work. He is getting ready to get a blood transfusion tonight. His hemoglobin is 7.8 It hasn't been this low since last October.

I hope that everyone has a nice Valentines Day. Thank you to Ben's school, Seton Parish, for making Ben valentines and sending candy. He loved opening the cards and was very excited to look at them all. Thank you Ms. Pat, Ms.Sherri, and Ms. Chris. We miss seeing you every week. We hope to be back soon. Benjamin misses you all terribly.

I hope that the ice, snow and cold weather aren't too much for everyone. God Bless.

Love,
Sherri and family

Monday, February 10, 2003 2:34 PM CST

Hello everyone,
We are back in the hospital again. This time it is for a scheduled admission of chemotherapy. Benjamin is feeling much better. He has gone from a lethargic, skeleton like little boy to an ornary, stubborn little stinker. (thanks to his TPN) We are thankful that he feels bad enough to act up! We hope that everyone is braving the cold and snow. God Bless!

Love,
Sherri and family

Wednesday, February 5, 2003 10:41 AM CST

Hello everyone,
I know I haven't written since last week. We are so much busier now around the house bcause I have gone back to work full time. It makes it more crazy around here, but we are trying to learn a new routine together!

We came home from the hospitl last Friday. Benjamin is getting TPN (food through his IV) 12 hours a day. I hook him up at night, usually around 9:30, and then we unhook him at 9:30 in the morning. It's pretty easy to do, just a little time consuming. Benjamin hates it because it makes him pee all night long. Thankfully he doesn't wake up. I have to put a diaper on him, (he hated this at first, now he's used to it). The problem is he gets so much fluid, he soaks through the diaper. The amount he gets is equivalent to drinking 4 cans of pop, in tweleve hours!!! No wonder he is soaking his diapers. At first I was getting up in the middle of the night and changing him, but he would still be wet in the mornign, so that didn't happen too long. Thankfully he has been sleeping on a toddler bed in our bedroom. I am really getting sick of washing bed linen every day though!!!

We have some really good news. Ben had a doctors appointment yestaerday and he has gained 5 pounds in 6 days!!!! The TPN is really working. You can especially see it when you see Benjamin. He has so much more energy. He is actually playing most of the day now. He still is taking an afternoon nap, but there has been such a change in only 6 days. He has been a real little brat, but we are working on that. At least he feels good enough to be bad!!!

Our other great, fantastic, wonderful news is that his MRI was done on Friday and it showed that his cancer is all gone! Praise the Lord! He is now considered to be in remission!! We still have a long road ahead of us, but the treatment appears to be working! He is continuing to have weekly chemo treatments until May, and will have another round of CT Scans and MRI's after chemo is done.

Zoey is starting to get her two bottom teeth in and boy is she grumpy!!! She will be walking soon and her 1st birthday is coming up (March 18th). Dillon is totally potty trained (we were still working on nights), but continues to run around buck naked 24/7. Emily is doing great and recieved all S's (the best you can get in Kindergarden) on her report card. She is starting to read books with less and less help from me. Jeff is trying not to go crazy watching kids all day. Work has been crazy for me, but it helpos to get away, poor Jeff!! He doesn't have that option. Thank you for all of your support and continued prayers!

Love,
Sherri, Jeff and Kids

Wednesday, January 29, 2003 at 09:09 PM (CST)

Hey everyone,
Well, we are back at our home away from home, Childrens Hospital. Tuesday, Jeff took Benjamin to his clinic appointment an dhe had lost more weight. He is now down to 34.32 pounds. The other problem was that he continued to throw up 4 to 5 times a day. So, it was decided that we needed to start TPN. That stands for total parental nutrition, which means he is getting fed threw his IV. We have put this off for as long as we could because there are some serious side effects to TPN. First, it can be very hard on your liver. We will be watching his liver enzymes (by blood work)very closely. Also, he is at a greater risk for infection because 1)his IV will be accessed (have a needle in his skin) all the time, which can intrduce an infection and 2)the TPN is full of sugar, which bacteria love, so he is at a greater risk of infection. Even with these risks, it is more benificial at this time for him to get the TPN. Actually, he looks and sounds much better today after only 24 hours off the feedings. He is also eating and drinking more today than he has in the past month. He drank 5 small cups of fruit punch and had a cup of M&M's. Please continue to pray that he gets stronger with this TPN and that he is free from infections. We are scheduled to go home either Friday or Saturday. It takes multiple days to get him to the caloric level that he needs to be at. So they have to do it slowly. Jeff and I are tag teaming with the kids. Sheila is helping out at night and friends are helping some during the day. Thank you to everyone helping us! God Bless you! I will write again soon.

Love,
Sherri

Monday, January 27, 2003 at 03:53 PM (CST)

Well, we finally made it home on Fridy night. Benjamin only ended up having an ear infection. They treated him with IV anti-biotics and now he has to take a ten day course of anti-biotics, by mouth, at home. He also has to take ear drops. We also started to give him zantac twice a day to help with the vomiting. Speaking of vomiting, he has continued to vomit multiple times a day. We, the doctors, nurses and myself, can't seem to figure out why he keeps throwing up. His nurse seems to think he's just reacting to chemo. So, we are plugging along, continuing to give him tube feedings and are praying for the best. Tomorrow he has another doctors appointment, so we will see how much he weighs.

We are here trying to keep warm. I hope that you are doing the same! God Bless!

Sherri

Thursday, January 23, 2003 at 02:08 PM (CST)

Dear friends,
I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to write. It has proven to be a very busy week. I will start from the begining, so bare with me.

