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Sunday, August 31, 2008 9:50 AM CDT Just got back from the Jude. Scans were stable. Thank GOD!!! Summer is winding down and school starts Sept 2nd. G is not sure about it because he has a different teacher. He will still have Jill and hopefully an aide for at least 4hrs. I meet with the teachers on Tues so thats when all will be figured out. G had lots of endocrine tests this last trip. They still want me to do growth hormones. Not gonna happen! No way No how! So what if he is short! With my height he will be right there with the "normal" height people. He will most likely be in a wheelchair anyway so it doesn't matter. Took Brent with us and he got a real dose of what it's like. Overall we had a good trip. Hold on to your hats St.Jude moms, everything was on time or early. Can you believe it?LOL Anyway, the main thing is that G is still cancer free. We need to make it through another year cancer free and G's survival chance goes from 10% to 50%. Anyway, just wanted to give you a quick update. Thanks.................Mel
Saturday, July 19, 2008 9:09 AM CDT OMG! I am so bad!!! So sorry for the lack of updates. Our last trip to St.Jude went well. Everything is stable. We go back at the end of August.
Summer is going great! We have been running here and there. G has been doing swimming lessons/therapy all summer. Actually 4 weeks of swimming and 2 more to go. He has 3 weeks of speech and when we dont have swimming lessons we go to Dubuque for PT. On Fridays he goes to the library for and hour and 1/2. That finally gives me a break. It does go very fast. Don't know if we will make it anywhere else this summer. I know we will make it to the lake a few times. Doesn't look like we will be going to the river to much or at all. There just isn't enough time.
Extreme Home Makeover is coming to southwest WI. Can't wait to see who the family is. G and I will probably make it to at least one day. It will be so fun.
Thats all for now. Until next time..............Hopefully it won't be to long!
Saturday, April 12, 2008 11:04 AM CDT Hello Hello! Garrett is a sad sad young man. He wakes up every morning and asks why? Well the why is "why does Andy have to marry Brooklyn?" He is so upset about this. As most of you know Andy got engaged a few weeks ago to a beautiful spots illustrated model. (go figure.) Jill gave me a picture from a magazine of them. She was in a bikini. Well a few days later he told her that he didn't like her because her boobs were to big. Yup that's what he said. I told him he had it a little bit backwards. Oh well. Blanche (andys ma) has talked to him about it and so has Jerry (andys dad who is hillarous). We got to see them this week. Kind of bitter sweet. Her brother passed away which is my aunts significant other. So, they came back for the memorial service. Which was very nice.
Health wise, G is doing good. Still doing the therapy. G loves it! He alwys comments on how good he feels after. I had it done and it does feel good. It's wierd as in it doesnt feel like its really doing anything. When she did my head I felt like I was floating. When she did my hips I felt that. It felt like when you start to fall asleep and you twitch or our legs jump but they weren't and didn't. I had hurt my lower back lifting G a few days before. I went to my chiropractor and then to Cherrie. She made it all go away. Well until I lift G again. We have all had the colds going around and thank God thats all we have had.
We are getting a new ramp for the front of the house. Should be going in soon. The lions club will be doing that.
Garretts B-Day is on Wed the 16th!!!!! Happy B-Day buddy!!
A prayer request for Joseph Thuli. From what I understand he is going for a check up in Madison soon. He has a very rare disease and I can't remember what its called but the doctors used chemo to help fight it. If I am wrong Angie post it in the guestbook if you would please. Of course pray for all the children!
Happy Spring!! Or is it winter??? Its snowing here. So much fun!!! (no not really) Until next time............................Mel
Sunday, March 30, 2008 12:09 AM CDT Happy Spring!!! Finally some nicer weather. We deserve it that's for sure. Not really much going on. Well tons going on but I would have to write a book. G is doing well. He started some new therapy called CranioSacral therapy. I suggest it for everyone. After one session G was not drooling, he was not shaking and he was holding his head straight. He is back to doing those things now but that is because Cherie was on vacation. G has an appointment mon. He says it feels soooo gooood. He only lasted 45mins the first time but he realized how good it did feel and how much it helped. To learn more you can go to www.upledger.com. Then I won't have to write my book.
Gs 7th b-day will soon be here. Where does time go? Who would have thought 4 years ago they told me G wasn't going to make it. Look at him now!! We had a good easter. We went to the boyfriends mom and dads on Sat to "meet the parents" and on Sunday we went to my moms.
G got his new back brace and of course he HATES it. But I am sure he will grow to love it along with everything else. The Lions Club came by yesterday to measure out for a ramp. Thank God! I yet again threw my back out Thursday lifting G. So a ramp is welcomed with open arms. I have to go for now. I will update asap with more developing saga. Really im just about ready to leave work. Until next time..............Mel
Saturday, March 1, 2008 12:31 AM CST Happy March!!!
What a whirlwind the last few weeks have been.
We made an "emergency" trip to St.Jude last week. A week ago thursday some kids in Gs class got to go swimming at the university. So, nana and I went up to watch for a few mins and when G got into the water all of the sudden I noticed that he was holding his head to the left. Not just a bit either. So I asked Jill if she noticed it she said she did and that in the am he was crossing his legs when walking. Here we go again- So I had all I could do to sit there for a few mins longer and I told Jill well I have gotta go. Im going to call St.Judes. So I did and sunday we were on our way. They did MRI of brain and spine and a spinal tap. So the conclusion was/is a lesion. Yup so instead of skipping all the side-effects of the lesion (wetting pants, drooling, left hand clentched, crossing of legs, head tilt...) by going to hyperbarics in the first place, we wait until the side-effects show up. I totally understand where they were coming from also. They didnt know what it was for sure until it got bigger. So this is awesome news. We start hyperbarics on wednesday. We also got to see some friends this time. The Bowens were there for a visit, and tim who also had medulloblastoma. It was nice to see familiar people. While in Memphis we got to see Andy Roddick practice, we also got to see Venus. G gave Andy a special bracelet. So when he plays and you see the silver bracelet on his bag you know where it came from. I love that family. Andy and brother John are so funny!! It was good to see them joking around! We also went to Shantaes house to see her and jack and cocoa and sassy. About a block from her house is the most AWESOME donut shop you will ever find. OMG they like melt in your mouth!! If I remembered the name I would tell you. lol
Other than all the above we are doing good. Waiting patiently for spring! Sick of winter. Got to take in some donkey baskettball, petting zoo at school. It's been busy and yes everyone around us has been sick. We have not yet had the flu bug! urg
I guess thats all hopefully I wont loose this one like I did the last entry! God bless!!!
Saturday, February 2, 2008 8:53 AM CST Hello All! Hollllllllly cold. It was so cold last week!! -30 with the wind chill and that was if you were in out of the nasty wind. G is doing great! He has a sinus infection though. Last Monday he finally got his loaner chair. Dean brought it up. That sucker is heavy! We took G to the gym and let him have at it. He did so good. He whipped some dognuts (his favorite thing to do) I have showed most all of the teachers how to run it except for Jill, Yeah she thought she had to go to Hawaii. Whats up with that?LOL Thursday morning I let him take it down the hall when we got there to see how he would do with people around. He did so good. He didn't run anyone over! He was very cautious which is good because we have drilled into his head it's about safety. He still has to work on stop. Because of his delayed response time you have to tell him almost a min before he is going to hit something. He still does great. One thing that is going to be hard is him getting used to not getting his arm out there to stop himself. Thats just your natural reaction, it would be hard for me to stop. Next is trying to get a handicap vehicle. I have sent some applications into different foundations for funding so hopefully something comes through. Those suckers are expensive!! It would be so nice not to have to lift him though. I won't take it in the house though. For one my house is way to small and the chair wouldn't fit through the doorways, no wheelchair ramp and last but not least I want him to use his own strength to get places-by that I mean still crawl and walk and be mobile. I don't want him to loose what he does have.
I finally did get in touch with Dr.Fouladi. Just her voice made me at ease. I just told her what they found and she told me that she would wait 6weeks and re-scan him. I told her that was the plan. She did want to see the 2 last MRI scans so I sent those out to her. I haven't heard back from her yet. I so know she is so busy getting settled and everything, I feel bad for calling her but she was fine and she wants her old patients to call her if they need anything. So, like I said she put me at ease. I do believe that it's all in the "delivery" of telling you that there is something growning in your childs head. It's still serious I know but just knowing that she would do the same thing as they are doing made me feel so much better.
The last time I updated I was here at work. One of the nurses called down and said that my explorer just got hit. How could it get hit?? I was parked out front and you have to park at a slant. Well the mail lady bashed it with her little truck. She was going fast like really fast. She made the explorer go straight (not slanted) and pushed it about 30 feet over the curb and over the sidewalk. So she was going fast! Luckily hardly no damage. I will end up with a new back bumper and I will have the front end checked out. After I got off work I was driving home and she just about wacked me again. She was doing at least 40 in a 25 zone. Shame on her!lol
I guess thats all for now. Please send prayers out to all our little friends. Until next time...........Melissa
Saturday, January 19, 2008 1:24 PM CST Well, no news is good news but I also have some kinda bad news. They found a new spot in Gs head. It is near where he had his medulloblastoma BUT they did a LP (spinal tap) and they didn't find any cancer cells. This is what gets me, Dr.Sanders didn't know what it was so of course he took it to tumor board and quess what, no one knew what it was. Dr.Merchant says it to late out of radiation to be related to that and it would be hightly unusual to see that. Well, nothing with G is usual. Everything this far has been unusual. He was given a 10% chance of survival and he is still here-according to St.Jude this is very unusual. They can't do a biopsy because its intertwined in his brain so much. So, they told me to wait until March 21 when his next MRI is unless he becomes symptimatic. Well, those of you who know me know that I can't just sit here and do nothing with something growing in his head and it's tearing me up inside!! They say no hyperbarics cause they don't know what it is. Okay well if you don't know what it is then hyperbarics isn't going to hurt him. It'd just oxygen and if you haven't tried it before then how do you know it's not going to work?? If it is a lesion, then it will help. So, do 20 treatments and then MRI. Not an option at this point and I don't have 4000.00 plus gas money to do it on my own or I so totally would. I am going to call Dr.Fouladi Monday I so hope she doesn't care. I just need some re-assurance thats all. She has been with us since the begining! When we were at St.Jude I found out that Elizabeth is also leaving to go work with Dr.Fouladi in Cincinati. GRRRRRR!!! So, I am keeping my head up high and I will do whatever is in my power to keep G healthy. If it does end up being a malignant tumor, as heart wrenching as it is I will not let them do anymore chemo or radiation on him. He has been through enough. On the way home from Memphis G (out of the blue) said I hate the way I am! OMG. I always try to instil in him that he is the best! Everything he does I praise him for. I want him to have as much self confidence as he can. But he knows he is different from the other kids at school but the thing is he get all the attention from the kids. They love him. So, thats that.
The weather here, ahh a balmy -15 below this am when I was on my way to work. Get the shorts out!! LOL My pipes froze in my house this morning. Hopefully by now they are unfrozen. Jeremy came down and fixed them. Oh yeah my explorer got hit by the mail lady and her little truck. Yup she pushed my parked vehicle up onto the curb at least 20 feet. Looks like just a little bit of damage to the rear bumper. At least she didn't get hurt. The mail truck only got a little dingy in the front bumper. I just hope that she doesn't loose her job or anything. Those things happen. She kept on telling me how sorry she was and I kept saying no biggy, accidents happen thats what insurace is for. Poor gal, she was so cold!! She finally did come into work to get warmed up a bit. What would my life be without DRAMA?? Hey it keeps us on our toes.
For my last thought, Please pray for Garrett. Pray that the spot in his head is nothing and that it just goes away or that its at least a lesion and nothing more. Thank you
Saturday, January 5, 2008 12:34 AM CST HideoHo HideoHo off to St.Jude we go! Now remember that no news is good news! I will try to update as soon as possible. Please pray for good weather and clear scans!! God Bless............Until next time.........Mel
Saturday, December 22, 2007 10:21 AM CST Merry Christmas!!! All is well here. We head to the Jude Jan 8th or 9th. It will be so different because the new cafeteria should be open and the new building will be open. So, it may be a bit stressful but when is it not. G did so good in his Christmas program! He was just a singing along and he got to be the bell ringer. So whenever he wanted to he rang the bells. That was at least 80% of the time. He of course is so excited for Christmas. We will definately have a white one, or should I say a icy one. Lots of snow and ice so far this year and the first day of winter is today. Hopefully that means the rest will be better. So, thats all for now. Have a Merry Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year. Please pray for good driving weather to St.Jude and for clean scans!!!!!Until next time............Mel
Saturday, December 8, 2007 12:50 AM CST Hello All! Not to much going on. Snow, snow, snow! We are getting lots of the white suff. Now if it wasn't so darn windy we could go outside and play. G had his Christmas program last Wed. night but it got cancelled because of a snow storm the night before and no school that day. So, this Wed he will have it.
I had meetings the last few weeks to get G's I.E.P. (individualized educational program) up to date. Sounds like he is doing great in school and all the teachers and therapists love him. He is all about having a good time and getting people to laugh. They are starting to think about a motorized wheel chair for him. OMG! I know how wild and crazy he is with his motorized John Deere tractor and 4 wheeler. He will be trying to run all the kids over. Of course he does that now. Heather the eye lady wants to get him to be more independant and thats the way to do it. She also wants to get G used to using a cane. The kind blind people use. I wish for one day I could be him to know what he is feeling and what he is seeing and hearing. I just don't know. He doesn't really know either because to him it's all "normal" so he doesn't know. The only bad thing is if we do get a motorized wheel chair I have to modify my vehicle or something. It's not that its a bad thing just one of those things that can get costly. We will figure it out when we get to that point. Everything always works out for the best. Everything!! We just need Ty to come in a makeover our house next.
G's health is doing good. He did have me freaked out a few weeks ago. He was complaining his head hurt and he was off balance (more than usualy) he was holding his head to one side and I was just seeing all the "warning signs" of the tumor being back. I think it was that he has had 2 colds back to back and he was in his thera-togg and I think it was weakining his muscles. Don't get me wrong I think they are a wonderful thing but I think that in Gs case they were enabling him to not use his muscles and to let the suit do all the work. So, I stopped using that and he was back to himself in no time. He does still need to work on his posture. It's like he has no spine sometimes. Hunched over and like a wiggley fish out of water. Anyway, He is so excited for Christmas to come. He told Santa he wanted a new motorized 4 wheeler, small leggos, and wood stuff to build. Santa's got most of it covered except the 4 wheeler. A 4 wheeler that hold extra weight get a bit pricy. Of course Santa knows what else he likes and will deliver lots more presents.
Well to you all, Have a very Merry Christmas. No two moments are alike so cherish them all. Pray for all our St.Jude friends and all sick children! Until next time................... Mel
Saturday, November 10, 2007 1:54 PM CST Well I thought I had lots to tell but right now I am brain dead. G is doing great. Sassy as ever. He got a new aide this week. Jen Popp. G already knew her so that was great. Now he is able to be in his class and she will help him, more one on one. Of course he still has Jill (thank god) not that we don't like Jen because we love her also! I can't believe the holidays are coming fast! The weather here (knock on wood) has been great! No snow yet and temps in the 50's. Thats awesome for Wisconsin! I am sure we will pay for it later! Still haven't gotten our ramp yet. Haloween went good. G was a pirate. He hated his costume. He had a bandana that had some long hair coming from it and he hated it. He kept wanting to take it off. So I made a deal with him. I told him that if he wore it then I would dress brad up as a girl. G laughed and so we dressed Brad up as a girl. Not a very pretty girl I might add. I wore a long blonde wig and a bandana around it with sunglasses. We got lots of positive coments about our "costumes" I had to go to the door because I was not about to carry him and of course most houses were not meant for a wheel chair. Of course everyone knew that I was doing it for G. I did feel a little stupid but hey not anymore than normal!lol.
