Welcome to Bryce's Web Page. It has been provided to keep our family and friends updated about Bryce. Bryce was diagnosed March 11, 2004 with ALL, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. He is currently in the maintenance phase of treatment which will last until Jun 24, 2007! He is following protocol CCG-1991 augmented. On June 17, 2007, Bryce finished a week early due to an infection. He had his port removed in October and now is 7 months off treatment. We continue to pray that he stays in remission forever.
Please be sure to sign Bryce's guestbook and click on the quick link to give him a "hug" too.
Normal Blood levels WBC: 4.0-12.0 hemoglobin: 11.5-14.5 platelets: 150,000-450,000 ANC: the magic # that needs to be 1,000 to be among the crowds, norm starts at 1,500.
I just really like this quote: Take a lesson from the grass. No matter how many times it's cut or trampled on, it rises again and continues. So get back up, my friend, get back up and rise again.
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Journal
Thursday, July 10, 2008 9:50 PM CDT
As usual, it has been way too long. Hey, but no news is good news! I am happy and sad to say that this will be my last update on Caringbridge. Sure I have lots of ridiculous stories about our family, but feel kind of bad about posting them on this site that is meant to update on people and their illnesses and progress.
I will not get rid of this site, at least at not for another year, in fear that the cancer fairy may come down and jinx us.
I am requestng that if you would take a moment or two and leave Bryce one last note in his guestbook, which is linked at the bottom of the page. Soon I will print out the billion entries and comments and out it together for Bryce to one day read in the future and see how many people cared about him and his journey.
You will still be able to follow our journeys. Many of you have commented that you enjoy hearing about the ridiculous things that happen to us. I have created another blog entitled Summers' Southern Sagas at www.summerssouthernsagas@blogspot.com . I put a link at the bottom of this page. I hope you'll enjoy it.
Now for the update: First we have moved into our new house...finally (in April)!!!!
To make it even more interesting, the weekend of the move I managed to come down with the CHICKEN POX! We had an outbreak at our school with several older kids. At least I got another week off work to unpack and clean out the old apartment while I itched. And uh...that's how I found out they now recommend a booster for CP between 4-6 yrs. old. I had no clue. We don't take Vance in for well check-ups since insurance doesn't pay after age 5, plus we were in the "No Vaccine" mode for so many years. We thought Bryce may be okay, but no..... 15 days after being exposed to me he got it as well. Probably b/c the morning I woke up with spots I found him sleeping in the bed with me. Now I look back I actually started with the spots the day before b/c they were in my scalp and figured I had some weird bumps in my head from stress or something and....I went and got my hair bleached/highlighted that day. Thank God this didn't happen during Bryce's treatment or it could have been extremely dangerous to him. Regardless we put him on anti-virals and it seemed to lessen the case. The only symptom he had was the itching. No fever, no body aches. Thanks to the meds I was spared a horrible case as well. Guess I should have went and gotten that shot! I figured if I hadn't gotten it by now I was immune. OOps. Vance and Rodney were fine. They never got it.
This past June marks Bryce's one year anniversary "OT" or off treatment. It's a big step. The first year off treatment is when he would be more likely to relapse. Every day "OT" brings us closer to being considered cured, which won't be until 2012. We have even graduated to going to the clinic every other month, and in 2 weeks he will get the first shot of a few to pick up where we left off in Bryce's vaccinations before he got sick. I am also requesting him being retested for all of his titers b/c chemo can actually wipe out all of his prior vaccinations. We know the chicken pox one didn't stick and that was the last one he had prior to diagnosis.
We made it through school, yeah!!!!!!
The boys both went to Camp Kemo again.
This was Vance's last year, but Bryce will get to go I believe 2 more times! Again right after camp, we hit the beach and actually got to stay the entire time without getting sick, although my SIL and niece did get some sort of 2 day bug. Vance did have some sort of zit/boil thing on his behind that I guess developed during camp, and it became really nasty looking and painful. I did take him to Dr's Care at the beach where they said it was cellulitis and he took antibiotics as a preventative so it didn't get worse. All I thought of was MRSA and that they would have to take a giant chunk out of his behind!
Vance's baseball team won their division for the regular season and the playoff tournament. Rodney was his coach. We were proud.
Finally we have a new member in our family. Bluebell the puppy! This name was chosen after we sent out e-mails having other people name her. I won!! Sorry Rodney. She is a mastiff/pit mix. Right now she just turned 9 weeks old today and weighs 15 lbs already.
Grandma and Grandpa NJ came for a visit over the 4th of July. Other than a crappy flight here, I think they had a good time! Mom even went on the trampoline!
We will make a trip to stay with Grandpa Phil and Nana Carole in Florida in a few weeks. It will a great trip as I haven't seen them in a long time. The boys are excited to go fishing!
This has been a pretty mellow update. If you checkout our new site, I am writing about how 2 strange people running around in the ditch outside my house were believed to be dumping a dead body off, and what it really was just floored me. If you're from the north you'll go "What the hell???"
Again, a special thank you to all of you have kept up with us all this time. It is nice to close or at least walk away some from leukemia. We don;t know what type of long term effects Bryce (and all of us mentally!) may have, but we take it day by day and try to savor time spent together.
I hope you'll follow us at the new site.
Love, Tina, Rodney. Vance and the One and Only Bryce
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Welcome to Bryce's Web Page. It has been provided to keep our family and friends updated about Bryce. Bryce was diagnosed March 11, 2004 with ALL, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. He is currently in the maintenance phase of treatment which will last until Jun 24, 2007! He is following protocol CCG-1991 augmented. 