Benjamin had inpatient chemo this past Monday. We got to the hospital early (8:45am). He got his chemo at 2:00pm that afternoon. Before his chemo he had a abdominal x-ray to see if the tube going into his small intestine was in the right place. He has been having a difficult time with his tube feedings. Evverytime that I hook him up, he has been vomiting. This has been going on for the past 3 weeks. The tube was in the right place, so the nutrition specialist came to see us. They too, were baffled, at why he began to all the suden start vomiting. After conferencing with the physician, it was decided to start back at the very begining and give him pedialyte. Which is water with electrolytes. I have been increasing the amount very slowly and he has been tolerating it well. This afternoon I will be switching him to a "heaveier" formula with calories and fat added to it. Pray that it will continue to go well. The chemo went well. He only got sick once or twice.

Tuesday was a busy day also. He had his second round of tests to see if the chemo and radiation are working like thy should. He had a chest and abdominal CAT Scan to make sure that the cancer hasn't spread anywhere. Both of those tests came back normal. Praise the Lord! Tuesday afternoon we got to come home. My dad and Carolyn had Zoey while we were at the hospital and we met them at our favorite Mexican restraunt, Matzalan, for dinner. They love Benjamin there and are so nice to our family. He asks for rice and beans from there alomost everyday. He was doing fine and even ate half of a taco and half of his rice and beans. We got ome and attempted to wrangle eveyone to bed (after we watched American Idol- I don't think I've laughed that had for a long, long time!). Ben started complaining that his ear was hurting. Insead of being a good mother and taking him to the emergency room (I had to get up at 5:30 for work the next morning) I decided to give him morphine in his tube so we could get some sleep. I know I was being lazy, but I was SLEEP DEPRIVED!!! The next morning I went to work. Well, Jeff called around 10:00am to tell me that he was still complaining of ear pain and that he had a slight temperature. We waited a couple hours and his tempature continued to go up. So, I left work early and met Jeff and Benjamin at the clinic. His fever was 101.6 and he had some drainage coming out of his left ear. So, needless to say, we got admitted to the hospital. They did cultures of his ear and sent some to cytology to make sur it was only an infection. So, here we are today, Thursday. The cultures grew back gram positive cocci ( to those of you non-medical people, a bacteria). He is feeling better and his temperature is only been 99.8 today. I'm not sure if we will be able to leave tomorrow or Saturday, it will depend on how he is feeling and if he continues to have a fever.

Please pray for us, but especially for Emily, Dillon, and Zoey. I havn't seen them all week and I know hey miss me. It has been very hard on them too! Pray for Ben to gain weight and to be able to fight off this ear infection. And for Jeff and I to have patience, peace,and rest as we continue to go through this daily!

Thank you to Karen McGarvey and Teresa Sayers for going out of their way, disrupting their lives and their families lives to take care of our children. God Bless you. Also thank you th Jeff's family for helping and to dad and Carolyn for helping with Zoey.

God Bless you all,
Sherri

Sunday, January 12, 2003 at 07:29 PM (CST)

Wow! I can't believe it's been ten days since I've written last. Not a good way to start off the new year, huh! Benjamin has been doing so, so. Our biggest challenge now is his feeding tube. Last week I didn't give him any tube feeding and he lost a pound. The problem is that he won't eat while he's getting the tube feeding because he feels full. But when I unhook his tube feeding it takes him two days to start eating again and he's not eating enough to maintain his weight. We had a new problem surface this week. Everytime I hooked him up to his tube feeding he started throwing up. This is new. We're not sure why this is happening, but he has a doctors appointment and chemo on Tuesday. Hopefully, we'll figure this out. Right now he is driving us absolutely cazy. He whines constantly, cries at the drop of a hat, is a real brat right now. I suppose that I can make it until June, Lord I hope so. I have to go because he's crying about not getting a doughnut.

Love,
Sherri and family

Thursday, January 02, 2003 at 09:50 AM (CST)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We are home now from the hospital. Benjamin had another round of chemo. He only threw up four times. He is a tough little guy and trying to hang in there. On the 31st, we all headed down to church for a New Years Eve Party. Benjamin was feeling well enough to go. He played for about two hours before he asked to go home. Jeff took Ben, Dillon, and Zoey home and Emily and I stayed up all night partying. (We got home at 3:30am) We played games and had a great time. Unfortunately, the new year didn't start out like I would have liked. Emily started throwing up at 10:00am and continued well into the afternoon. Dillon started at 8:30pm and went well into the night. I started at 2:00am and went well into the morning. I hate to report it is now coming out the other end, of all three of us!!! I hope that the others, especially Ben, will be spared. He seems to be ok right now.

We just want to say thank you to everyone that had a part in helping us this past year. Jeff and I are so thankful for all of you. The outpouring of love that we have recieved has just blown us away. we hope that this new year will be a wonderful one for you and your family. We are truely thankful and blessed for all that God has done for us.

God Bless you all!
Sherri, Jeff and kids

Monday, December 30, 2002 at 11:54 AM (CST)

Well, we are back at Children's for another round of chemo. Three weeks seem to fly by. Benjamin is doing well. We still are feeding him through his tube. We are going to reduce the amount of time that we feed and see if that increases his appetite. Everything is pretty much status quo. I will write soon and let you know how this round of chemo is going. I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! May God continue to bless our family and yours!

Sherri

Thursday, December 26, 2002 at 09:29 AM (CST)

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas. Due to the generosity of so many people, we had a great Christmas. The kids had more presents than they knew what to do with. Actually, it's more presents than Jeff and I know what to do with. Benjamin gained 3 pounds last week!!! I don't think we can take the tube out yet, because he isn't eating enough to sustain his weight, but it's getting better. His mouth sores are all gone now. I am at work, so I will go now. I hope eveyone had a great holiday. God Bless.

Love,
Sherri

Thursday, December 19, 2002 at 11:03 AM (CST)

Hello everyone,
Yesterday Benjamin had to get his tube put back in. Needless to say he was not happy. He kept asking why we were going to the hospital. I was able to divert his questions until we got there. When we got to the waiting room he asked again why we were here. I told him that he needed to have his tube put back in. He just cried and cried. I felt horrible. He kept begging me not to put it back in. I just wanted to run away. How can you explain to a 5 year old that this is what's best for him? Thankfully the tube went down easy even though he coughed and gaged for a while. When we got home I hooked him up to his tube feeding. This morning he is doing so much better. He now has enough strength to go up and down the steps himself (we have been carring him for the past week and a half). He is even playing some computer games right now. All he has done the past 2 weeks is lay in bed and on the couch. Hopefully by Christmas he will have most of his strength back.