Right now I am going around to the local high schools and trying to get them to do a fundraiser for St.Jude. I am pretty sure I have 3 for sure. Its called Rally For St.Jude and it molded around the Up til Dawn program that the college students do. The students have to address 25 envelopes and thats it. The letters are already made out. They can win prizes like a touch screen i pod. There is so many possibilities. If your school wants to take part email me and I will tell you more about it and get you in touch with Kristen from Chicago. She is our nearest St.Jude rep.
Well thats all for now!!! Everyone have a blessed Thanks Giving!! We have a lot to be thankful for!!!!!!!
Sunday, October 28, 2007 9:24 AM CDT Hello Hello!! I can't believe it's already the end of October. Here comes the cold!! G has been sick this last week with a cold. He only went to school one day and that was until 11:30. I'm not counting monday as he only stayed until 9:00. Other than that G is doing awesome. He is loving school. Begs me each morning to go. It seem like he is learning so much and actually retaining it. Thats a great thing. He is physically getting stronger. We are getting a wheel chair ramp thanks to the Lions Club in Shullsburg. That will be so nice as G has gotten so tall and heavy. My back can't take lifting 60lbs of dead weight all the time. (neither can nanas) Really there is not much going on. So, I guess thats all for now take care and happy and safe trick-or-treating!!!!!!
Melissa
Saturday, September 29, 2007 8:51 AM CDT Gee no news to really report on. We/Garrett lost our cat. 2 weeks ago when I was working I got a phone call from g. He said "I did something bad and I think im in BIGGGGGG trouble" I asked what he did and he told me that he opened the door and ella our kitten got out. G decided that he wanted to go outside and so he opened the door while brad was brushing his teeth. G didnt end up going outside he just sat there. So when I got home I searched and searched for her and I couldn't find her. I think I miss her most. Darn animals!! Anyway school is going great. G loves to go and even wants to go on the weekends. He is doing good and loves to be around all the kids in school. He has made it twice until 2:00. Otherwise I get called anywhere from 12:30 on to go get him. He has been wearing a Theratog suit. We call it his cowboy suit. It goes on under his clothes and its a vest and pants that look like chaps. You can hook up different velcro straps to help different areas. Right now I only hook up the back one to help him straighten up a bit more. Its working I can notice a difference. I must say he is a wildman with his walker. Holy Cow! Its a good thing that he likes it so much. As for now my lesson is learned, lock the door when I am not in the room with him. Until next time.............God Bless
Saturday, September 15, 2007 12:13 AM CDT WOOOHOOO!! Great scans. The lesions are clearing up on their own so no Hyperbarics!! He got great reports again and everyone was so impressed with him. He got a new walker because he grew so much. He is about ready to outgrow his wheel chair. We also got a prescription for a toilet bar thingy so G can pull himself up to stand and then get on by himself. We will still have to assist him with pulling pants down but at least he will feel more independent. We are also getting a new wheel chair ramp. The Lions Club of Shullsburg are funding that. Thank God. I don't think my back and Bradley's back can take much more of it. He has also gained some weight along with growning taller.
The first week of school went great. He made it until 1:00. Thats pretty good. We are going to shoot for 2:00 but that may be in the future. He loves school. Most of all he will tell you that he loves the girls. Of course they give him all the attention so whats not to love.lol
On a sad note our dear Dr.Fouladi is leaving St.Jude in the very near future. She took a position in Ohio. Quite frankly, IT SUCKS!! I know that she will turn Gs care over to someone who is well qualified. I just hate to see her leave. She is a wonderful person and a great doctor. Ohio will be so happy when they get her. We wish her the best!!!!
Thats about all for now. God Bless and until next time.................Mel
Saturday, September 1, 2007 12:03 AM CDT Sorry for the delay. All is going well. On this past monday we went to Milwaukee to speak at a St.Jude golf event. The golfing (is that even a word?) was canceled but the rest still went on. It was ok. G got up at 3am and wouldn't go back to sleep so we left at like 5am-ish. Last weekend I got to get away for an extended weekend. We rented a house boat with 8 other people and took it out on the Mississippi. We couldn't take it out for the first day because of flooding and all the crap floating down but the rest we did. We had so much fun. We had our own D.J. along and the weather was awesome. We actually found a beach that wasn't under water so we camped there at night. I even got to play nurse. One of the guys broke a glass bottle and a piece cut him in the lower leg close to the top of his foot. We tried band-aids and I even tried sewing it up with a needle and thread but the needle was to dull so, we found the 102 use for duck tape. I cut it like butterfly band-aids and squeezed the cut together and taped. It was the only thing left to do and it worked. he really needed stiches but it was dark and we were on an island so what do you do. He just kept on bleeding (can't imagine why with all the adult beverages he drank) and the duck tape stopped the bleeding. Next year I am going to get a suture kit.
G is doing very good. He has been getting up very early in the morning again. He is very excited to start school!! I am of course nervous for him. I know it will all be good. I don't know if I updated since we got a new kitten?? Ma found her in the middle of a busy highway so we took her in. Ella is her name. Shes a little pistol. G loves her except of course when she bites which little kittens do all the time. Anyway all is great here.
We head to St.Judes on the 9th of Sept. Pray for awesome scans and no lesions!! If there are no lesions or they havent changed then no hyperbarics but if they change or are more then hyperbarics. Fun Fun. Until next time..............Melissa
Saturday, August 4, 2007 1:42 PM CDT Hey all!! Where is the summer going?? The past couple of week have been nutts!! Last time we were at St.Jude Dr.Fouladi said that if we noticed any changes in G to go ahead and do hyperbarics again. So we have noticed a few changes like tilting of his head and his speech is not so understandable. So I thought go ahead and get a jump at it before it gets worse. So, she wanted to do another MRI like asap. I just got his Sept. schedule all situated and figured out so then I was waiting to get an MRI asap. So then after 3 days of trying to figure everything out G like snapped out of it and now he is "fine." So, I left his MRI for Sept. 10th (I think) and if he still is showing lesions then I will do the hyperbarics again. G also had an eye doctor appointment and he had a chance to look at his last MRI and he thinks that all of his vision problems are steming from where the original tumor was and that he has a 3rd nerve paulsey. Don't understand that one. Other than that he is doing great!!
A few weekend ago we took G to the river (mississippi) on a boat and he loved it. He had so much fun!! So of course now he (and mom) want a boat!! I have been going down a few times and its like a whole nother world. We go to Chestnut beach and hang out, have a few beverages, and shoot the s**t with people. Everyone there is so amazingly nice. Tomorrow we are going to one of our friends (dan) house to swim. He has a pond with diving boards, dock, and nice sand. Its really nice and CLEAN!
G has been doing great in swimming lessons. He just finished up his 4th week and he is officially done but the wonderful Mrs.Rielly said she would still swim with him.
Something amazing happened Thurs and Friday. Mrs.Rielly (jill) called me thurs afternoon and left a voice mail saying that they wanted to do something for G and I. Then my sister called and said that Jim Rielly her father-in-law gave me another gift card for gas. So I then called Jill and she came right out and said "I don't know how to say this but we are getting you a new vehicle" Of course my mouth hit the ground. She said it was all her husband Toms idea. So, Last night I got a 2000 ford explorer. Its so nice. My blazer was on its last leg. The power steering didn't work, gas gauge, dash lights, cargo lights didn't work, the headlight were all screwed up and the back bar that holds the spare tire was held on with a bungee cord. Not to mention all the rust and dents in it. So, I was like a little kid in a candy store. I have power steering and my gas guage works and oh my. I am spoiled!! So thank you to Tom, Jill, Jim Rielly and the Dietricks!! They all went together to get it for us. And also thanks to Mike Ubersox for droping the price a little bit. I am so blessed!!!!!!!!!!! Thats all until next time!!! Take care and God Bless
Saturday, July 14, 2007 10:24 AM CDT Hello!! Not much to update you on. G started swimming lessons and speech this week. He is a little fish. He loves the water and its good therapy for him. Speech is going great. After speech is over we walk the halls of the school so G can get some walking in. We went to the lake yesterday. We didn't catch any fish but G had fun swimming. It was cold! The water and the air temp. I think the high was 75 degrees but when the sun went under the clouds burrrrr. The local paper is going to do a story on G and another boy who takes swim lessons for therapy reasons. The Shullsburg pool is one of the only pools that offer one on one for therapy. Other than that nothing else going on. We just keep going and going. Hope all is going well with all of you. God Bless and thanks for keeping G in your prayers! Until next time...............Mel
Saturday, July 7, 2007 1:00 PM CDT Can we just veg for one day??? Garrett wants to go,go,go. Even if it's just going on a car ride. I don't blame him though I hate being cooped up in our house. It's so small and it seems like no matter what it's constant clutter. It doesn't help living with G the builder and his 5 billion pieces of wood all over. He is still on the kick of building a house for everyone. He has such a big heart. Then all I hear is Zoie, Zoie, Zoie! His little girlfriend from school. I don't know if she knows it or note but she is. He gets the biggest grin on his face when you sing to him, G and Zoie sittin in the tree you all know the rest. But when it comes to the kids part he says "no just more lovin" Ya just have to laugh.
He starts speech therapy with Mr.Parks on Monday at 8 am. what was I thinking? It's summer! Then we waste a few hours and head to swimming lessons at 11 am with Jill. Both are teachers he had in school so he will be fine.
He has been swimming like a little fish. He loves going to the lake and fishing and swimming and playing in the sand. Yesterday we went and he was singing a song about checking out all the girls. He doesn't know what he checking out be he says hes checkin' them out. He does have good taste I might add.
Nothing new to add just hanging out enjoying our summer. Please remember to keep G in your prayers and our little friend Regina!! She needs a miracle.
God Bless until next time...........Mel
Saturday, June 23, 2007 8:39 AM CDT Sunday, June 24, 2007
Urgent prayers are needed for our little friend Regina from California. Her parents just found out that her cancer came back. They found 40something tumors on her brain. They said there is nothing more they can do for her, pray for a miracle. For more check out:
www.diana78.blogspot.com
Well, its offical! Garrett Cordell Starr is as of now cancer FREE for 3years!!! You go G! We had a wonderful trip. G did so good. Everyone and I mean everyone could't believe how good he is doing. He didn't shut up the whole way down and the whole time we were there. His talking is improved as well as his memory. These are things that I have noticed just in the last couple of weeks. We took his walker with us the one that he pulls behind him and of course he surprised me. He took off with that thing and didn't even think twice. Then when he got tired he just lifted his little behind and sat on the back of it. I was just amazed at how well he did with it. He can't use it in my house because its way to small and it won't fit through the doorways. Let me tell you I was so proud of him. All the hard work in school paid off. I am going to go up to school next week and see if we can walk the halls so G doesn't get set back for next year. The only bad report that we got was that it looked like there was some small white matter/lesions coming back. He is not clinical at this point so I will keep a very close eye on him and if I see any changes we will be going to madison every day for hyperbarics. I hope and pray for his sake that they just disappear. There is no way I can afford to drive up there every day. My blazer would never make it and I hate taking moms van. Anyway, next time we go will be a long trip as we will have to do lots of testing for endocrine. He is not growing as he should. When we first got to St.Jude he was in the 100 percentile in height. (Gee wonder where he gets that at lol) now he is below the 50percentile. So, they want to do the testing and start him on growth hormones. I have heard such horrible stories about the growth hormones and am very nervous with that. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do. I thought that we would be able to graduate to a 6month check up but because of the lesions we will go back in 3 instead of 4. Thats okay because it will end up being the end of Sept which is Shantaes wedding. G was so excited to see her. Of course he had to tell her about Zoie his little friend at school. So Shantae is no longer his girlfriend. LOL. Thats all to report on now as we have lots to do this summer!! To much to bore you with but just wanted to let you all know that his scans were clear for no tumor!!!!!
God bless and thanks for keeping G in your thoughts and prayers!! Melissa
Saturday, June 9, 2007 1:54 PM CDT Not to much to report. G is going to Madison Wed to see and pediatric eye specialist. He has gone to one already but a very good source has refered us to Dr.Gamm. I called yesterday and he had a cancel on Wed otherwise it wouldn't be until Sept 21st until we could get in. Yup I call it fate. We were meant to get in early and right before St.Jude. We head to the Jude June 18th-June 22nd. Yes Papa the dates are correct!! Schools out not even a week and G is already bored. It's going to be a long summer! I will update asap after the Jude. Pray for clean scans. When it is clean/clear, this will be G's 3rd year of being cancer free. So pray and pray and pray!! God bless....Until next time........Mel
Saturday, May 12, 2007 11:29 AM CDT Hello All! Not much to report on. G is doing great. I am ready to end the school year. G on the other hand is not. He begs to go to school. I love it that he wants to go to school because last year he never wanted to go. He has lots of special friends at school. Yesterday they went to Boscobel for a fun day. All the area schools "special ed" students got to go and play games like a wheel chair race, relay races and all kinds of fun things. He had a great time. He crashed when he got home. I tried to keep him up and then about 5pm he was on my lap and 2 seconds later he was out like a light. Other than that the weather has been great. Gs new thing is making stepping stones. So we have been doing alot of that. He puts all kinds of things in them from rocks, stars to whatever he can find that hard and will stick in the concrete. We have gone through 2 - 80lb bags of concrete so far.
DONT FORGET THE ST.JUDE RODEO NEXT WEEKEND MAY 19. LOG ONTO WWW.STJUDETRAILRIDE.COM. LAST WEEKEND THEY HAD THE TRAIL RIDE AND RAISED $15,000.00 WAY TO GO RIDERS AND ORGANIZERS!! ALWAYS A GOOD TIME THERE.
Thats all for now, get out and enjoy the beautiful weather!!! Melissa
Saturday, April 28, 2007 12:06 AM CDT Well we made it through all the birthday celebrations. Not to much to report on. G is doing great with his braces. He has been sick with allergies lately. Can't imagine why. One day its almost 80 degrees and the next is maby 50. This weekend is going to be great! In the upper 70's and 80's. I think we can finally put away the winter gear and shovels. G got one of those rocket rods you see on t.v. all the time. It works really good. I think I had more fun with it than he did. We went fishing last Saturday and he caught one fish. To anyone around the area there is a really nice new place right outside of New Diggins. It is for wheelchairs or just anyone. It has a nice cemented ramp and they are going to get some picnic tables in there. Its nice for me cause its close to home. The Isacc Walton League in Benton WI are the ones who are doing it. Anyway thats about all for now. We do have a radiothon in Madison coming up on Thurs. and Friday. The St.Jude trail ride is next weekend. Please pray for great weather. Log onto stjudetrailride.org to find out more. Enjoy your spring!!!!! Mel
Saturday, April 14, 2007 9:13 AM CDT HAPPY BIRTHDAY G!!!!! Yup Gs big day is Monday April 16th. He is having the big party on Sunday. He will be 6yrs old. I can't hardly believe it. I never thought I would see him make it till 3yrs old. A miracle!
Okay so one thing, who ordered all the snow??? C'mon its spring. We got about 5 inches of snow this week. School was canceled one day and then a two hour delay the next day. Good thing is that it is just about gone and it's gonna be in 50's for the next week. Yippppeeeee! We can't wait to get out and do stuff outside.