His skin is healing nicely from the radiation burns. His tongue and mouth still have many ulcers. He now is taking an antibiotic to help clear them up.

Thank you for your prayers. I will write back soon.

God Bless,
Sherri and family

Tuesday, December 17, 2002 at 08:44 PM (CST)

Hello everyone,
This morning I took Benjamin to the clinic for his weekly chemo. I last wrote that he had thrown up his feeding tube on Sunday night. Unfortunately, he only weighed 35.4 pounds. This is the least that he has weighed since we started this nightmare. I think that we will be putting his tube back in tomorrow so he can get some nutrition. Right now he can't eat or drink anything due to the ulcers in his mouth and sores on his tongue. He is still sleeping an excess amount of time. He is very worn out. Dr. Ruymann decided not to give him his chemotherapy today. It will not be added on, we just skip it. This of course is concerning, but Dr. Ruymann thinks that it would be best for Ben.

One good thing happened today. Ben's hemoglobin was 10.5, so he didn't need a blood transfusion. I will write back tomoorow and give everyone an update. Keep us in your prayers.

God Bless,
Sherri and family

Monday, December 16, 2002 at 08:11 AM (CST)

Hello everyone,
I see that it's been since last Wednesday last that I wrote. Well, Benjamin is FINALY done with radiation!!! We are so thankful that it is over. Benjamin has not been himself. He is very tired and has been throwing up. Friday night I took Emily to see the Nutcracker. We went with her friend, Jenny and her mom Ann. We had a good time. We went to the Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner and then to TGI Friday's for dessert afterwards. The boys were supposed to go out, but Ben wasn't feeling good and he told Jeff he just wanted to stay home. On Saturday I did some shopping. Saturday night we went out to Benjamin's favorite cousins house (Nathan). He usually perks right up, but he just laid on the couch.

Yesterday was the KIDS-N-KAMP Christmas party. We had a great time. They had a Santa Shop for the kids to go in and get presents. They had volunteers there to help the kids since no parents were aloud in the room. They then took them to tables were they wrapped and labled everything. Kids-n-Kamp also purchases toys for all the kids. They had a great time opening all the presents! We had cookies and drinks and played with clowns and made balloon animals. Benjamin sat in the stroller the whole time, but he did perk up to open his gift! Thanks Kids-n-Kamp for a great day!

After the party we went to dinner, then we were off to church. Last night was the kids Christmas program. It was so good! The kids did a great job. Emily sang like an angel!! We had some great cookies and punch afterwards! Benjamin slept through the whole show. when we got home he started throwing up. Well, things only got worse. He threw up so hard that he threw up his feeding tube! He continued to have dry heaves for about an hour. I talked to the doctor on call. We decided to wait it out a little bit. He finally stoped getting sick. He slept through the night without incident. I will be finding out if we have to put the tube back in or if we can leave it out. We begin with weekly chemotherapy treatments agin tomorrow. I think he might need another transfusion.
We will see. I will write back to let you know what is going on. Please pray for his strength to return and for him to gain weight on his own.

God Bless,
Sherri and family

Wednesday, December 11, 2002 at 08:47 AM (CST)

Hello again,
Jeff, Benjamin, and myself made it home safely last night. Chemo went fairly well. Benjamin only got sick three times on this admission. His throat and mouth are really sore right now, but we only have two more treatments after today!!!

Zoey is really starting to get around now. She even pulled herself up last night. Oh no, there's no stopping her now!! Emilt is doing great in school and is starting to read books!! (I can't believe it). Dillon remains naked, as usual.

Jeff and I are busy getting ready for Christmas. I am going to start baking today. I hope that everyone is healthy and joyful for this Christmas season. Praise God for His love, grace, and mercy.

God Bless,
Sherri

Monday, December 09, 2002 at 03:19 PM (CST)

Hello everyone,
I noticed that I haven't written since last Wednesday. Time sure does fly! Thursday and Friday were uneventful, just radiation as usual. Saturday we had our Winland Family Christmas Party. We had a great time and the kids got some great toys to play with. We all ate way to much but had a great time. Thank you to Aunt Betty and Kendra for getting the kids presents! (Oh, I should say Great Aunt Betty and Kendra!) Saturday night Sheila was lind enough to come over and babysit for us so we could have some time to ourselves. Thanks Sheila! Today we are back in for chemotherapy. We only have 4 more radiation treatments!!!!! I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. Benjamin is doing petty good. We just got back from a chest x-ray because he has been really congested lately and has had a cough. He hasn't had a fever though. I guess I don't have much else to say right now. I wll write back soon to let you know how chemo went.

God Bless,
Sherri

Wednesday, December 04, 2002 at 09:03 AM (CST)

Hello everyone,
Well, only 6 more treatments left!!! Praise the Lord! I must tell you. Last week we weren't sure if we were going to make it. His radiation burns were so bad and he had terrible ulcers in his throat and mouth. We were truely thankful for Thanksgiving. (we had a four day break from radiation)

Sunday was Jeff's mom's Christmas party at her work. I had hooked up Benjamin to his tube feeding because he hadn't had it since Friday night. Well, on the way to the party (in Newark) he threw up all over the place. Thank goodness that I had a sweat shirt sitting in there, because I was able to catch some of it. Neddless to say, we were away from home and I didn't have any other cloths for Ben. Thankfully, we were only a block away. We ran into the bathroom and I cleaned him up. He looked ok, but there was a slight odor. Anyway, we had a good time at the party. Santa was thereand Dillon was afraid of him. He kept saying, "me no like Santa". He did get his picture with him as long as I stayed with him.

Monday we had radiation. Tuesday we had radiation and in the afternoon we had to take Benjamin to get a new tube placed. The first tube only went into his stomach. The second tube goes into his small intestine. This allows me to run the tube feeding in faster and prevents him from throwing up because it gets absorbed and goes threw his small intestine faster, unlike his stomach which is a pouch, and keeps him from throwing up. Last night I hooked him up and ran the feeding in two times faster than I had been running it and he was fine.

Benjamins neck is looking better. The skin that was blisted and raw has healed nicely. We are wondering how long it will take for the new nice fresh pink skin to become irritated. We are incouraged that his mouth and throat ulcers have gotten better too. We are so Thankful for the Thanksgiving break, he needed it! Next week will be in patient chemo and our last four radiation treatments. We are going to have a party!!!

Well, I will go now. Continue to pray for us. Thank you for all of your continued support! We love you all.

God Bless,
Sherri and family

Saturday, November 30, 2002 at 10:15 AM (CST)

Hello everyone,
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that everyone had a great time with family and friends. First off, we want to give thanks to God for all that he has provided for us. We have been so blessed to have so many supportive friends and family. We all have so much to be thankful for.

So much has happened since I last wrote on Monday. On Tuesday, I took Ben to radiation and then we had to go to Children's clinic. His hemoglobin was down to 8.1, so he had to get a blood transfusion. He also gets his physicals on Tuesday. He had lost 7 pounds. We new that he was loosing some weight. Stacy (Dr. Ruyman's head nurse) and I decided that he needed to have some artifical feeding. He now has a tube that goes up his nose and down his throat and sits in his stomach. It is taped to his cheek and his back to help it stay in place. He gets tube feeding for 18 hours a day. He isn't tolerating it as well as I would like. It makes his stomach feel "full" all the time. I think that it will just take a while for him to get use to it.

On Thursday, we went to Grampa Roy's and had our first Thanksgiving meal with my family. (That was after Jeff had to change the tire at 9:00 in the morning on the van because it was flat due to a nail.) After we had a nice time with my family (Thanks to Aunt Sonja for doing all the cooking) we headed off to Uncle Brian's house for our second meal of the day with Jeff's family. After that we stayed all night with Jeff's sister Kelli. This has become an anual tradition. Kelli and I are one of those crazy people who go out at 5:00am and go shopping like crazy. It has become a tradition and one I look forward to every year.

On Friday, we headed home and rented a movie. We all got in bed and started watching the movie when Benjamin started throwing up. He wasn't tolerating his tube feeding. Unfortunately, he threw up the tube. I just took the tube out and gave him a break for the night. Saturday morning my friend Karen, who is a fellow church member and nurse, was gracious enough to come over and replace the tube for me. I think I could have done it without too much trauma, but I just want to be mommy, not his nurse. Thanks Karen!

Oh! I all most forgot. Last Sunday, Make-a-Wish Foundation came over to our house and granted Benjamin a wish! He told them that he wanted to go to Disney World!! We will find out about details later. Isn't that totally cool! They will fly the whole family there for 6 days and 5 nights (I think)! And the best part is they pay for everything!!! Food, shelter, admission into the parks and even the souvenirs!! We want to try to go in February if Benjamin is feeling ok and we can make the neccessary plans. Well, I have to go. Thanks for all your prayers! God Bless!

Sherri and family

Monday, November 25, 2002 at 05:10 PM (CST)

Hello everyone,
Well, what can I say except for GO BUCKS!!! Needless to say my husband is still depressed. I must say, it was a great game, but obviously the best tem prevaild. Enough about football. Benjamin is starting to have a really hard time now. His head and neck looks like raw meat. His skin is itching him terribly and is very painful. I got a prescription from the doctor today called silvadine. It is a topical cream that we use on the burns of burn patients. He is also very tired and isn't eating much at all. Today he was weighed and is now down to 35lbs. Tomorrow he has to get a blood transfusion and we will discuss possible means of artificial feedings, either IV or through a tube that goes down his nose and sits in his stomach. I will update everyone tomorrow.

On a lighter note, Zoey is now starting to crawl. Life is just now starting to get interesting!

God Bless,
Sherri & family

Saturday, November 23, 2002 at 09:02 AM (CST)

Hello everyone,
First of all I want to say Go Bucks! Since I wrote last, I have gotten sick and Zoey was sick also. Jeff took Benjamin to radiation on Friday morning and he started throwing up on the way to James. The doctors didn't want to do radiation since he was getting sick. So, Jeff had to take him over to the clinic and get IV fluid for 6 hours. Thankfully, he wasn't admitted. He was feeling much better last night. Jeff and the kids are down at church right now preparing for an OSU victory latter today. We are all going to church for a big pot luck and to watch the game. I will write back soon.

Sherri and family

Wednesday, November 20, 2002 at 06:01 PM (CST)

Hello again,
If you read yesterday's journal entry, you would of noticed that I had to abruptly sign off. Let me back track a little. Monday night, while Jeff and I were in the hospital, Dillon stayed at our friends house. Well, he woke up at 2:30am throwing up all over the place. Jeff left the hospital so he could go home and be with him. I stayed behind with Ben and took him to radiation and then back to Children's to get the rest of his fluid bolus. When I got home at 6:00pm Emily had started throwing up. So, our friends at church, Randy and Karen, were kind enough to let us go and invaid there house with our germs. I packed up Zoey, Dillon, Emily and myself and of we went. Both of them continued to get sick all evening and all night. Emily has been a little better. Dillon is still a little under the weather, but we are back home now.

Benjamin did great at the hospital this time. He didn't get sick once! Boy, they have great drugs now a days. We just try to keep him heavily sedated the whole time. I wish I could have some too!

Last Thursday we took the kids to see Santa Clause 2. It was really cute. I had to stand and hold Zoey the whole time, but oh well! Well, I need to go now.