G finally got his braces (afo's) on Monday. He loves them. I was directed to work him into them a few hours each day working up to eight hours. He wants to wear them all the time. He was balancing all by himself the other day and he wants to walk, walk, walk. He is even walking better without them on. I can't imagine how good they must feel, getting his feet back in alignment. They couldn't have come at a better time because just last week I noticed a huge change in his walking. His feet dropped again. So, we had to go get a new pair of tennis shoes because obviously the braces are bigger than his foot and wider. So we went to this well known store in Madison and I just wanted to smack the guy. First we walk into the store and everyone fled. I was wondering if we smelled or something. LOL So anyway the assistant manager helped us and at first he was wanting to pawn us off on someone else. I say leave me alone and I will find what I want. Anyway turns out this guy was an orthopedist. Yeah right what is he doing working in a shoe store? Anyway so we tried a few pair of shoes and he was cutting down Chris they guy who made the braces for G and said that he would take them back and have them do this and that. I thought well buddy if you don't want to help us and make a sale then screw you. He just really annoyed me!! Sorry. Anyway we went to the mall and went to Dicks Sporting goods store and it took like 5 mins and very helpful people and we were out the door. Sorry for venting.
Mark your calenders for May 3&4 for 106.3s radiothon in madison. G and I will be guests again this year. Also May 5&6 for the St.Jude trail ride in Lodi. May 19th and 20th for St.Jude Rodeo in Lodi along with many many activities for the whole family. Log onto stjudetrailride.org to find out more.
Okay thats all for now I promise! Until next time....Mel
Saturday, March 31, 2007 10:49 AM CDT Another 2 weeks have passed and really no updates. G is still doing amazing. I did take him to the doctor this week because he was complaining that his left ear (the good one) had wax in it. Turns out he had fluid behind his ear drum. So that is on its way to clearing up. He is in better spirits and he is finally sleeping better. I had parent teacher confrences on Thursday. Sounds like G is doing good. Still going round and round with insurance company about Gs braces. They ok'd everything except for the straps to hold the braces on, the heel support, and the internal lining. Tell me why would you ok everything else but the most important? Just make the darn things and I will put the darn straps on. LOL. It will take an additional 4 weeks for them to make the braces after insurance oks it all. Lets see its been 6 weeks already. Good things come to those who wait. I have to keep on telling myself that.
A while ago I picked up some exercise cards from our local wal-mart. They are called fit deck jr. G loves to do them. They have different games to play to make excersising fun. Let me tell you, the one night that G,Brad and I played all together and actually did what we were supposed to I was working up a sweat and I condsider myself fit. But G just loves to do them. He asks several times a day to do them. He is not able to do some of them because they do require standing but as long as we help him he is fine. I would recommend these to everyone, young and old.
Several fundraising events going on in the next two months. We speak on Wed. at the University of Wisconsin Platteville. They college is doing whats called up all night. What they do is stay up all night writing letters to friends and family to get them to donate to St.Jude. So far they have raised over 10thousand dollars. Pretty good for a small university. Then May 3&4 we have the radiothon in Madison which once again I will be telling Gs story. I am prepared this time. I had to do an outline because I forget to tell much of his story when I just get up there and blabber on and on. The last speech was a bomb. Of course we can't forget the trail ride that the Lodi crew put on. That is on May 5&6. For more info. on that you can log onto www.stjudetrailride.org. They are also doing another Rodeo and have tons of activities going on later in the month. That is May 19&20. Last year this was a great time. Great for the entire family to go out and see. I think thats all for now. Who knows. I love going out and raising money for St.Jude. It's the least I can do for them.
Anyway thats all for now. We have had some awesome weather lately. So G has gotten to get out of the house and play outside. God Bless and until next time........Mel
Saturday, March 17, 2007 11:37 AM CDT Hello all!!! The benefit went awesome last week. They had the nicest door prizes and they did it a neat way. They had cups sitting by the door prizes and you buy tickets and put them in the cup that goes with the prize. So, you only had the possiblity of getting what you want. G won an ice cream sundae package. Bucky badger was there and G and I got our picture taken with him. There was also some of the Badger football players there. It was lots of fun!
G is doing good. Hasn't been sick lately or anything. He did need to visit Dr.Lynn though. His lower back was way outta wack. He has not been sleeping again. He has been a crazy man which is awesome!! I wouldn't have it any other way. I purchased the new little einsteins first signs dvd. G liked it a little and I think it is something we will just have to keep up with for him to understand whats going on. I got it just in case something goes with the left ear. Preperation. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst kinda thing. So hopefuly that all goes well. Nothing to much more to tell.
Melissa
Saturday, March 3, 2007 8:11 AM CST Finally some new pictures!!!
Like I always say "No news is good news" Yes it is true! Gs scans came back better than ever! The lesions are still improving and best of all no tumor!!! The only bad news that we got is that G is deaf in his right ear or as they say its a dead ear. No hearing aids will help. Hey we will take it!!! It sure does explain a lot of his actions and his speech. It was nice to see all our friends at St.Jude. It is funny when you have people coming up to us and asking us if we are "new." Ah no thank god. The weather was awesome! It was in the lower 70's to upper 60's. To us it was warm. Of course we were running around without coats on, wearing t-shirts and tank tops and the natives thought we had lost our minds. They were running around in winter coats. We sat outside for about an hour and I got some color you could see where my shirt went. Best of all G got to see Andy. He got to see Andy play and then he talked to Andy as he was going back to the locker room and then in the press room. After Andy was done talking to the press he made a point of coming down and spending some time with G. What even surprised me more was that Andy wanted to come over to the hospital and spend some time with G. He did. He came over while G was in PT and played a bit. He had to get back but it was so nice to be out of the "lime lite" and for things to be more quiet. When ever G and Andy are together there are tons of cameras going off and media all over. So it was very nice for them to get to spend some time together.
The weather back here is aweful!!! We made it home before the blizzard last weekend. This is how smart we are......Sat night my sister had a b-day party for my bro-in-law, long story short, we got stuck in the blizzard. The all mighty blazer got us stuck in a 4ft snow drift right in the middle of the road about a mile or so from the house. So then my step-day and mom thought they would brave it and they got stuck (carl says the battery went dead, yeah right! lol) right in the front of my house. So they had someone come and get them and then they had "Rudy" come get us with the snowmobile. This was at like 1am. They the transmission went out of the blazer. Fun Fun! We then got a terrible storm the last few days as well. Mostly ice and lots and lots of wind!! Spring where oh where are you??
One more good thing that just happened! Jeremy got a call late Wed night and he got a new kidney!! Well, slightly used but new to him! He will be in the hospital 5-7 days. Thats it. He cant drive for 4-6 weeks though. Hopefully he wont reject it and he will be off dialysis forever!! Lets see, I think thats all I have for now. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!!!
Saturday, February 17, 2007 8:28 AM CST Finally its warming up!!! I am so sick of the minus temps. We leave monday for St.Jude. Please pray for great scans. I have no doubts that they will be. G has been doing so well.
His eye appointment went well just not what I expected. The specialist said that the only thing to do is surgery (which I already knew that) but we/he would have to watch him for about a year or so. Well G has been dealing with this for longer than that. I just want him to be able to see better! He does not use his eyes together. One is focused and the other is off in la-la land. Another wait and see situation.
The brace fitting went well. G will get new leg braces in about a week or so. G walks on the inside of his feet,flat footed. So he has no support. He has great flexability in his foot it is turned in but when his ankle is aligned he has no flexability at all. So the braces will align everything and give him and atual arch support. He was so good when the casted his legs for the molds. We went to the mall after just because you never know what you might find on sale. Anyway he wanted to walk so he got out of his chair and he was walking really slow and careful which is totally not like him. I said G whats going on why are you walking so carefully and he said because he didn't want to ruin his braces. He already thought he had the braces on. Bless his heart. Of course we got some good deals along the way.
Last Sunday we got together with Blanche. She was in town visiting and she wasn't sure if she would make the tennis tournament in Memphis so we visited with her for a few hours. That was nice. She got to see how G is really doing in a home enviroment.
G and I are going to be speaking at a few events for St.Jude in March. March 8th we have a celebrity dinner to talk at. Its in Madison at avenue bar at 1128 east washington avenue. Cocktails are at 5:00 dinner is at 6:30. The cost is $25.00 at the door and tickets include dinner and 10 door prize tickets. There will be many door prizes, a silent auction and live auction. Bucky Badger will be there and local public official and badger football players will be the celbrity waiters. So, come one come all!!! Its for a great cause.
Thats all for now. Remember NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS!!! God bless and keep warm!!! Melissa
Before I forget, Dah, be sure to log onto andyroddick.com and get your 2007 calender! Gs picture is in it and andys pictures are pretty good to. All proceeds go to andys charity so you will be getting an awesome calender and helping out the less fortunate children!!
Saturday, February 3, 2007 12:36 AM CST BRRRRRRRR!!! The temp here is -4 degrees not including the wind chill! They forcasted that it would feel like -30
with the wind chill.
Anyway, G is doing so great. We go Monday to the pediatric eye specialist then on Friday we go to Madison to get some new afo's for G. Afo's are also know as braces. They will be hindged at the ankle and they will be mostly to support the ankles and align his knees and hips. Hopefully its not another goose chase. But I feel really good about it. I think I feel good about it because G is excited about getting them. I have no idea about the eye specialist. I pray that he can do something for the little man. His eyes dont work together and he said he usually sees 2-3 of things. I would be nausated all the time if that was me.
We leave for St.Jude the 20th of Feb. His MRI is the 21st. We will see Andy and his mom and dad, Gs favorite nurse Shantae and Mac and Claire Winker. Its so nice to visit our home away from home but its much nicer to get to come back home.
Nothing really to report. My dog Mya has tumor between her toes and it is more than likely cancer. She will be 9 in June and the adverage life expectancy of labs are 10 years so no I am not going to do chemo. I know what it does to people let alone animals.
I guess no news is good news. Thats all for now....God Bless Mel
Saturday, January 20, 2007 12:01 AM CST I am so Bad for not writing more. I totally forgot after the holidays. G had a wonderful holiday season. Yup on Christmas he opened up gifts at my house then we went to nanas then to the ER. He was diagnosed with pink eye in both eyes, upper respitory infection and ear infection in one of his ears. (I dont remember which one) Even though he was sick (which he has been every Christmas since he was born) we had a nice and quiet Christmas. New Years eve my nephew Spencer came out to watch G so I could go out. G loves Spencer so much and Spencer is so good to him. On that note I just want to say a special Thank You to Andy and his parents!! You know why.
I purchased a treadmill for G to walk on since our house is so small. Of course I may use it a time or two. SHHHHH! He does so wonderful on it. He lasts anywhere from 4-8 mins with a slight break in the middle. He gets the biggest grin on his face when he gets on it and he laughs so much. I think its because he can do it himself. Well kinda. But he holds himself up with the bars and the only thing I have to do is place his left foot because he tends to cross it. The first day he got off it he was feeling so confident he actually took 2 steps on his own. You go G! Its coming.
G also had a gal from Edgerton WI, (sorry I cant remember your name and your address is not infront of me) give G 100.00 to use towards adapted equipment. So I ordered a core disc, got some pencil grips, adapted scissors, adapted spoon and fork and still looking for a slant board thats not so expensive. Then one day last week I got the money back and here to find out the school purchased those things for G. SO now I can get some other tools. Gs school is so great. They have adapted to all his needs. I think thats such a wonderful thing cause all the horror stories I have heard we could have it much much worse.
I feel like I am the luckiest person in the world to have my son alive and doing great. The community is so awesome. Lots of people know G and say hi to him all the time and I have absolutely no idea who they are and we live outside a really small town. If I go somewhere it doesnt matter which town in the area at least one person stops me and asks how G is. Yesterday I went to Platteville to get my glasses and stoped at a store in Cuba City and ran into 3 people who asked how G was (another small town) then at the eye doctors I ran into one of my Grandmas friends who asked how G was then I couldnt leave without going to Wal-Mart (hey I had to get dog food) and I can't remember how many people I saw and asked how G was doing. I AM the most blessed mom in the world!!
Hey next weekend we have lots of fun planned for G! We are going to the Kalahari in Wisonsin Dells. Its a hugh indoor water park. When I say huge you really have no idea. My friends Ben and his wife peggie invited us to join them. I havent seen been like in 2years maby even 3. We talk on the phone but never get to see each other. Hes a workaholic! Anyway it will be so much fun. I don't know whos more excited me or G!!
On one last note I would like to thank Richard for all your help!!! Also thank for all you at school who are checking in on G!! Keep praying for the little man and all those in need!!!! Nothing but love........Melissa
Saturday, December 23, 2006 8:36 AM CST WE WOULD LIKE TO WISH YOU ALL HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR. MAY SANTA BE GOOD TO YOU AND YOU HAVE A SAFE AND HEALTHY HOLIDAY SEASON!!!
Once again its Christmas time and once again G is sick! He has been sick for every Christmas. He came home yesterday from school and threw up 3 times and he is all congested and runny nose and just feeling like total crap. Every year at this time he gets sick. He just got over a cold and now this. Oh well, He will have a week to get over it before he goes back to school. I am just glad he is here to celebrate another Christmas with us. He will still enjoy the fun.
We always think of our dear friends the Kellons from Memphis. It was this time last year that they lost our little friend and their precious daughter Krista. We think about them all the time and about how happy and at peace she must be not suffering anymore.
Nothing to report. G had his holiday program on last thursday night. He did so good. He did sing some of the songs but by far his favorite was ringing the bell durring jingle bells. No new additions to the family (pets) as it seems we are always getting something. Headed to nanas for christmas and to Brads (boyfriend)moms place after that. Of course it depends on how G is feeling.
Until next time..........Mel
Sunday, December 10, 2006 9:41 AM CST Not much to report on. G is doing awesome. Every day he gets stronger and more determined that he is gonna walk. He is getting so independent. He always was but holy cow he has to try to do most everything which is great. He is really doing so much better. Like I said he just keeps getting stronger and stronger.
Buttercup Gs last bunny passed away. It just got to cold and I was gonna bring him in and I totally forgot. Oops. We just cant keep bunnies at our home. For some reason they don't last long. G took it very well when I told him. He didn't even cry. So of course after that G wants to bring the horses in the house so they don't get to cold. Such a caring little boy he is.
G sat on Santas lap a few weeks ago and he told santa that he wants a real rocket ship and airplane. Thats fine but now he is on a animal kick. He wants a cow and a pig. Well that was at first but now he wants between 5-10 cows. Turtle, bird,bunny,fish he wants all of those to and he thinks santa is going to bring him all of these animals. Santa may bring a turtle but I am not sure. I told him that santa probably wouldn't bring the cow or pig cause he knows that mama can't afford to feed a pig or cow. Once he gets on these kicks he will not back off. Every five mins "when can I get my cow?" Thats okay though It could be much worse.
G has his Christmas program thursday night and he has been practicing so hard. He was singing a couple of songs last week and he was so excited. Thats his new thing is singing. He never really got into singing and whenever I would sing in the car he would say stop it and cover his ears. Its not like I am that bad. No really I am that bad! Cant carry a tune for the life of me. Anyway I must get back to work. Thanks for checking in on Gman and keeping him in your prayers. Oh he is starting to finally sleep better. Until next time............Mel
Saturday, November 25, 2006 12:17 AM CST Hello all! G is doing well. He is trying so hard to walk right now. My grandma says he will be walking by x-mas. I hope she is right but I am not going to bet against it. He is still not sleeping very well. They Drs at st.jude say that its not his thyroid medication like I thought it was. I took him to my local Dr and she said that he is depressed and needs to see a counsler. I don't think he is depressed but I do still want him to see the counsler just because of all he has had to go through and deal with why he is different than the other kids at school. I average about 2-3 hours of sleep a night as it is the same for G. I don't know how he keeps on a going. I am getting sick, sore throat ect. I can't imagine that he is not sick yet.