Love,
Sherri and family

Tuesday, November 19, 2002 at 06:24 PM (CST)

Hello everyone,
We just got home from the hospital. Benjamin had his inpatient chemo yesterday. Actually, he had radiation in the morning, then went to Children's and got his chemo and then he went back to Children's for fluid. I have to go now, but will explain later.

Sherri

Thursday, November 14, 2002 at 10:41 AM (CST)

Hello everyone,
Sunday we celebrated Dilon's birthday and had a good time. Monday was a holiday, so we didn't have radiation. Yeah! Benjamin has been able to drink and eat thanks to the special medicine that he drinks which has lidocaine in it. Radiation has been unremarkable this week. Benjamin is very irritable after his treatments due to the sedation that he recieves. His counts on Tuesday were good. We get another blood draw tomorrow to see if he needs another trnsfusion. Emily, Dillon, and Zoey all got flu shots yesterday. Jeff and I need to get ours. Dillon also had his three year check up, he weighed in at 41#. He was 97% in height and 98% in weight. And I want everyone to know that Dr. Boudinot said that it was ok that he runs around naked all the time!!! Jeff and I are going to attempt to take the kids to a movie tonight (are we crazy?). Thanks to everyone for their prayers.

Love,
Sherri & family

Saturday, November 09, 2002 at 06:59 AM (CST)

Good morning everyone,
We made it through our first full week of radiation! Praise the Lord! Benjamin finally started feeling better on Thursday evening and by Friday he was being more of his normal self. He's feeling better because he is able to eat now! He has a sore in his mouth and started to eat less and less over the past three days. We got a prescription for a special mouthwash the numbs his entire mouth. Last night at dinner he at 1/2 of a bean and cheese burrito with 3 scoups of sour cream (his favorite food at this moment)and 2 helpings of rice with soy sauce and sour cream! Go figure! He's like a little pregnant woman. He gets these really weird cravings and theat's what he wants. Sour cream happens to be his food of choice at the moment.

Emily is enjoying kindergarden. Dillon just turned three and we are having his birthday party tomorrow. Zoey is now getting up on all fours and it won't be long before she turns moble. Jeff at the moment is sick with sinus and brochitis stuff. He started on antibiotics yesterday, so I hope he's feeling better by tomorrow. I am just trying to hang in there and keep this family together. Please continue to pray for me and my 10 piles of laundry!

I want to thank Lanie and Jim Kearns for donating blood this week. Also, to LeRoy and Belinda for donating next week. Thank you to Grandpa Roy for donating last week.

God Bless,
Sherri and Family

Wednesday, November 06, 2002 at 12:14 PM (CST)

Hello everyone,
I was told that I need to update the journal more often, so I will try! Yesterday was a very busy, tiring, and exciting day. It started at 7:30am, when Benjamin and I left the house for James. We had a pretty uneventful radition treatment (except that they were running one and a half hours late!) After our treatment, we went to the clinic at Children's for our weekly physical. I thought that it was going to be a semi-short day, but I should know better than that! We found out that his platelets were only 26,000 (they should be 200,000) and that his hemoglobin was 8.7 Dr. Ruyman wants his hemoglobin to be 10 during radiation. So, we sat all day in the clinic waiting on blood and platelets. It took three hours and fifteen minutes for the platlets to get ready. Jeff and I had a changing of the guard at 3:00. I came home to get a shower and a little rest (mental rest that is), because we had big plans! We were given tickets to the Blue Jacket game. The clinic closes at 5:00, so Jeff and Ben were moved over to the heme/onc floor for him to finish getting his blood. Jeff's mom and dad came over to the house to go to the game and we loaded up in the van. We drove to the hospital and picked up Jeff and Benjamin at 6:20. Then it was off to the game! We were guests of Tyler Wright #28. He has an organization, Tyler's Hero's, and visits Children's Hospital frequently. We were given game tickets and really nice hats. This was the first time that we had ever been to a hockey game and we all had a lot of fun. We all pigged out on popcorn, hotdogs, cotten candy, pop, and Uncle Ronnie treated us to nachos and ice cream! A fun time was had by all! We did leave a little early because Ben was getting cold and just a little bit tired. Emily has now decided she wants to be a hockey player. She just loved it when the fought and slammed each other up against the glass. She kept asking, "When are they going to fight again?". Should I be scared? Ha Ha!

Today, thankfully has been good (other than Zoey getting up at 6:40am). Today was radiation treatment #6. Only 22 more to go. Dear Lord, please help us through this!

God Bless,
Sherri & family

Monday, November 04, 2002 at 09:22 AM (CST)

Hello everyone,
Last week was pretty exausting. We started radiation, had in patient chemo and had a repeat MRI. Jeff and Ben are at radiation right now as I write. We've been trying to take turns so neither one of us get too warn out. 4 treatments down and 24 more to go! Benjamin wasn't feeling too good yesterday. I don't know if he was just tired or something else. He asked for his "stomach medicine", which helps with nausea. He's real trooper. I'm very proud of how good he's doing.

We also have a PTL (Praise the Lord). We got the results of his CT scan and it showed that the cancer in his neck is gone!! And there is only one small spot in his ear that shows cancer. This is great news mainly because the cancer is responding to the chemotherapy. We should find out the results of the MRI soon.

Thank you to everyone for their help and support. Thank you to Caleb, our youth minister, for coming to radiation with us!

God Bless
Sherri, Jeff and Kids

Wednesday, October 30, 2002 at 08:56 PM (CST)

Hello everyone,
This week has been very busy so far. Monday morning we went to the hospital for our in patient chemo. Ben was true to form and threw up exactly 9 hours after his chemo was started. He got sick 4 times during the night. First thing Tuesday morning we had to be at James for another practice radiation run. We were there for 3 1/2 hours. After a quick stop at Taco Bell, we were back at Children's for continuation of our post-chemo fluid. We were discharged at 5:00pm. Wednesday morning it was back to James at 7:45am for our first radiation treatment. All I can say is 1 down and 27 more to go! After we left James, I came home and took Emily to get her hair cut because today was picture day and it was long overdue! Then it was back to Children's again for an MRI. Needless to say I am very tired! Praise the Lord for the great news we recieved! The cancer in Ben's lymph nodes was gone on the CT scan that was taken last week. Also, there was only a small piece of the tumor left in his ear. This is great news because it means the cancer is reacting to the chemo and it is killing it!!! Praise Jesus. I am just praying for strength to get through the next 6 weeks. Please continue to pray for Jeff and my's strength and for God's protective hand on Benjamin's head, face and neck to limit and eliminate the side effects of the radiation. We want to continue to thank Pickerington Christian Church for their continued support. They continue to bring us meals, clean our house, and watch our children. They are willing to do whatever we ask (and belive me, it is usually not convienent) and help us at evry turn, no matter day or night. Thank you to everyone for their continued prayers. We love you all.
In Christ Jesus,
Jeff Sherri & Kids

Monday, October 21, 2002 at 09:45 PM (CDT)

Hello everyone,
I know I say this everytime that I write, but I can't believe it's taken me so long to update. I'm very sorry, but as you can imagine, we are very busy. Since I wrote last, Benjamin had a birthday party! He is now five! We had a wonderful birthday party complements of a non-profit organization in Newark called, Help from the Heart. It was started by Pam Steele after her grandaughter was diagnosed with cancer. They provided a swimming party (which Benjamin chose) at Northtown Athletic Club for about 25 kids and 15 adults. They also bought all the decorations, party favors, grab bags, cake, enough pizza to feed an army, and presents. They bought Ben enough presents that they could now be considered godparents!! Not only did they buy him presents, but they were kind enough to buy presents for Emily, Dillon, and Zoey also!! How awesome is that!! A great time was had by all.

We also need to thank Licking Valley High School (Sherri class of 89), Mr. Randy Baughman (athletic director and football coach), and all the generous people that donated money in Benjamin's behalf. $1,400 dollars was collected. We can't thank everyone enough for there kindness and willingness to support us!

Since Benjamin's last chemo we have had 2 visits with Dr. Bowers, which is Ben's radiation oncoloist. The first time we were in James Cancer Hospital (where they do all radiation) for 5 hours. We meet Charlete, RN, Dr Bowers, Dr. Abdou (resident radiologist), and a membe rof the anesthiologist team. We recieved both discouraging and encouraging news. I've been told that Dr. Bowers will "lay it all out on the table", regarding possible side-effects that could happen. "Could" is the key word in that sentence. He "could", after radiation treatments, have a learning disability, ADHD, mouth sores, long term disfiguration of his face (due to stunting the growth of his bones on his cancer side), multiple dental problems (TMJ stiffness, dental caries, destroying his upper teeth), destroying his pituitary gland, and his thyroid gland. Now, as I said, "could" is a very important word in that sentence. At this point I must say that I am so glad that God is in control, because if it was up to me, I don't think I could deal with that list; even if it is all a "could" happen. I am, at this point, more than willing to leave it all in God's hands. I know that if it was only me trying to deal with all of this, it would be more than I could comprehend or bare. Praise the Lord for his mercy, grace, and love.

My time is running out, so I must go. Please continue to uplift us in your prayers. We have 9 doctors appointments in the next 10 days. Pray for me to have strength and rest within during these busy times and for Ben to have peace and rest. He is having all his tests re-done (CT scan, bone scan, and MRI) to let us know how well the chemo has been working. I will write back when we have all the final results. We also start radiation on Tuesday October 29th. Pray that God will protect Ben from the side-effects.

Tahnks again and God Bless,
Sherri, Jeff and Kids

Thursday, October 10, 2002 at 08:25 PM (CDT)

Hello friends,
Benjamin's chemo went good this week. We only had one little problem; he reacted to one of his medications. We gave him his nausea medication at midnight, hoping to prevent the all night vomiting. He started thrashing around in his bed crying and yelling. At first, we thought he was just acting up because he wanted to go home. After about an hour of this, the doctor came in to see him. We gave him some benadryl and he finally calmed down thirty minutes later. I was scared he was going to pull the IV out of his chest, he was rolling around so much. It looked as is he was crawling out of his skin. The good thing was he didn't throw up once! (during hospitalization) He has thrown up 3-4 times at home. Once he was in Jeff's car! Man does it really stink!!! We lysoled the entire thing, but it's not helping!

Emily got her cast off today! Yeah! She is really excited. Dillon and Zoey are doing great also.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support.

Love,
Jeff, Sherri & Kids

Monday, October 07, 2002 at 05:31 PM (CDT)

Hello everyone,
We can't thank everyone enough for all of their hard work and dedication to making Benjamin's fund raiser a big success. Linda Dennis and Rayane Holmes, along with Jeff's entire family, Marne United Methodist Church, and Hanover Presbyterian Church, (and anyone else that helped) THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. We are so lucky to have such wonderful Christian friends and family that are so willing to give of their time and energy without hesitation. As anyone could see, the benifit was a major undertaking. I don't know how many people told us that the entire day was magnificent, from the food, to the entertainment, to the auction. We don't have a final tally yet how much was so graciously donated, but it was over $5,000 dollars!!!! God is truely faithful! I want to also thank my aunt and uncles, Ron & Julie, Rusty & Kendra, and Bob and Betty for collecting money for the raffle of the Ohio State football tickets and the house cleaning. We also want to thank everyone who donated goods and services for the silent auction.

We are back in the hospital again for chemo. It was hung at 6:00pm tonight, so if he runs true to form, we will be up at 3:00am getting sick. We are still trying different combinations of medicines to keep the vomiting to a bare minimmum.

Well, I should get back now. We will keep everyone posted on our progress. Keep those prayers coming!!!