Other than the not sleeping he is doing great. We had a great thanksgiving. We spent it with my sister and immediate family. Oh yeah the big news is that my sister(Stacy) had a baby boy on the 16th. 8lbs 4oz and i think 21 or 22 inches long. She was all baby cause a week later she was only 5lbs heavier than she was when she got pregnant. That is not fair! Oh well as long as they are both healthy. Oh yeah on turkey day G lost his 2 front teeth! He was sitting on the couch with Brad and he was eating a sucker and the next thing I know Brad is like ah Mel, G just lost his teeth and they are in my hand. He was in like total shock. I knew they were loose but I didn't think they were that loose. I need to get you all some pics because he has no bottom front teeth and no top ones. So the only song he will be singing for x-mas is all I want for x-mas is my two front teeth.
We braved the crowds yesterday for black friday. It wasn't to bad. G did well he got a bit cranky towards the end but it was cause he was hungry. He got to sit on Santas lap and tell him what he wanted for x-mas. He wants a rocket ship, a real one mind you. He also wants a remote control plane. He always talks about flying to the moon and being an astronaunt and seeing the stars ect. I thought about getting him a telescope but with his eyesight the way it is I don't think he would enjoy it at all.
Have you all seen the new show 3lbs? I kinda like it just because its all about brain crap and well going through everything that G went through I can actually understand it and I know exactly what they are talking about. Even the dr mumbo jumbo. I think its on Tues nights like at 9ish. But don't hold that to me. Hey, hope you guys had a great turkey day and I will talk to you soon........MEL
Saturday, November 11, 2006 2:34 PM CST Hello All! Not to much to report here. (thats a good thing) The weather was really nice for the last couple of days now winter is back. G wants tons of snow so he can go out and play. Physically he is doing great! He has been wanting to walk so bad again. He is even using the walker a ton more. His balance and strength are improving greatly. The only thing to complain about is his sleeping habits. He has been going to bed about 7:30-8:30 which is normal for him but then he wakes up at 1am-3am and he stays up. It doesn't matter what time he goes to bed. If he goes later he still gets up then. I cant get him to fall back to sleep for nothing. So, then I am up until the next night. I usually cant fall asleep until 10ish but lately its been early cause I just cant go on 3hours of sleep so now I go on 4 hours. We reduced his synthroid (thyroid) meds thinking that maby that was it. Right now he has been off it for 5days and he is crashing big time. So in a few days he will be hyper and back to normal. He started taking it again today. I feel so bad to be changing the meds but something has got to give. Other than the whole sleep thing he is doing great! We had parent teacher confrences on Thursday and the teachers are just thrilled at how well G is doing. He will start Monday going every day until noon. The next step will be going until 12:45. Maby by the end of school he will be up for the full day.
Just got our schedule for St.Jude. Our next appointments are in Feb. I think the 21st-tennis tournament time. Make some time for G Andy.
One of my best friends had a really bad wreck last sunday. She rolled her van 4times doing 65mph. She is so lucky to be alive. Please pray for a fast recovery for Ronna. She had 3fractured ribs, some of her intestines removed, lots of bruising, scrapes, and she broke her neck. She can feel everything though thank God! She is very lucky she had her gardian angel with her that day. Please pray for her and G and all the other kids in the world that need it!!! Until next time........Mel
Saturday, October 28, 2006 8:56 AM CDT The "un-offical" results say...........Clean scan!! Gs MRI was later and so they didn't have the offical results on paper yet. It was just a quick overview in reviewing the scan. So far they say that it looks even better than the last scan in July. Way to go G! Our trip was good. The weather sucked! Rain,rain and more rain. It was also cool. Just what we didn't want but oh well it was nice to get away no matter the stress. We saw the Braun family. Carson had his scans and the un-offical results of his scans were clear also. Yeah!! Everyone said that G looked amazing. Better than in July. To me he looks the same but then again I am with him all the time. He grew 2inches since July. Almost 4foot tall. He only gained 2lbs so now he is up to 47lbs. I thought for sure it was more but when you are carrying around 47lbs of dead weight it seems like tons more. The eye doctors said she saw some improvement in his eyes so next time we are going to talk about eye muscle surgery. That freaks me out but as long as it will help G thats all that matters. We went out with Shantae and her boyfriend Jack. They are the greatest people. G loves seeing her. We also went to the racquet club to see Mac and Claire. It was so wonderful to see them. Everyone there is so nice. After you see Claire or even talk to her on the phone you just get a peaceful happy feeling in your heart. I dont know what it is about her but you just feel good after visiting with her.
On a bit of a sad note our little friend D'Vante (not sure how to spell his name) is not doing very good. I am not sure what his scans came back saying but his mom said that things weren't going well. So please pray for him!! His mom is amazing!
Oh yeah, my sister took care of our animals when we were gone and ooops, One of Gs new rabbits passed away. The little one. Not sure which one is which, if it was buttercup or peanut. G doesn't know yet but I will tell him this time. Way to go Stacy!!! I figured that rabbit would have bit the dust a long time ago just because he was the runt. Everyone else was fine and glad to see us.
Not much else to update on. Thanks for your continued prayers. G is our little miracle!!!
Saturday, October 14, 2006 2:05 PM CDT G was so excited on wednesday when he got up. Why you ask, let me tell you one simple little 4 letter word. SNOW!!!!! Yup we had our first snow fall. It didn't last long but still the fact that it snowed in October, not good for us. It was in the mid 70's on the sunday before. Just a little bit of change that I am so not ready for.
All is going well. G really likes school. He has his up and down days. He is progressing in everything he does. He is so independant. He always says I will do it or let me do it. Its hard for me to let him do it cause he takes so loooonnnnnggg in doing stuff but I have learned to let him do most stuff and realize that if we are late for something oh well. If I am not 15mins early then I am late so that was hard for me. He is using sentences and talking very well. He is getting around more. He is finally sleeping in his own bed. However he ususally sleeps until 1-2am and then I have to go in and sleep with him otherwise he gets up and wants to stay up for the rest of the night. Who needs sleep!
We are headed to St.Jude the 23rd - 27th. G has 2 early appointments on the 25th so we will be able to enjoy our day goofin off. His MRI is not until the 26th with all his other cagillion appointments. We will then drive home on the 27th. All I keep thinking is warm weather. Our friend Brad will be coming with us and of course Nana! Should be interesting to say the least. Brad is so good with G though so it will help me and nana out tons! Thats all for now and I will update on the 28th-unless something happens.
Please pray for clear scans and a safe trip!!!! MEL
Saturday, September 30, 2006 1:19 PM CDT Well, once again not much to report. G is still doing great. He has a bit of a cold and has missed a few days of school but nothing to major. Still improving day after day. Homecoming is this weekend so G was in the parade with all the other students. I am working so I took off for an hour to quick run over and see him in the parade. I will try to post pics soon. The theme for the k5 was blues clues so they all dressed in blue and had on floppy ears. G was the leader of the pack since he is in a wheel chair. He thought that was pretty cool. Lets see, I don't know if I posted this on here but we lost our dear psycho bunny Dot a few weeks ago. Of course I haven't had the heart to tell G that. His dog P.J. killed him. I went down to roll the windows in the blazer up and my other dog Mya was sniffin something in the yard so I walked up to see what it was and yup its was our dear psycho bunny. I am a bad mom because I hated that bunny and I was kinda glad to see him go but I feel terrible for G when he finds out. See we kept the bunny outside and outta sight outta mind. So, anyway, we return to the Jude Oct 24th with appts the 25th and MRI on the 26th. They had G scheduled for all his appointments on thurs. the 26th from 7am until 5pm. Including his sedation and MRI. I don't think so. That is a long day for me let alone him. So we got them to move 2 appointments to Wed the 25th. Anyway sorry there isn't more to report but the less the better!! Until next time..........Mel
Saturday, September 16, 2006 12:17 AM CDT G is doing so awesome. The whole school thing is going great! He likes it, hey that makes my life and his much easier. He is wanting to do more like walking and more playing in general. He also is talking much better using full sentences and pronouncing his words more clearer. Not much else to report. Its getting cold here already! We are so not ready for this. Its been chilly and rainy all the time with maby 1-2 days between with sunshine. I love fall but I am just not ready for what comes after. G is getting so TALL! I wonder where he gets that from?? Our next trip to St.Jude is the end of October and I know we will have good results! Anyway thats all for now.................Mel
Saturday, September 2, 2006 10:06 AM CDT Where oh where did the summer go?? Well, G started his first day of school on Friday. They only had a half a day. It was so nice to see all the kids again. I missed them and so did G. Gs got a new special ed teacher, Mrs.Rielly. She and G are going to get along so good. Shes young and has a great personality. Jeremy and I met with all the teachers and principal and the school phsychologist on Thursday. We are going to just fly by the seat of our pants and let Gs endurance decide for us. He will go 1/2 days and eat lunch at school. We will work up to the full day. He said he had a great day on Friday and had lots of fun. I think with Mrs.Rielly he will do well. She will be like an assistant for him when she is not seeing other kids. So I pray that all goes well for G and that he continues to enjoy it.
Health wise, G is doing great. He has such a strong will. He wants to walk so bad to the point where he will lean against the couch and take a step. Of course he falls but at least he tries. He has been a dare devil lately doing things that he normally would not. Thats great though as long as he doesnt get hurt. He has been wanting to do more physically and wanting to go outside also. He does have a little bit of a cold but he is still doing great.
Of course we are watching Andy at the U.S. Open. G loves to watch him and I have really been getting into it. I usually turn it on at work on the weekends and have to try to control myself. Hey it's only tennis. You would think its football or something. It makes a difference when you know someone personally who is playing. I still want to meet James Blake. He has such a story to his life and all the obstacles he had to get over. He just seems like such a nice guy. So, Good luck to you Andy and to James!!!! May you meet at the final.
Anyway, thats all to now nothing but great news!!!!!!!!! Until next time.............Mel
Saturday, August 19, 2006 8:48 AM CDT Where is the summer going? It has been cool here. I am not ready for the cool weather. They say it's going to be a hard winter. GREAT! Can't wait! I hate winter and the cool/cold weather. Anyway not much to report on G. We had a B-Day party for Andys Grandmother who turned 95 August 10th. G got to see Blanche, Andys mom and of course Hazel Andys g-ma. It was fun but of course G got tired fast. He is doing good. He does go into these like moods where he just doesn't talk or do anything but sit on the couch and stare into space. He was doing great until last Sunday then he got into his mood. He should be out of it here in a couple of days or so. School starts on Sept 1st. G will have an aide all to himself. He will go part-time for now and when he gets stronger with more endurance, he will go full time. I remember when I was in kindergarten we only went for 1/2 days not the whole day. Anyway, We don't have to much going on. I have been going out more and dating. Fun Fun! I love to meet new people and have a huge circle of friends. My newest friends are a hoot. They always make me laugh and keep me on my toes.
On a sad note, our dear family friend Eldon Beau passed away on Tuesday. He was diagnosed two weeks ago with a rare muscle cancer that was attached to his bladder and it was spredding to his lungs. He ended up getting blood clots and other complications due to this. He was not physically strong enough after the complications to go through surgery and even if he did the doctors were only giving him 3 months. He was such a giver and always willing to lend a hand no matter what. He was always on the go and pyhsically in great shape. It just goes to show ya that life is to short (as we all know) and you just don't know when its your time.
On a happier note, be sure to watch Andy tonight in the us open series. He is in the semi finals. GO ANDY! I think its on espn2 unless nbc or abc is picking it up. Good luck at the Open next week also!!!
Well, until next time.............MEl
Saturday, August 5, 2006 10:26 AM CDT Sorry for the lack of updates but no news is good news!!
Gs scans were great. The lesions in his liver were totally gone! Some of the lesions on his brain were gone as well but he still has some left. The doctors at St.Judes have never had a patient that has done more than 40 hyperbaric treatments. So, they are now going to recomend that patients do more because of the improvement on Gs scans. We will continue to do more hyperbaric treatments as needed. Right now I want to take the rest of the summer to enjoy it. Only if G starts to regress then I will take him back in immediately for more.
Our trip to Memphis was the best one yet. Tuesday after Gs appointments we were going to go swimming at the racquet club but G decided he didn't want to do that. So we met Gs favortie nurse Shantae at Sonic. It is always so nice to see her. Then we went down to Beal St. and took in a carriage ride. Of course G loved that. So then we took in some of the music on Beal St. Of course we had to go to Coyote Ugly. Well, it was after 7 so G couldn't go in so I did. Mom and G stayed outside. I just wanted to see what it was like. I went in and looked at the t-shirts and stuff and then saw some scanky girl up on the bar dancing so then I left. I wasn't in there for more than 5 mins. Usually they would have some good looking girls up there but it must have been an off night. Anyway, then at St.Judes, they had a HUGE sale. When I say HUGE I mean HUGE. T-shirts for $5, the big St.Jude bags for $10 and the list goes on and on. So not only did we hit it one day but 3days and of course each and every day we both had to get something. They had new things every day. It was a great sale. Thats about all we did. It was one of the best trips ever.
Are you all sitting down??? Gs MRI sedation was scheduled for 10:30. As we all know its always much later than that. So St.Jude had X-Mas in July where Santa Clause visits and brings gifts so we went down to that and came back to MRI check in at 10:40 and you will never believe this, they were looking for us. Yup they were running early. So, G went right back and was sedated by 11:00 and his MRI wasn't scheduled until 11:30. So not only were they on time but EARLY! First time for everything. That was so nice cause I thought for sure he wouldn't be sedated until about 1pm. That was nice.
As far as G goes he is doing good. He has been in a mood since he got sedated. He would lay on the couch and not get up and talk baby talk and wet his pants. He is better now. Coach Combs (head coach for University of Wisconsin, Platteville) invited G over to b-ball camp for a day. Well, G was in his mood so we just visited with coach and his wife and their 2 boys. I think that is what G need to kinda get out of his mood cause I had a dr. appt after that so G stayed at my grannys with my uncle and his girlfriend and they said he was talking and walking around being goofy and playing. My comment was yeah right! So when we got home he wouldn't do anything. Thurs night we watched my nephew Tanner who is 4 and thats when things started to turn around at home. He actually got on the floor and played. Now he is back to normal. He has been going to therapy at home at the hospital that I work at. He has been doing good. When we were at St.Jude, G kept on saying to me just let me go and I will walk by myself. Which he pretty much did. I just hang on to his shoulders with a few fingers so he knows I am there and to catch him when he looses his balance. So it is coming. I am just so proud of him and all the ackomplishments he has made this summer.
He is excited for this Thursday. "Grandma Hazel" Andys grandma is having her 95th birthday party and Blanche, Andys mom is flying in so G is so excited to see her. He hasn't seen her in I think a year. That will be nice to see her. We talk to her all the time. Anyway enough babble for now. Take care and please pray for all the families of children with cancer and for G.
Also another prayer request, one of our really good friends Eldon Beau was diagnosed with bladder cancer yesterday. Please pray for eldie. He is such a great man and he lost his wife years ago to cancer. Please pray for healing. Thanks so much!!
Saturday, July 22, 2006 9:44 AM CDT I need to appologize to you all. I guess I didn't realize that I complained that much on this site. I am sorry for that and I will try to do my best not to do so. That is not my intention. My intention is to update you on Garrett. So..........