God Bless,
Jeff, Sherri & Kids

Thursday, October 03, 2002 at 08:52 AM (CDT)

Hello everyone,
Thank you to everyone visiting our website. Ever since the article in the Advocate, we have had many people visiting our web page. Thank you for everyones thoughts and prayers. I wanted to give everyone an update. Benjamin had to recieve a unit of blood this week. His hemoglobin was down to 7.6. He was getting very pale and slept a lot more. Not to mention he was very crankie and fussy. We were having meltdowns frequently. We are thankful that Jeff was able to go and donate blood for him. Ben was very curious about how daddy's blood was hanging in a bag going into him! I tried to explain it the best I could. Thank you to everyone volunteering to donate. Today, my uncle Ronnie is giving blood to be stored for Ben. Thanks so much!

The transfusion has definately worked. The boy has been running around and jumping off the walls! Not to mention, irritating the life out of his brother and sisters! Emily gets her cast off next week and Zoey is sitting up all by herself. Dillon, well he is still naked most of the time, but he's too precious!

We hope to see everyone on Sunday. Pray for good weather! Please make sure you come up and talk to Jeff and I. I want to thank everyone for all they are doing. We are very blessed to have such a great familly and friends. We love you all and God Bless.

Jeff, Sherri and Kids

Thursday, September 26, 2002 at 11:36 AM (CDT)

Hello everyone,
Benjamin is doing fine after his chemo this week. He is a little more tired than usual, but that is because his hemoglobin is down to 7.8 (normal is 13-16). His platlets are also down to 44,000 (normal is 150,00-200,000). I can tell that the platlets are down because he is bruising very badly. His legs look like I've been beating him from where I have to give him shots each night. Jeff is actually on his way, as I write, to donate blood for Ben. I found out from the Red Cross that he can recieve blood from anyone with type A+, A-, O+, O-. If anyone is interested, please let us know. I want to thank my Aunt Julie, Uncle Ron, and my friend Belinda Cernava for volunteering to donate. We appreciate it! He gets his blood re-drawn tomorrow, I will update everyone on his counts.

Emily's arm is doing fine, other than she wants the cast off (October 10th will be the day). Benjamin goes to school tomorrow for the first time. He was going to go to Brice Christian Academy three days a week, but we thought that this would be too much. Actually, we were going to skip school (pre-school) all thogether this year, but he's been asking, "when does my school start". We are putting him back at Seton Parish, mom's day out program. It is only Fridy's from 9:30 to 1:30. He's really looking forward to going and I think it will be good for him!

We are (I should say Rayanne Holmes and Linda Dennis)are finalizing plans for the benefit fund raiser on October 6th. It is from 2:00pm-6:00pm at Marne United Methodist Church. There will be a spaghetti dinner from 2-4:30 and a silent auction. There will be lots of entertainment and fun. If you need directions please e-mail us. Our e-mail is at the bottom of this page.

Fianlly, I want to thank everyone for the prayers and support that we are recieving. We are so thankful to have such wonderful friends and family. God is truely merciful and gracious.

God Bless,
Jeff, Sherri, and Kids

Monday, September 23, 2002 at 06:22 PM (CDT)

I can't belive it's all most been a week since I've updated the page. I'm sorry it's taken me so long. Things tend to be a little crazy at our house! During Ben's stay at the hospital he had a hearing test done, due to him cranking up the tv so loud it drives us crazy. They said he has a deficit in his left ear. How bad, we don't know. I hope to learn more tomorrow. We also have good news to report. Dr. Ruyman (are oncologist) states that he doesn't see the tumor in Ben's ear anymore. Also, the lymph nodes in his neck aren't swollen anymore. The chemo is working! Praise the Lord. Soon we will meet with the radiologist to find out details about his radiation. Even though the cancer is not visable to the naked eye, it is still there microscopically. That is why he still needs to have radiation even though the chemo is working. Tomorrow is chemo day. I will update again soon.

Love Jeff, Sherri & kids

Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 09:27 AM (CDT)

Hello everyone and good morning!
We had an ok night last night. Ben threw up about five times. The good thing is that we gave him medication that makes him drowsy after he threw up the first time. I don't think he will even remember throwing up the last four times! Why do I think this? Jeff and I had to physically hold his head up because he kept falling back down on his pillow. Hopefully we will be leaving around 7:00 tonight. Thank you for your continued prayers. God bless.
Love,
Jeff, Sherri & Kids

Tuesday, September 17, 2002 at 01:45 PM (CDT)

Jeff, Ben and I are at the hospital right now. Hopefully his chemo will be getting started sooner this time and we won't be getting home at 11:30pm tomorrow like we did the last time. Ben is doing great physically. He has regressed in his behavior somewhat. His favorite pastime is now hitting and pinching his siblings. I have asked for a psychologist to come to us, if not to just help me learn how to handle the situation. If that's not bad enough Emily fell off the swing last night and fractured her arm in three places. This morning when Jeff brought Ben to the hospital, I was taking Emily to the orthopedics to have her arm set in a cast! She is doing better today. She got a really cool glow in the dark color! I will update everyone tomorrow to let you know how the night went. Thanks again for everyones prayers and support.