Its off to
Memphis on Monday. Gs schedule is a good one. Tuesday he only has appointments until 11am so we have the whole afternoon to do something. We always go to the zoo so I am thinking something different. Of course we will call Shantae and Mac and Claire Winkers. Mabyboat ride or a trip to the racquet club. Wed is his MRI and CT scan along with 4 other appointments. His MRI isn't scheduled until 11:45 St.Judes time so reality it will be about 1:45 or so. So, no results until Thurs morning when we see Dr.Fouladi. Thurs after E clinic we go to psych. testing and then home. I am interested in see what they say in psych. testing because I am having issues with where to place him next year in school. Back to 4k or kindergarten. Lots of pros and cons with both.
G is doing well. He started pt,ot and speech at the hospital that I work at. He is doing really well and getting stronger and stronger.He
was going through a phase of not talking and not wanting to do anything but sit on the couch. But
he is through that now. His walking is still improving slowly but it is improving. I work with him at home to get his strength and endurace up. We practice walking and do the big ball exercises. He hasn't really wanted anything to do with his pool this year. He has gone a few times but says he is afraid of it. He will overcome that, he did last year. Nana, aunt Stacy, cousin Tanner and I went to the lake last week. G had so much fun until we had to cut it short. There was a little sign (4x6) posted that a lady made us aware of(after the fact) about there possibly being some algae that was toxic to the body and that you should not allow your pets to swallow or your children to swallow. Like I said it was after the fact cause G had already swallowed a ton of the water. What kid doesn't? So, anyway thank God he didn't get sick and that he had a great time when we were there. We got a surprise when we got home, "Andy" Gs pony was out on the road. Someone had let him out. The rope was cut and the gate had to be lifted in order to for him to get out. On top of it all, the pony is new to our place and has catarax so he doesn't see well. Thankfully he came right to me. So, all is well on the home front. I just thank God everyday that I have G with me and we thank all of you for keeping G in your thoughts and prayers! God Bless and until next time...............Mel
Saturday, July 8, 2006 10:53 AM CDT Finally we are done with HBOT and Suit Therapy. It has been a long month not only for me but for G. He is sick with a cold or something. Just run down. He is still so close to walking. He can walk with the suit on and minimal assistance. He is much stronger also. The OT, Jennifer directed me to a vision therapist. Because Gs depth perception is way off and he says he sees double. So I am sure that has tons to do with the whole walking issue. Thankfully, insurance pays for it. Downside, the closest clinic is 3 hours away. But I will do anything for Gman. We head to St.Jude the last week in July. All the fun follow-ups. Of course with Gs cold I took him to a doctor and he said his ears were not infected but the one was a little red so of course I panic because he hasn't had ear problems since his tumor was resected. So, of course PMS- pre MRI syndrome - but I also have to look at it with the point of view that he just got done with 40 HBOTs and thats not easy on the ears so for right now I will chalk it up to that. Next week we are gonna head on over to the lake and go swimming and play in the sand. G loves to play in the sand at the beach. Of course it depends on how he feels. I decided to take a week off with no therapy for G so he can get back to himself and back on a regular routine. He is all about schedules and routines. The following week he will start up again with a new pt,ot and speech therapist. So, overall he is doing well I just want the eye thing to get better so he feels better and can see. I tell if it's not one side effect its another but I will take whatever comes my way as long as G is still here! Thats all for now I will try to post more pics in a few weeks! Take care and thanks for checking on G. Until next time............Mel
Saturday, June 24, 2006 9:14 AM CDT What day is it?? The days are flying by. G finished his second week of suit therapy and his 30th hbot. (hyperbaric oxygen treatment) He is doing good. He has taked a few steps on his own with the suit on and he has been balancing for about 10seconds at a time on his own. Which is great. Its just amazing that G actually wants to walk. Instead of saying carry me he says he wants to walk. Which to me means he is getting everything back. He still has a long ways to go. I figured he would be walking on his own by now but it takes time. He is in the suit for 1hr 45 mins. Next week they will up it more. It is hard work but its fun. The therapists make it so fun. The first week was so hard for G but when he found out that I wasn't going to bail him out he started doing much better. So only time will tell. Our new friends Caitlyn and Gianna are also doing so well with the therapy. Of course G is a big flirt and as long as there is someone to flirt with...well he does much better.
We haven't really done to much "fun" things this summer. We leave for therapy at 6am and don't get back until 5 or so. G is so tired after so there is not much that he can do. Next friday the 30th is his last day of both so after that he will be able to enjoy more outdoor things. Maby a trip to Wisconsin Dells a few trips to the lake and what ever else comes along. The 4th of July will be here before we know it. I will have everyone out to my house for a cook out and we will watch the fireworks from the firepit. Then we don't have to deal with the crowds. Anyway thats all for now. We will return to Memphis the week of July 23. Until next time..........Mel
Saturday, June 10, 2006 11:16 AM CDT Hello all! G continues to do good. He still has bad days and good days. He has wanted to go riding alot. So he has rode my horse/his horse bareback, and a big ol belgin horse bareback. Well, I have never rode a belgin so I couldn't let him have one up on his mom so I climbed up on one to. Thats about the size I need since I am so tall. He is brave cause thats a long long ways up there. Even further if he falls. That has been great for his balance. We are in the process of getting his pool up, which is another great form of therapy. He has completed his 10th hyperbaric treatment. Next week we will do 2 a day along with suit therapy.
What is suit therapy you ask?? Suit therapy consisits of a system of adjustable elastic bungee cords that are used to correctly align the body and provide proper patterns of movement. The suit includes a canvas vest, a pair of shorts, two knee pads and shoes. If forms an exo-skelton that improves proprioception and restores proper patterns of movement. These effects help to normalize input arriving to the vestibular system which is an important system for balance and coordination. While wearing the suit patients participate in repetitive developmental tasks and strengthening activities. Therefore, with the input from the suit and the repepition of tasks, the patients begins to form new motor plans.
So, the plan is to do hyperbarics at 7:45am (yup that means we have to leave by 6am) then from about 9-1 he will have the suit therapy, then return to the hyperbaric chamber for his second treatment. The cost is out of this world it is $6500.00 for 3 weeks/4hours a day. So if any of you know of any foundations or organizations or large corporations that would donate to help with the cost, please let me know. I borrowed the money from a friend will full intentions of paying him back. Insurance will not pay because it is alternative and St.Jude won't pay for it because it is considered physical therapy in their book and they don't pay for therapy. So, the reasoning for doing this becasue Garrett asked me a couple of weeks ago when he was going to be able to walk. He wants to walk so bad but he is just not physically strong enough and he is mentally freightened. He thinks he is going to fall. He will walk with assistance which is to his advantage because he won't have to far to go to reach our goal. Walking with a walker un-assisted would be fine but of course we will push for the ultimate goal of walking by himself. The therapist is so excited that G is going to do this because she thinks he will make great progress. She is going to video tape everything from start to finish. He can pull himself from sitting to standing on the couch, he can crawl up on the couch, he crawls and walks with assistance. He just doesn't trust himself yet. With the suit therapy he will get his confidence back. This is the only thing he wants is to be able to walk again. He is getting more independant. It breaks my heart to hear him cry because he just wants to walk. So as a parent of a child that has been through hell I will do whatever it takes to make him walk. So again if you know of any organizations or foundations or large corporations that would help with the cost please please please let me know. Either email me or call me.
The animals are all doing well. Psycho bunny is still alive. I mean our lovely bunny dot is doing so good. P.J. the puppy is doing good. He is finally getting the whole potty training thing. Thank god. I don't know how many more times I can shampoo my carpets. Anyway please pray for all of our St.Jude friends and caringbridge friends and for G to be able to walk in 3 weeks! Until next time..........Mel
Saturday, May 27, 2006 8:39 AM CDT Can you believe it....New pictures. It only took me a year! Sorry they are soooooo big. I haven't had time to edit them.
G is doing good. He had 4k Graduation on Thursday. It went good. He usually gets done with school at 11am but they stayed in school until 1pm, had lunch and after that was the graduation. He did so good. I was totally expecting the teacher to call for me to come and get him because he was tired. He was even in good spirits which was amazing because he gets so moody. He is doing good for the most part. We are still doing hyperbaric treatments. That is going well. The weather is finally nice here so we will be outside doing more. He loves to be outside.
The St.Jude Saddle Up Rodeo went well. I am not sure yet how much they raised. G was so tired by the time we left. He slept the whole time on the way up. 2 hours only cause my navigation system got me lost. Thanks mom. Ha Ha. Then he slept the whole way back. That was only about an hour and a half. 2 bull riders signed a program for him and got their picture taken with G so that made his day. I gave my speech and then we left. We only stayed for the afternoon festivities. I would have loved to stay for the rodeo and I know G would have liked it but he was so tired and onry.
Not much else to update on. He will start therapy through the hospital soon. They don't offer it through school in the summer and he so needs it. He can't go 3 months without it. Can't wait to get outside and doing things. All the animals are doing good. I am tired of cleaning up after all of them. The puppy is chewing up everything and the bunny is well...I don't have anything nice to say so I won't say anything at all. As long as he makes G happy I will suffer. Well thats all for now. Enjoy the beautiful summer.....................Mel
Thursday, May 18, 2006 4:12 PM CDT Just wanted to remind you all of the Rodeo this weekend in Lodi, WI to benefit St.Judes. Visit www.stjudetrailride.org to find out more.
G is doing good. He has a great couple of days and then when he has those days he doesn't sleep very good so then we spend the next couple of days just sleeping and hanging out. He gets so hyper on the good days. But hey I will take them. He started hyperbarics last week. So we have done a whole whopin 2 treatments. Only 38 more to go. The last couple of days he has been wanting to walk and stand up and do all kinds of things. That is awesome. The more he wants to do it the better. I think he is just getting tired of always crawling and not being able to do the things the other kids do. I think we are going to try a new therapy called suit therapy. Its where G puts on a suit and it has rings on it and then he has cords hooked to the suit to work different muscles and what not. They will be starting that at hyperbarics. I need to find out the cost and if insurance will pay. They wont pay for hyperbarics so because this is "non traditional" they may not pay for this either. We will see. He lost his first tooth the other day. We were on our way home from hyperbarics and mom said his tooth was just like hanging there. Well, I forgot all about it because my horse had a colt and it was raining and the colt was shaking because she was so cold so I had to go out and dry her off ......Anyway, I forgot about the darn tooth until the next morning and well, it was not there any more. So he must have swallowed it in the middle of the night.
So many things going on this last couple of weeks. Hyperbarics, work, (okay so I worked like one extra day) dog, bunny, colt, Garrett and of course lawn work. All things I love to do. However the puppy thing is getting old. G loves his puppy but he is so much work. I have to get up at midnight and about 4am to let him out not to mention 15 billion times durring the day. Then there is Dot the bunny. He has been mean to the puppy. Can't imagine why. It's not like the puppy chases him or barks at him or anything. He loves the cats about the only thing he doesn't like is the puppy. I am still a bit leary of the bunny but all will be better when it stops raining here and he can be outside. Yes rain. It seems like 2 weeks straight of rain. I don't know if its been that long but its to darn long. So,my horse had a colt on the 16th. A little filly (girl) she is buckskin color with a white diamond on her forehead and 3 black socks and one white. She has a black main and tail also. They are so cute. G has already adopted her as his. I was actually going to sell all the horses. We will see. Ever since he got the animals he thinks he gets to get any animal he wants now. He saw a puppy the other day. A "puggle" I think is the name. Part beagle and pug. Only a mear $800.00. Thats over 2 house payments for me. I can't imagine spending that much for a dog. Anyway, he will just have to learn because my house can not possibly hold anymore animals and neither can the outside. Anyway, all is going good. We are getting ready to head up to Lodi for the St.Jude Rodeo. We give our speech on Sat. I will be glad when things start to slow down a bit. G has 4k graduation on Thurs May 25. Yup they have a ceremony and everything. Anyway enough babbling from me. Take care and thanks for checking in on G. Until next time.................Mel
Saturday, May 6, 2006 9:05 AM CDT Please keep little Taylor Watson in your prayers. She became an angel last week. Please pray for her family!
Also keep Joseph Thuli in your prayers he started chemo this week. visit/josephthuli
Sorry for the lack of entries. We have had a whirlwind last couple of weeks! First of all G had a wonderful B-Day. Loved all the gifts. Andy sent him a big chunk of money so we are still in the process of spending it. Lets see so far G went to he humane society and after seeing many dogs G decided on a puppy. The puppy is part beagle and part blue heeler. Hey don't laugh he is really cute. I will post pictures sometime soon. G named him "PJ"= pokey joe. Thats my nickname for G he is so slow at everything so I call him pokey. Lets see on Wed is when we got the puppy then on Thurs. we went and got a bunny rabbit. His name is Dot and he will be 2 in July. He is black with a white nose. He is even litter trained. So you can just imagine where he is, yup in the house. I make him stay in the cage for 90f the time. I have to put everything else away and then let him get out and hop around. He will be going outside when it is warm enough for him. The people who had him raised him like a cat. The puppy chases him around and I don't let Mia (chocolate lab) near him for fear she may decide she wants lunch. On top of that my mare is due to foal this weekend. Welcome to the funny farm!
Our last trip to Memphis on the last week of April went well. Okay it started out that way.....we got to meet with Claire Winkers. It was so nice to see her she just makes you feel so good she has such a positive attitude. Gs CT scan went good. Then they took lots of blood work, thats when it gets bad. We got a call on Thursday morning at 4am saying that we needed to bring G right over to the hopital because one of his cultures came back positive saying it was growing something. Okay, first of all he was showing no sign of fever or anything so how can it possibly be positve. Second you will just have to wait until I take a shower! I figured since he was not sick they could wait a half an hour or so. So anyway we get over there and of course they took more blood work and started him on vincomiacine(sp). We ended up staying for 3 days inpatient because of contamination. When they took Gs blood the first time, they figured that they didn't wipe his skin off good enough and it contaminated the culture resulting in a positive culture. But I would rather be safe than sorry. The only thing that uplifted Gs spirit was a unexpected phone call from Andy. Gs eyes just light up when he hears Andys voice. THANKS SO MUCH for that phone call Andy. Okay moving on, the CT scan showed 3 little spots or lesions. After reviewing the bloodwork results they have absolutely no idea what it is. They ruled out cancer, fungal/bacteria infection and regenerative tissue. So for right now we are just going to watch over them. On our last trip we found that G had more lesions growing back. At that time more hyperbaric treatments were up in the air but we got it okayed to go ahead a do more. Thats good because I was going to do it anyway. So as soon as the clinic gets back to me we will be doing 40 more treatments.
Overall G is doing well. He has had a cold. Still doesn't like school. His puppy and bunny bring him to uncontrolable laughter. That is so good to see and hear.
He is having trouble with mouth sores from the round of antibiotics in the hospital. Other than that he is doing well.
Don't forget about the St.Jude Rodeo coming up on the 20th of May. Log onto www.stjudetrailride.org to find out more. If you wish to donate something for the auction or donate some money please contact me and we will ba happy to take it up with us. I will be speaking Sat before the afternoon performance. There is so much going on besides the rodeo. You need to log onto the website to see whats going on. We have also been trying to get donations for that and getting media to advertise for it. It is the 10th anniversary for this event so lets make it a big one! We may also be doing a fundraiser soon to help pay for the cost of hyperbaric treatments for G. The cost is $6000.00 plus the gas driving back in forth. Last time the gas cost over $1000.00 alone. We will hopefully be getting a grant so the cost of hyperbarics will be $4000.00 instead of the six thousand. I just don't have any money. I went through all my savings the when G first got sick paying doctor bills here and bills in general. So I will let you know when and what we will be doing. We sure could use the help. Anyway, Sorry this is so darn long but I had a ton to tell. Thanks for checking in on G and please keep him and all the sick children in you prayers. Until next time...........Mel
Saturday, April 15, 2006 11:52 AM CDT Happy Birthday to G!!! He turns 5 on Easter!!!! Way to go little man!
Yup it happened again! I was all done and with one stupid push of a button it was gone, the whole entry. Lucky for you cause this one won't be as long!lol
Lets see, where to start. First thing, No Tumor! They did however find some new lesions in his brain. By some fluke they also found some lesions on his liver. The lesions on the brain they are telling to do nothing. I can't just sit and do nothing so I am trying to get some info together to prove to the doctors that more hyperbaric treatments are the way to go. They say no even though it has helped in the past. They say to much of a good thing is bad so, we will see. The liver, we go back to St.Jude April 25-27th to do a CT scan and some blood work. They are thinking some sort of fungal infection or just regenerative tissue. Dr.Fouladi has never seen this before in any of her patients but Dr.Gajjar has in one. So we will wait and see. He is doing really good. Going outside and playing and being a wild man. Of Course Sunday is his b-day so thats why. We also saw the endocrine Dr. and did some blood work. Long story short hes gotta be on thyroid meds for a underacive thyroid. Yipppeeee! Just goes along with everything else I guess.
When we got to Memphis we went to the zoo with nurse Shantae and her boyfriend. G had a really good time and he misses Shantae so much. The weather was absolutely beautiful! We had planned to call some other friends and get together but Gs schedule said he was to be done by noon each day and that ended up being 3-4pm so he had some long days. We got to see so many friends that we haven't seen in forever! Kaylee (sp) and her mama Christine we met when we first got there and haven't seen them since Nov of 2003. People probably thought we were crazy as much as we were laughing. Shes a hoot. Then we got to see the Trewins, Ryan looks so good. We finally got to meet Regina and her mom Diana from California. We can't forget our precious little Taylor Wastson and mom Angie. She needs your prayers right now, she was sent home with nothing more that the drs can do. She is such a precious little thing. I just wish we could have gotten to spend more time with Angie before they left! It was nice to see some "old" faces.
G also got to meet coach Fox of the Carolina Panthers and got his picture taken. I tell ya it does not matter how he feels if someone asks him to take his picture with someone he does it and loves every min. of it. He loves to be the "starr" of everything.
A couple weeks ago we were watching tennis (go figure) and James Blake was on and G said that he thought he liked him. I asked why he said cause he was bald like him. So Andy, its your turn to shave you head bald!!!
Well enough babbling for now. Take care and thanks for checking up on the little man!!! Until next time.....Mel
Monday, April 10, 2006 8:44 AM CDT Don't forget to wish G a Happy 5th B-day. His birthday is Sunday April 16th.(Easter)
Quick update: NO TUMOR!! They did find some lesions on his liver and new ones on his brain. I will update later and go into detail. Just didn't want all you worry warts to worry.
We do need some extra prayers to go out to our little taylor watson. (wv.tayor) Taylor is not doing well and they need all the prayers and encouragement they can get. Thanks until Sat........Mel
Saturday, April 1, 2006 10:48 AM CST Sad Sad day. Jay Gaskins passed away yesterday. Please pray for baby jay and his family. They are all in our thoughts and prayers. He has a caringbridge website..ga/jay. Please visit and leave some encouraging words. They sure could use it. Jay fought a long and hard battle!
Well, G is doing good. He gets moody when its time to go to St.Judes. I have tried to get him excited about going. We are going to go to the zoo with G favorite nurse Shantae and hopefully have lunch with Mac and Claire winkers. So hopefully that will take his mind off of things. We leave Monday and will return home Friday late evening. His MRI isn't scheduled until Thursday. Sounds like we will be able to see some people that we haven't seen in a long time and some will be new people to meet. Can't wait.
We had Gs parent teacher conferences on Thursday. He is doing as good as can be expected. Now its a waiting game and a mommy needs to make up her mind to see wether to put G in 5yo kindergarden or to keep him in 4yo kindergarden. They say its all up to me that they will put him in 5k but its all day. Of course he could go 1/2 days for a while to see if he can tolerate it. Decisions decisions.
We finished up all our radiothons this last week. The last one was the best one. I felt more relaxed and the D.J. was so nice and he actually asked me questions instead of me rambling on and on and on. We have the St.Jude Rodeo comin up on May 19th and 20th. Trying to get some donations for the auction and money donations. So if you want to donate anything get in touch with me or log onto www.stjudetrailride.org and contact Richard B. This is the 10th year for the event. lets make it a good one.
Thats all for now. Please pray for G. Regina,Ryan and Ryan all have check ups the same time as we do so please pray for them as well as all these brave little heros!!! Until next time.....................Mel
Saturday, March 18, 2006 12:17 AM CST Well finally I think we are all healthy! Knock on wood. G ended up being still after our er visit. He went back to school the following Wed and after school he got violently sick. He threw up all afternoon. Poor man. So he stayed home from school the rest of the week. He hasn't thrown up since then so I hope he is done being sick!! He is doing good. A bit weak but thats to be expected after being sick for so long. His teacher said on Friday when I picked him up that he was cris-crossing his legs when walking and that they had to get a special chair for him because he felt like he was going to fall off. I didn't notice anything at home but he did say he was a bit dizzy. So I will keep an eye on that. He is finally starting to eat again. It was so hard watching him eat so much when he was on steroids and then go to not wanting to eat at all. Me on the other hand thats all I do is eat eat eat. I am making up for his not eating. I keep thinking that okay summer is coming so I will work it all off. Wishful thinking. Speaking of the weather, It has been crazy here. Last Sat it was 65 balmy degrees and then G had a snow day on Thursday. No wonder everyone is sick. We go from one extreme to another.
The radiothons went well. Our friend Richard volunteers at the Madison radiothon and he brought G the coolest present. Its a matchbox acel racer. It has loops and the cars go fast and crash....what more could a boy ask for. His mom on the other hand could ask for an easier toy to put together. It didn't take long to put together it just took some brains to figure out how the heck it worked. We figured it out and nanna and I played with it for a while. G was scared of it but now he loves it and thats all the wants to do is play with it. So, THANK YOU RICHARD. He also heads up the St.Jude trail ride. To learn more the website is www.stjudetrailride.org. This year they are not able to do a trail ride but he was able to put together a rodeo and all the fun things along with it. Craft fair, auction, panacake breakfast, you need to log on to see all the fun things going on. We do need items for the auction so if you would like to donate please contact me or richard. I have on more radiothon to do in Eau Claire WI. That ones via telephone so that will be good otherwise the drive is like 4hours.
Our next trip to the Jude is April 3-7th. Our longest one. His MRI is not until the 6th. I am going to go crazy waiting. Please pray that all is well and no tumor or lesions.
Just a little note to pass on....Gs B-Day is April 16 / the same day as Easter this year.
Thanks for checking in on G and don't forget to sign the guestbook!!! Until next time...........Mel
Please Pray for some of our friends they could really use them....
Jay....ga/jay
taylor...wv/taylor
Saturday, March 4, 2006 8:42 AM CST Finally the cold is gone! I hope until next year. Oh yeah its Wisconsin anything can happen......
G is sick right now. He got over his sinus infection and now he is sick again. He is throwing up and his throat hurts and his legs hurt...the flu? His teacher was sick last weekend and so were some of the kids so I think he just has what they had. He is off steroids. Horay! So on top of being sick and not wanting to eat his body is adjusting to being off steroids and not wanting to eat because of that also. He has lost weight big time. I can actually pick him up without grunting and groaning cause he was so heavy. He still has weight to loose but I want to keep him healthy at the same time.
We have a ton of things coming up....Next week on the 9th and 10th kick off a few radiothons in the area. On the 9th I am doing a phone interview with a radio station in LaCrosse Wi. It is the first year they are doing the radiothon. Later that day G, Nanna and I head to Madison Wi to speak at the radiothon there live and we will stay overnight and speak again in the morning. I hope that G will talk this year. Last year he wouldn't. Even if he just says hello. Then I do another phone interview March 29th for a radiothon in Eau Claire Wi. Then we head to St.Jude for a check up April 3rd-7th. Yup we are there for a whole week this time. That will be interesting. Gs MRI isn't until the 6th. The wait is going to kill me! Anyway then Gs b-day is April 16th-Easter. Then May 19th and 20th is the Lodi Wi WRCA Rodeo to benefit St.Judes. We will talk there also and take in some of the events. They have tons going on.www.stjudestrailride.org check it out. Then we have 4k graduation. It seems may not seem like lots to some but when I have to load him and pack G everywhere sometimes it gets overwhelming. Thank God I have my lovely assistant-Nanna! She helps me pack stuff around. It is all I can do to carry G. Anyway, thats about all for now. We are just going to try to get and stay healthy. Keep G and all of out St.Jude and caringbridge friends in your prayers! Thanks for checking on G.......God Bless!
Please pray for our friend Jay (ga/jay) and for Taylor (wv/taylor) They are going through some very difficult time and can use all the support they can get.
Oh I almost forgot...Diana (reginas mom) happy cows come from Wisconsin not California!LOL
3-5-2006
After I got done with work today I got home and G was really really sick! I had to go back to work and take him to the ER. He is so weak and he is not eating. He is having a hard time swallowing and keeping anything in him. He was pretty lathargic when I got home. Dr.Choudry did a strep test and that came back negative but he has more sores in his mouth and thrush. He figures that with the thrush it is going clear down to his belly so he has sores all down his throat to his belly. Poor little man! So he is taking nystatin for right now if he doesn't improve by the time I leave work today Dr.Choudry said he would give me a perscription for diflucan.
Saturday, February 18, 2006 12:53 AM CST BRRRRRRRR! Wow it was 57 degrees on Wed. When I checked the weather at 12:55 today it is -6 but with the wind chill it feels like -22. Yup -22. I don't even want to know what it was this morning. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!
G is doing good. I am still weaning him off his steroids. One week left to go. He gets blood work done on the first to see how his liver enzymes are. I am praying that they will be near normal. He is still walking with assistance and balancing on his own. He has a sinus infection right now. Gee can't imagine why with the temps the way they are. So he is on antibiotics right now. Not much going on for us right now. We are just getting tired of being in the house all the time. I threw out my back big time this week so nanna and pappa have been taking G to school because I can hardly stand let alone carry him. Nanna has been coming out and taking care of him. Doing things that I just physically can't right now. Thank god they are here to help me. It is getting better with a few chiropractor appointments. This would not have happened if I would have maintenenced my back at the chiropractor but I think I just get to busy. Oh well worse things can happen than that. Sorry nothing exciting to report on but I like it that way. Please pray for all our little St.Judes friends and for G. Take care and until next time....................Mel
P.S. Thanks for sending G all the Valentines! He loves them!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, February 4, 2006 11:32 AM CST Thurs. Feb 9th: Check out this web site: www.stjudestrailride.org
Yep it finally happened to me......I updated the page and lost everything! Bleep! Oh well.........
G is doing so good. He freaked me out the other night (in a good way) he was standing by the couch leaning on the couch and he all of the sudden pushed himself away from the couch and stood there all by himself. He stood there for about 30-50 seconds. I was so proud of him. Every day he amazes me.I just couldn't believe it. So now thats his favorite thing to do to scare me. He thinks its funny. I think it's great. The more he does it the better. I bet that by summer he is walking all by himself. He will be walking and ready to play some tennis so Andy you better be ready! He has a little cold going on. He got some bloodwork done last week and his liver enzymes are coming down. Probably due to the decrease in decadron.(steroid) By the end of the month he should totally be off of the decadron. After the bloodwork we headed off to chuck-e-cheese. He had a blast. We stayed for about 2 hours or so. I was tired after that. He does great wearing his patch on his eye. He reminds me every day when its time for his patch.
I talked to my friend Richard this week and he is getting the final details on the benefit trail ride and new this year a WRCA rodeo. All proceeds go to St.Judes. Last year they raised 40,000.00. Not bad for a little town in Wisconsin. The weekend is the weekend of May 19th. There will be an auction, panacake breakfast, trail ride and the rodeo as well as a craft fair. I will post more when I know more. If you wish to donate anything to the event please contact me or visit www.stjudetrailride.org. G and I will be speaking sometime but I am not sure when. I will keep ya posted!
Please pray for all our St.Judes friends and G. Thanks for checking in on G and God Bless!! Until next time.................Mel
Saturday, January 21, 2006 8:30 AM CST Great News!!! No tumor!! There was a significant change in the lesions (nercrosis). I looked at the scan and I would say they are about 1/2 gone. YeeeeHaaaw. He does however have something going on with his liver. His enzymes were way high. They did bloodwork and an ultrasound and I haven't heard anything about the bloodwork yet but the ultrasound was fine. We are thinking it is from the ever famous decadron. So, its time to start weaning him off of that and keep monitoring his blood work. His eyes are so, so. He is going to wear a patch over the right eye for an hour a day. So far so good. He loves wearing it. G was such a trooper! He had to get stuck 5 times. He did so good he only cried once. They just could not find a vein. I am so proud of him. We got to see little Taylor and her mom Angie and family. (wv/taylor) She looks so good. She loves to give hugs. G liked getting them to. It was so sweet. Then we got to see Tom Bowen. Talked with him for a little bit. We also got to talk to Kristas uncle. We ran into a few other people that we knew just in passing so it was good to see some people we actually knew this time. I dont want to make this forever long, I just wanted to pass on the GREAT NEWS!! Thanks for all the prayers!!! Please sign Gs guestbook. Thanks for checking in with G. Until next time..............Mel
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANNA!!!!!!! WE LOVE YOU.
Sunday, January 15, 2006 10:31 AM CST Well, Monday we are off to St.Judes. Please pray for little G! He has been having severe headaches!! My mind in running wild but hopefully it is just a headache and not caused by anything. So, please pray pray pray! His MRI is on Tuesday I will try to update asap. Thanks....Mel
Monday, January 2, 2006 10:32 AM CST Happy New Year!! We made through the holidaze!!! Thats just what it was, a daze. It went by so fast. Not much going on here. The weather is goofy. We had 19 inches of snow and below zero temps for a while but now its all gone. The temps are mid 30's and rain. I will take the temps verses the below zero but I do like the snow.
G is doing good. He got spoiled rotten at Christmas. I don't know what I am going to do with all his toys. My 900 sq foot home is getting to small. His toys are taking over. As long as he is happy, thats all that matters. Today is his first day back at school after break. Thats always fun. Just like the first day all over again. He had to go back on his steroids. His eyes were doing goofy things again. So, here comes his appetite again. He is getting stronger and physically trying to do more things. His speech continues to improve. We will be at St.Judes Jan 16th - Jan 19th. Please pray that G has no tumor growth and no lesions or less of them anyway. Thats all for now. Please keep Kristas family in your prayers. They need them. She has a caringbridge page, tn/kristakellon. Thanks and God Bless!! Mel
Saturday, December 24, 2005 9:27 AM CST On a very very sad note, our dear friend Krista Kellon passed away on Wed. Dec 21. She earned her angel wings. This is very very hard for us because they were like family to us. G and I are going to let some balloons go for her. Her 5th birthday was on Friday (yesterday) the same day they had her funeral. Please pray for her family. Please visit her web page to giver her parents some words of encouragement. She has a caringbridge page, tn/kristakellon. This is kind of a wierd thing, G was very sad on Wed. He went to school and he just kept on crying and he didn't want to stay. I kept on asking him what was wrong and he said he just didn't know he was just sad. So I took him home, he wouldn't even stay for his Christmas party. I didn't find out until today that she had passed away. I guess he already had known. I know that she will be looking in on G all the time! Donna,Tracey,Dustin and Nanna and Pappa, you are in our thoughts and prayers! Thanks......