Love Jeff Sherri and Kids

Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 09:19 AM (CDT)

Hello everyone,
I'm sorry it's been so long since I wrote. A week goes faster than you realize. Last Friday Ben had his blood drawn and his counts were good. This past Tuesday they were even better. His WBC 13.8, hemoglobin 8.8, and his ANC 7,000 (This is a number that is gotten by multipling many types of blood cells). He is at an increase of getting an infection if the ANC goes below 500. The reason why his number is so high is because I give him shots called GCSF or neupogen. It stimulates the body to produce white blood cells, which the chemo kills.
He is still doing good. He is holding his weight. I give him medicine called zofran for his nausea. All the other kids a doing pretty well. Thank you for your contiued love, support and prayers. And GO BUCKS! ( Jeff obviously doesn't know I wrote that )
God Bless,
Jeff Sherri & Kids

Wednesday, September 04, 2002 at 02:39 PM (CDT)

Hello everyone,
Tuesday's chemo (yesterday) was the hardest outpatient visit we've had yet. Benjamin had diarrhea, nausea and fevers all evening and night. His white blood count is down to 1,100. We have to go back on Friday for a blood draw to see if counts are still droping. Our main concern right now is his hemoglobin. For those of you non-medical people, that is what caries your oxygen to your body. It also will make you pale in appearance when it gets low. Right now his hemoglobin is 8.8. Normal is 15. In adults, when the hemoglobin drops to 8.0 we give blood tranfusions. I'm not sure at what level kids recieve blood, but I do know it is common for kids to need transfusions when on chemo. We are in the process of finding out about how friends and family can donate blood to be held for Benjamin. His blood type is A+. I believe that anyone with A+, O+, and O- blood can donate. If you are interested let us know, either by e-mail or by phone and I will get you the information. Thank you for your continued prayers. Here's a verse that our youth minister shared with me.

John 16:33 "I've told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakableand assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties, but take heart! I've conquered the world."

Caleb said that this verse showed him two promises. First we will have trouble, but through Jesus we know that we will conquer! Thanks Caleb.

Love, Jeff, Sherri and kids

Monday, September 02, 2002 at 10:47 PM (CDT)

Hello everyone,
Jeff and I would like to continue to thank everyone for their support and encouragement. Benjamin has done much better with this past round of chemo. He still isn't eating a lot, but he's not throwing up as much as he was. Emily started kindergarden last week. She is having a hard time with leaving mommy and daddy. This is new since Ben's been sick. Hopefully, it will get better over time. Dillon and Zoey are doing great. I am working only one day a week, Monday's, at least for now. Tomorrow is another round of chemo. Ben has lost almost all of his hair. I don't think that he really even has noticed. Jeff shaved his head really close two weeks ago and his dark hair fell out and it has been repalced with light colored peach fuss. I will update again soon.
Love, Jeff, Sherri & Kids

Wednesday, August 28, 2002 at 02:07 PM (CDT)

Hello friends and family,
We finaly got chemo started last night around ten pm. Ben has done much better this time, Praise the Lord. He has gotten sick 4 times, compared to eleven last time. They doubled his nausea medication this time and added a new one also. He is actually eating cheetos (his favorite food) right now!!! Last time it took him 4 days to eat anything. We will be going home tonight. Keep us in your prayers!
Love Jeff, Sherri, & Benjamin

Tuesday, August 27, 2002 at 05:33 PM (CDT)

Hello friends and family,
We are at Children's right now. Ben hasn't started to get his chemo yet. There are a few "questions" I have with the orders, since it is not the same as it was the last time. For example, they are trying to give him his nausea medicine by mouth and last time he got it in his IV. I know that doesn't seem too critical, but he hates taking medicine and I'm trying to make it the least umpleasant stay for him. I will write again tomorrow to update on his condition. Thanks again for all your prayers.

Love Jeff, Sherri, & Benjamin

July through August 23, 2002

Hello friends and family,
First, Jeff and I would like to thank you for all of your prayers and support. I wanted to back track and start from the begining to let everyone know what has happened so far. On June 24th, I noticed that Ben had a swollen lymph node in his neck. I took him the doctor and they diagnosed him with an ear infection. He got antibiotics; after that the lymph node swelling came back. Back to the doctor we went and he was diagnosed with an ear infection again. We gave him more antibiotics which appeared to be helping, but the lymph nodes came back a third time. We went back to the doctor and she sent us to an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat)specialist. We saw the ENT on Monday July 29th. On the 30th he had a CAT scan of his head and neck. On Wednesday the 31st he had surgery for a lymh node biopsy and they removed some of the tumor out of his ear. On Thursday August 1st we found out that he had Rhabdomyosarcoma, a very rare type of cancer that is most common in kids under the age of eight, more common in boys, and is diagnosed 4 in 1 million. Needless to say, we were more than shocked and saddened. He was discharged on the 2nd. On Monday August 5th he went in for surgery to have a central line placed. This is called a mediport or implantafix. It is a large, raised, figure eight shaped device that sits under his skin. This catheter is used for chemotherapy. While he was under anestheia he also had a bone marrow biopsy and a lumbar puncture. On Tuessay the 6th he had a bone scan done and a CAT scan of his lungs. All of these tests were done to see if he had metastisis (cancer that had spread anywhere else in his body). Thanks to many people that were dilligently praying, our prayers were answered by our most gracious Lord. All of the tests came back negative. On the 7th he recieved his first dose of chemotherapy. He recieved Vincristine, Actinomyicin-D, and Cytoxan. These are very heavy doses of chemo. He was sick until the following Monday the 12th. On the 13th and the 20th he recieved outpatient Vincristine. Every third week we will have an overnight stay at Children's. I know this has been a lot of information, but I wanted to try to update everyone form the begining. Again, Jeff and I can't thank everyone enough for their time, money, prayers and everyones willingsness to do everything humanly and unhumanly possible to help us. A special thank you to our minister Con Wolf and our Elders: Randy and Marty. We could not have gotten through this without your support. Again, we want to give all Glory and Honor to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for his grace and mercy. Romans 8:28 And we know that in ALL things God works for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to his purpose.

Saturday, August 24, 2002 at 06:24 PM (CDT)

Hello Just wanted to give everyone a little update on Benjamin progress. Benjamin is doing great he has been outside playing and doing whatever a 4 year old boy can get into. He has started to lose his hair now, it was a good thing that I shaved his head last week knowing what was coming, but other than that Benjamin has been in good spirits until it comes to his medicine but he is getting better. So please keep Benjamin in your thought and prayers. God Bless!!!

Saturday, August 24, 2002 at 04:46 PM (CDT)

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Saturday, August 24, 2002 at 04:46 PM (CDT)

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