Merry Christmas to all!! Of course you can imagine how excited G is for the big day to come. My dad from Missouri came up to visit for a few days. He brought presents so that definately put G in the mood to open presents! He had his first holiday program at school. He was so excited and terrified at the same time. He didn't know what to expect but he did a great job. He didn't sing any of the songs but he did wonderful. He was scared because it was on a huge stage and the other kids were standing on the risers and it was dark. He didn't cry though. He was so proud to be up there and to be singing to me and nanna and pappa, daddy to. Of course we were all proud of him as well. Last week we went to the festival of lights in Dubuque. Its a huge outdoor holiday light show to benefit something in Dubuque. Isn't that aweful I can't remember what it was to benefit. Oh well. G enjoyed the lights however it was hard to him to focus on the lights and to watch them go back and forth and he got sick. 3 times in the car. Thank god for wal-mart bags.
He finally started pt and ot at school last week. He is doing good with that. Still not walking and his speech is not as good as it was a couple of weeks ago. It almost seems like he may be regressing a little bit. If it continues we will be heading back up to madison to continue hyperbaric treatments. He hasnt been feeling well either so I am not sure if that has a lot to do with it or if it is the lesions? I will patiently wait and see what the next few weeks bring. We head to St.Judes on the 16th of Jan through the 19th. Short and sweet thats how we like them. Thats really all for now. We are going to hang out and enjoy the next week of no school.
Please pray for G on his next visit to St.Judes. Please pray for no tumor and for the lesions to be gone. Thanks...
Merry Christmas and have a HEALTHY New Year!! Melissa and Garrett
Saturday, December 3, 2005 8:20 AM CST Hello All! It is COLD!! BRRRRRRRR! I don't mind the snow but the cold is crazy. All my pipes froze this morning. Of course I had to work so I had to go to my moms to shower. I love winter, I love winter, I love winter! I have to keep reminding myself of that. G is doing GREAT! He finishes up his last treatment this week. He has 2 left which we will finish up in one day. Yeah. It will be nice to be done but at the same time it makes me so nervous. I still see little improvements everyday. Its amazing! His new thing this week is standing up to go pee. Yes I know it may seem like nothing to some but it's a big milestone for the little man. He continues to improve in his walking and his speech. My little s**t is back and I love it. He can get into all the trouble he wants. My mom and I finally got him to sit on Santas lap this week. He told Santa what he wanted for Christmas and got his picture taken. He looked so good in the picture. It is so hard for me to take pictures or to look at pictures of him because he doesnt even look like himself anymore. That will change soon! He is on 1/2mg of decadron every other day for a week then no more!! YIPPPPEEEE! I will have my old G back. He will be able to walk much better once he gets some of the weight off. This week I went to Gs class and got the pleasure of reading to his class. I am so proud of each and every child in that class for taking G for who he is and for helping him out so much. G is with his dad again this weekend. I feel so bad for G when he goes. All he does is cry. His dad only sees him every other weekend and that is it. He doesnt want anything to do with him.
Hey remember to get your St.Judes bear at Kay Jewelry. At st.jude.org they have the Thanks and Giving bracelets. They are $2 and you get 2 bracelets. One for an adult and one for a child. G loves his bracelet and doesnt every take it off. All the prceeds go to the Jude so buy, buy, buy!!
Remember to please keep Krista Kellon in your prayers. She is Gs little friend and her tumor is growing. Her parents have decided to not do anymore treatment. She has been through tons of treatment! Her caringbridge website is tn/kristakellon. Of course keep all the children of St.Judes in your prayers they can use them.
Thats all for now and I wont be able to update until closer to Christmas!! Take care and remember to sign Gs guestbook!! Thanks for checking in on him!! Until next time........Mel
Saturday, November 26, 2005 9:07 AM CST Sorry for the long delay in the journal entry. G is doing so good. He has a little cold right now and last Tuesday and the Tuesday before he threw up right before getting to go to therapy. Wierd. He is only on 1/2mg of decadron (steroid) and the treatments are going well. He has about 10 treatments left. He is walking tons with assistance, crawling around more, getting himself from a sitting position to a standing position using furniture, happier and jumping on the bed. I had forgotten all the things that he used to do or liked to do until the last couple of weeks. He started jumping on the bed on his knees. He used to love to do that. All the little things that I took for granted before are so much more precious now. I wouldnt say that I took them for granted but I thought that we were in the clear until the last MRI. He hasnt walked by himself since July and hasnt done alot of what I am seeing since August. It is so good to see. School is going well. I had a conference with his teachers again. He has finally gotten tested to see if he can get pt and ot through the school. DAH! It took 3 months for this. I had to push and push to get them there. Would you believe it, he can get it through the school. Go figure. Sorry. It was just so irritating to know he needs it and insurance wont pay and its like pulling teeth to get people together to get him this therapy. So finally, he will get pt twice a week ot once and continue with speech 3 times a week. His speech therapist says he has seen a great improvement in the last couple of weeks. His teacher says he is doing great and the kids just love him in his class!! I am so proud of him. For all that he has overcome in the last couple of months!
This is such a nice story that happend to us at the mall last week. When G gets treatments sometimes we do 2 when he doesnt have school. Last week we went to West Towne mall in Madison so G could get something to eat and then we walk around so G can sleep. When we were walking in we walked past a young couple and like 30 seconds later she comes running behind be yelling mam, mam. Of course I thought she was yelling at my mom. Me a mam? LOL Anyway I thought I dropped something. She continued to run up to me then her boyfriend jumped in. We were standing right by Kay jewelry and they had both just purchased a St.Judes bear and they wanted to give it to G. They were so touched that he actually had gone to St.Judes. Of course I had a tear or two in my eyes. That was so nice of them to do that. We now have 3 St.Jude bears. They are so nice and soft. So, if you need a nice xmas gift go to Kay jewelry and get a cute St.Judes bear. Of course we all know where the proceeds go.
We had a great Thanksgiving. We went to my grandmothers house and had lots and lots of food.
There is a little girl Krista Kellon who needs all the prayers and support she can get. Her tumor is growing and her parents have chosen not to do anymore therapy for her. She has had most of the same therapy that G had. So she has been through so much. She is getting headaches now so we know the tumor is getting bigger. Please pray for little Krista. She will be 5 on Dec. 23. Her website is a caringbridge site: tn/kristakellon
Well, thats about all for now, I will update again soon. Thanks for all you prayers and for signing Gs guestbook! Take care and Happy belated Thanksgiving!! Mel
Saturday, November 5, 2005 8:59 AM CST Hello All! G is doing so good. I think that the treatments are working. The people at the clinic say that about treatment 15-20 we should see improvement. He finished this week with treatment 17. Yesterday his teacher said he had his best day ever in school. He was full of it. Thats a good thing. I am finally starting to see the old G back. He is laughing, starting to want to walk and actually walking with assistance, talking much better and just overall his attitude is better. I did decrease his steroids down to 1mg a day. He still has a hard time breathing so we are going to work down his steroids. He has gained 15 lbs. His cheeks are so big. Poor little man. I had to go buy him new clothes the other day because he out grew his other clothes. Oh darn I just hate to go shopping for him. LOL! I will be glad when he starts to loose the weight for one he will feel better and for two, so will my back. I took him to his local doctor to see if he needed to be put on a water pill/ fluid build up anywhere. Well, she ordered xrays which he did great for but when I went to pick him up out of a laying position with that big ol leaded apron on my lower back went out. I could hardly stand up straight let alone carry him. So, good ol Dr.Guler put me back in. Oh it felt so good. Now if I could just get G to walk more so I dont have to carry him all over...in due time. His little legs are so weak. He does a great job trying to walk. He used to like me to hold him under the arm pits to help him walk but now he only holds my hands. Thats a great improvement!
Halloween was great! G was a ghost. I carried him to most doors so he could say trick or treat but sometimes he just didnt feel like going to the door so nanna would go up and do it. We went with my sister and nephew also. He got a big stash which with his newly found sweet tooth is not such a good thing. He just loves anything that has sugar in it!
Hyperbaric is going well. He has his moments in there. Sometimes he is sad and cries. The only thing that calms him down is talking about Andy and his mom and dad. Seriously nothing else calms him down but talking about Andy. What is it with those two? G just idolizes him. I will try to post some pictures of it soon. But thats all for now. Please keep G in your prayers as well as all the kids of St.Judes and the cb sites!! Until next time..........Mel
Saturday, October 29, 2005 8:16 AM CDT Hello All! What a crazy last couple of weeks. G is doing okay overall. The steroids have done a number on him. The first week he gained 10lbs and it got to a point that he couldn't breathe so I reduced them. He is on 2 mg a day and thats almost to much for him. Dr.Fouladi and I talked about reducing him to a lower dose soon. He never ever liked sweet things to eat. Now, all he eats is cookies, doughnuts, ice cream, cinnamon rolls, basically anything thats sweet. I try so hard to keep him on a healthy diet but he just wont eat unless its sweets. He does like eggs though. Lots and lots of eggs. It is hard to see his last year pictures of how skinny he was and the bags under his eyes and now to look at him is also hard cause he is so big. Chubby chubby cheeks! Along with the eating constantly, he does not sleep well. His schedule is all off. He wants to go to bed at 6pm then he sleeps until 1 or 2 am wants to get up and eat, then he lays down for about an hour or two then its cmon momma lets get up. Get up NOW momma. GRRRR! Is usually my response. I dont go to bed until 10-11pm so when 2 rolls around and he wants something to eat, I am up for the day. Sometimes I go back to sleep for a little cat nap around 3am until the next time he gets up. Needless to say my 4hrs of sleep a night is catching up with me. And its not even a straight sleep cause the steroids make him half to go pee like every hour. So, its up an down up and down.
Hyperbaric treatment is going well. My mom goes in with him. The first day that I went in with him well, I got closterphobic (sp). I am a very strong willed person and I when I set my mind to something watch out. I was gonna get through it but when the first 5 mins were up, I had to get out. But thats okay cause G ended up getting a bloody nose at the same time so we had to get out anyway. I just couldnt do it. I dont do well with the whole pressure thing and my ears anyway. To explain it a bit it is this tank thats about 3 feet tall and about 10 feet long. G wears a hood that blows strait oxygen in his face and then the pressure is there so he gets more of the oxygen. Easy concept but hard to explain. The pressure is lots like going up in a plane. Your ears pop and get plugged all that wonderful stuff. But the important thing is that G does well. He went all last week and he didnt have to put his hood on and we took the pressure slow. This week we did full pressure and hood. We did once a day for an hour and then since G didnt have school on Thurs or Fri we did it twice a day for and hour with 4 hours in between. We have to drive an hour and a half each way so it takes lots out of our day. The important thing for me was to keep G in school. He goes to school until 11am then its home to eat lunch and then off to Madison. We are generally home by 5pm. Nanna and G do lots of crafting in the "submarine" so you all will be getting lots of crafts for X-MAS. I dont know if I have really seen major improvement but I have seen some. His speech is getting better, He doesnt tilt his head so much anymore. He is trying to walk more and being mobile. I have great expectations from this therapy. I dont really see how it wont work. So, we just keep our fingers crossed and pray that it all works out for G.
Okay, sorry this is such a long journal. Thanks for all your prayers and to the MacDonalds, Thanks so much for the card it was so nice. G loves to get mail. Take care and until next time..............Mel
Saturday, October 15, 2005 8:39 AM CDT Sorry about the delay. Internet problems! NO tumor-thats the great news. We are now having to deal with the side effects of radiation. G can't look to the right and when he looks up his eyes roll in. He holds his head to one side and kinda down so he can see otherwise he sees double. The eye doctor at St.Judes thinks it could be because of the lesions on his brain or his nerve is just getting weak. Something to watch. The lesions (necrosis) on his brain have gotten significantly worse! What happens is when the lesions are on the brain it causes the brain cells to die and slough off. So, in hopes of getting that to stop we are going to try hyperbaric oxygen therapy. I have heard great results from that however it is a newer and "alternative" therapy for kids with brain tumors or neurological problems. I am very hopefull with this therapy. He and I will go into the "sub" and G will have to put on his astronaut helmet with tubes hooked to the back of it. That should be intersting getting him to stay in there and to put the helmet on. Most of you know how he is. Very strong minded-thank god! We will stay in there for an hour- 5 days a week for the first week. If that goes well then we will try twice a day for an hour each time. We have to travel a total of 3 hours a day to get it but I will be able to keep G in school and doing his "normal" activities.
As far as G, he is doing okay. This week he has really gone down hill. He is no longer even trying to walk and he can hardly crawl. Dr.Fouladi put him on 4mgs of steroids a day and well, all he does is eat. He has gained 10lbs in one week. His favorite is cinnamon rolls with lots of frosting. He gets home from school and eats and then naps for about 45 mins and then he gets up and eats again and plays for a little bit then he eats and by 6pm he wants to go to bed. So, we hang out and watch movies or cartoons. He is usually sleeping by 7pm. Of course then he wakes up a few times to go to the bathroom. 2am rolls around and he wakes up crying because he is hungry. So, lets just say I dont get much sleep. Just like having a newborn. I usually dont get to sleep until 11pm then its up at 2am and then I can't get back to sleep.
Thursday evening he got a very special phone call. He was sleeping but I woke him up. It was his special friend Andy Roddick. G just grinned ear to ear and his eyes lit right up. G just loves Andy and his mom Blanche and dad Jerry. I just want to thank them all for all they have done for us in the last couple of days! They gave me hope when I thought everything that G and I have fought for the last 2years was going down the tubes. So, thanks so much and God Bless you.
To all of you THANKS for all your extra prayers the last couple of weeks. We needed them and they were answered!! Please sign Gs guestbook. We love hearing from all of you!!
Thanks again....Mel
Friday, September 30, 2005 11:45 AM CDT Well its off to St.Judes on early Monday morning. Fun Fun. G is excited. We will see some friends--if all goes right. G is doing good. He is just getting over a cold. He is on an antibiotic just to get rid of anything so he can get sedated next week. He has had a good week at school. He enjoyed Monday because they got to learn about Johnny Appleseed. All week they have had color week where you get to wear or bring something with that specific color. He has liked that also. Today was his treat day so he was all excited about that. He took apples with carmel dip. Yummy. We got to see our friend J.D. He was home on leave from Iraq. G enjoyed seeing him again even though it was only for a little bit. I am hoping that when we get back we will be able to see a pt on a regular basis and also get a "good" speech therapist. He needs both so bad but insurance ran out and the school is dragging butt on the situation. So when we get back I will get into bitch mode. Not that that is hard for me to do.. anyway thats all til now I will TRY to post an update on Gs MRI results asap. A quick note: if anyone knows any other children from Wisconsin that have gone to St.Judes, please let me know or let them know about G we would like to get together about some fund raising stuff. Thanks and until next time.......... Mel
Saturday, September 24, 2005 8:21 AM CDT I'm baaack! I know its been a while. So sorry for that. All is going well. G is getting better at going to school. He does cry in the mornings before he goes but once he gets there he gets a big smile on his face and enjoys it. He is learning so much and his attitude is so much better. He is not always around mamma and thats good for the both of us. I of course worry about the other kids and if he gets to play with them because of his physical limitations. I have the teacher keep a journal for me to tell me what he does at school that day. I also meet with the teachers every day to discuss any concerns-like the whole bathroom thing-grrr. But we are over that. Our trip to St.Judes is coming fast, Oct 3-5th. Very short stay but thats the way we like it. We hope to meet up with Gs favorite nurse Shantae and with our very dear friends the Kellons. I am so excited to see Krista Kellon. She is also a patient of St.Judes. Please pray extra hard for her this week she has scans this coming week. We hope to hear great news. I havent gotten PMS (pre mri syndrome) yet. I am sure it will come. We have just been so busy. Doing what I dont know. G had a dentist appointment on Tues in Madison and he did really good. His first cleaning since they put in all the "jewels". It took like 2 mins. They were quick. After that we went to eat at a sports bar where my aunt works so she could see G. That was some good greasy food. I love bar food. Yes I know I took G in a bar but it wasnt like a gross bar. It was a nice sports bar with good atmosphere. Ah who cares the food was good! lol Its all about the food. Of course when I got home I worked out for like and hour and then went for my 4 mile walk. I felt a little better. Anyway, G is doing well and we hope and pray that his scan all come back clear. Remember to eat a Chilis on the 26th thats this monday. All proceeds go to St.Judes. We are going if the gas doesnt go up to much more cause the closest one is an hour and 1/2 away. Anyway, take care and remember all the kids of St.Judes!! Take care and please sign Gs guestbook!!!!........until next time......Mel
Saturday, September 10, 2005 11:41 AM CDT Hello Hello!! Garrett started school yesterday. That was hard. Much to my surprise he didn't cry when I left him there. We did have one incident though. The teacher didn't get to him in time for him to use the restroom so he did have an accident. Well, I forgot to send clothes so Jeremy(Garretts dad) took some clothes into Garrett. Well, when he got there, G was sitting in the bathroom on the toilet half naked with the door shut and not a soul around him. It was all I could do to not drive in there and just take him out. But I figured there was a good explantion. So, at 11 I went back in to get him and asked one of the aides about the situation and told her again that under no circumstances was he to ever be left alone! (His balance is still way off but getting better I will go into that more later) So for at the least 10 mins he was in there all alone. Well, the teacher called and appologized to me and said it would never happen again. The situation was that one of the teachers was to look after him while his main teacher took two girls to the restroom down the hall So the other teacher figured he would be okay to sit there so she went and was talking with someone else. I dont care whos child it was, you dont just leave a child sitting on the toilet half naked for 10mins. Of course I started to cry because it just broke my heart. I asked him how he liked school and he said it was not good. Poor thing. Now that the teachers and I are on the same page, it will get better and I told G that it will be better once he gets to know all the kids. He said okay I wont give up. (He loves that saying) He did get to go outside for recess and play. He did have fun but he said he got stuck on the slide. He used his walker most of the time. His teacher said he did get tired and she did have to carry him a little bit. When I went to pick him up I was going to carry him because he look exhausted but he pushed my arms away and grabbed his walker. Way to go G!
His balance is getting better. My friend Mike and his son Tristan have been wonderful influences on G. He has been so competitive with Tristan which has made him stronger. There for a while I couldnt even get him to try to walk now thats all he wants to do. He sees Tristan doing it and he wants to do it and even better. Even with eating its a whole competition. G wants to eat more than Tristan so he usually does. He has gained 3 lbs in the last month. That is great. Other than that not much going on. We went to a parade on Labor Day and had a cook out. That was fun. This weekend we are going to take it easy. We are planning a trip to the zoo here and when we are in Memphis next time.
We will be heading back to Memphis the 4th of October through the 6th of October. Short and sweet!! Please pray that all of Gs scans come back clear and better than last time. Cant wait to see all of Gs friends!!
Take care and please remember to pray for all the kids at St.Judes. Until next time........Mel
Also, mark your calanders for Sept.26th. Eat at Chilis, all the profits from the day will be donated to St.Judes! What a wonderful cause and you dont have to cook. I will be taking G even though its an hour to the closest one! Hey, I hate to cook what can I say.
Saturday, September 3, 2005 8:32 AM CDT Hello all!! Sorry for the lack of updates. I am still trying to sort out the computer thing. I lost most everything including some pictures of G but I did save some on disc. Garrett starts school on the 9th. He goes from 8am to 11am every morning. I am nervous. He still is not walking very well and he does need his walker but I know that the teachers and aides and the kids will take care of him. We have been busy doing all kinds of things lately. We went to the beach with our news friends Tristan and his daddy Mike. Tristan is 4 also and has been wonderful with G. G is a very competitive boy so anything Tristan does, so does G. Which has been awesome. He is eating a lot and it makes him want to walk more and push himself to do things that he wouldnt normally do. In that sense I am looking forward to him starting school because it will push him to do things he normally wouldnt do. Of course the 3hours of peace and quiet will be nice too. He has been doing some riding not as much as I would like but some is better than none. We are setting up a trip to the zoo and this weekend doing the parade and party thing. Overall he is doing well. We return to St.Judes the first week in October with his MRI on the 4th (I think) Take care and I will update again soon!! I promise....Thanks for checking on G and signing his guestbook! Mel
Saturday, August 20, 2005 9:41 AM CDT No No No G is fine! Sorry to scare some of the readers out there.
So I can hardly believe that it has been 2 years since G was first diagnosed with his brain tumor. Aug 27th 2003 was the date. He had his 15hr resection on Aug 29 2003 and we found he had tumors in his spine on Sept 11 2003. I am so proud of him and all that he has endured with the motto of "I am never giving up" (that is what he tells people all the time) I cant begin to tell all of you how much we appreciate all your support and journal entries. So to you all Thanks. It seems that just isnt enough. If I could come throught the computer I would give ya all a big hug.
G has been so/so. His balance is worse. He can hardly walk at this point. He uses his walker a little bit. He drools a bit and his eyes are doing goofy things. Its like he has a hard time trying to "find you" when you are talking to him. I just pray so hard that it is just side effects.
A few weeks ago G got to visit with a very special friend. Blanche Roddick and grandma Hazel. He was so excited to see them. Every morning when he woke up he would say is it time to see Blanche. I wish we could have stayed longer and played but next time. G wants to send out a special B-day wish to Andy. His b-day is on the 30th of August.
Last week we went fishin on the Mississippi river with my sister and her son Tanner, her friend Eldon, Nanna and our new friends Tristan and Mike. Mike, Tristan and G caught 2 fish. (don't ask me what kind they were) G thought that was cool. Then Eldon took us for a little boat ride.It took some talkin but once he got in he loved it!
My computer is still not fixed and I havent heard from the insurance company about my computer so I am sorry for the lack of updates. Until next time.........
Please say some prayers for all our friends at St.Judes especially Jay from Georgia and our special cb friend chris..she earned her angel wings earlier this month. Remember to sign Gs guestbook!!! Thanks for checking in with G
Saturday, August 6, 2005 1:11 PM CDT Hello all! My computer still is not fixed. I am not sure that it is even fixable. G is doing great. His balance is still was off. He has been going to swimming lessons and he loves it. It has been great for his legs. He usually complains at the very least 3 times a day that his legs hurt but when he goes to swimming lessons, he doesn't complain once. So, it will be off to the big pool as much as possible for G and I. Lessons were finished yesterday. He has a new "girlfriend" her name is Kelly. She helped Gs teacher with him when her little boy that she was teaching was not there. The bad thing is that she is going away soon to college. Poor G. Other than that not much going on. Just taking in the hot summer days........until next time- Mel
Sunday, July 24, 2005 9:21 AM CDT Hello all! Thank you all for all the journal entries! It is nice to have people in the community sign the guestbook. So, thanks for checking on Garrett.
We had some bad thunderstorms yesterday and my computer got fried along with my phones and the phone lines. Thank God thats all! I hope it can be fixed because I have all of Gs pictures on there from the last 2 years. I did save some on disc but I was trying to put together a slideshow with music for the rest and I just havent had time. So, I hope I can at the very least get the pics off there. I am at work right now so I dont know when I will be able to update again.
G is doing okay. He has taken some major falls hitting his head. His balance just keeps getting worse! I took some video of him on July 4th and I would say he is 50-75 orse than he was then or when he was at St.Judes last. I am a nervous wreck. So, today when I get off work I am going to go home and "baby proof" my house again so he doesnt fall and hit anything but the floor. (Wish me luck I have so much junk) He went and saw our good friend Dr.Lynn Randall (chiropractor) and she gave him his first adjustment in 2 years. He was complaining of his neck hurting and he says "Dr.Lynn fixed me all up and I am better now" Thanks Lynn!! I did notice that yesterday he has been drooling also. Not sure what that is about so if it doesnt get better I will take him to his local doctor monday. Of course my mind races and thinks the worst but I will keep my chin up and just think of this as one of the many many obstacles that G has to get over.
Last night my sister and I went out and saw our favorite local band-zero2sixty-I tell ya if you want a good time look these guys (and girl) up. They are not your typical band. They so get the crowd involved. If you want to know more about these guys check out accessdubuque.com. Thanks for the good time Joey,Brandon,Kasey and Dave! www.zero2sixtyband.net
Thats all for now. Again thanks so much for checking in with G! Thanks for all your prayers and please keep praying for G and all out St.Judes warriors and all our caringbridge pals! Also dont forget about the 890th transportation unit and all the troops in Iraq. It will be very soon and my friend will be back on leave for 2 weeks. G is so excited to see him! Thanks again!!
Monday, July 18, 2005 8:10 PM CDT Hello All! Where is the summer going?? G finishes up with speech therapy on thursday. Next week we start swimming lessons and sometime in between we hope to start the offical riding lessons. As you all know he rides alot now but I want to get some "therapy" involved. Riding has been very good for G and his balance. I think it is also good for his well being. He loves all our horses and loves to ride. Other than that we dont have much more going on. We plan to make several little trips. Like to the lake, the dells and little advertures like that. Gs play house is almost finally done. We are going to paint on Tuesday and then Jeremy is going to shingle it and it will be DONE. I will post pics as soon as it is done. Nothing more to update you on right now. Please pray for all our friends from St.Judes and our caringbridge friends. Until next time...............Mel
Tuesday, July 12, 2005 6:35 PM CDT Hello All! Everything is going well for Garrett. He is in his second week with his new speech therapist from the school. It is going okay. Garrett goes for 1/2 hour 4 days a week which is alot. The therapist usually decides to stop before Gs time is done and says that he has lost Gs attention. Which if he would get to know G he would know that he just likes to play a bit while working but, I guess we just deal with it. I am going to set up a meeting with the principal. G needs assistance with his walking now and he needs help with different things so, I need to know if there will be a teachers aide available or what the deal is. It is so hard because I am so afraid that he is not going to fit in or that kids are going to make fun of him. All the mean things that kids say these days. If it does happen it will break my heart.
This weekend we went to a trail ride to visit some friends. We went to see Richard and his wonderful family. They put on the benefit trail ride for St.Judes in May. It was nice to get to visit with them. I wish we could have stayed longer but G was getting tired. We did not take the horses because it was a 6 hr ride and I knew that G could not last that long! Besides, my horse has allergys, (yes I said a horse with allergys) and she wouldnt last that long either. Anyway, we had a wonderful time visiting with friends we havent seen for a long time.
Other than that we just go swimming and riding and keep as active as we can. I took miss Mia for a walk with me tonight and I dont put her on a leash because we live out in the country and there is hardly any traffic but anyway, she found a skunk and managed to get us BOTH sprayed. So, if anyone needs a good de-skunk smelling concotion, let me know-I have tried them all! Anyway, thats all for now. Please keep praying for G and all our little warrior friends!! Until next time................Mel
Tuesday, July 5, 2005 8:02 PM CDT *************HAPPY ONE YEAR CANCER FREE G! ****************
**Check out the new pics**
What a week and weekend! Lets start with our trip to St.Judes......All went well. The MRI showed no tumors. So, it has been one year since he last had cancer. I am so proud of him and so grateful. He truely is a miracle. He does have lesions on his brain as one of the side effects from radiation. The lesions are causing him to be off balance and fall all the time. I am not really sure if he will get better or if this is something that we will have to just deal with. But let me tell ya I will take this gladly any day. It is hard for G. He does not understand why he is all of the sudden loosing his balance. I am trying to explain it to him but he is just not getting it yet. I have to remember that he is only 4yrs old. G was upset when we were at St.Judes because he didnt get to see his "peps" We couldn't see Krista because her mom was sick and then both Rebecca and Shantae (Gs favorite nurses) left St.Judes. He was pretty upset with that. He kept asking for nurse Shantae. The good news is that Shantae got a new job at LeBonner and loves it, so the next time we are in Memphis we are going to get together with her. We are not sure what happened to Rebecca. It was a total shocker that she wasnt there. So, Rebecca if you read this please email me. G really misses you too. We didnt see anyone we knew at St.Judes-as far a patients go.
4th of July was great. Our little town has a huge doings. We didnt take in to much of it for fear that G would get to tired out. So, monday we took in the parade in the rain. G gots lots of candy of course. Then we took in the rides. G did one train ride-well more like 2 times around the track-then he got upset. I am not sure why because it went slow and just around in a circle. So, the man had to stop the ride so G could get off but he was very nice about it. So, then it was off to the duck game. Ya know the one where you pick the ducks and you add them all up and get a prize. He loved that one and played it like 4 times. Oh well, as long as he had fun. Then my sister and I took a ride on the tilt-a-whirl. Lets just put it this way, we are not as young as we used to be. I havent laughed that hard in like forever. Then it was home for a cook out and party. We hung out ate way to much food and watched the fire works out here. No loud booms, well not to loud, no crowd and we could see them great. Then Jeremy got some huge fireworks and was lighting them off in the pasture. They were just as big as the ones in town. I was waiting for the cops to come but I forgot the 2 that the county has were in town.LOL. Anyway we ended the evening with hanging out around the fire pit having a few beverages and smores. A memory that I will have forever with G. This is only his 2nd 4th of July celebration. He loved it.
On a sad note, Andy lost Wimbeldon. G was crushed. But I told him that it was okay because Andy had to beat lots and lots and lots of people to get as far as he did. G just didnt understand that either. But he did tell me that he was very proud of Andy for doing the best that he could do. How did he get so wise to things like that? Way to go Andy!! G said he cant wait to see you again hopefully soon he said!
Thats all for now. Thanks for checking in on G and praying for him. Please contiue to pray for G and all the kids facing this devestating disease. Also remember our troops overseas! God Bless the 890th transportation unit! God Bless you all too. Until next time............Mel
Friday, July 1, 2005 4:25 PM CDT We just walked in the door so this is going to be short and sweet. Gs scans were tumor free!!!!!! He does still have leasions on his brain which is causing his balance to be off. He doesnt need glasses and the eye doctor just thinks his head tilt is because of weak neck muscles. All good news. So, thats going to be all for now I just didnt want to keep you all in suspense! Thanks so much for all your thoughts and prayers. Thanks for checking in on G also. Until next time.......................Mel
Sunday, June 26, 2005 4:31 PM CDT Hello all! Not much to report right now. We are just packing to go to St.Judes. Our schedule is laid back this time. We have appointments until noon on Wed and only 2 appointments on thursday. He gets his MRI on thursday and we come home friday. Please pray for clean scans! We also ask that you pray for our little friend Ryan-
caringbridge.org/oh/ryan-he is home on hospice please pray for him and his family and stop by and give them some support. Also please pray for our dear friend Krista-
caringbridge.org/tn/kristakellon. She had an MRI last week and it showed more tumor regrowth. I am not sure what the plan of action is but please pray that her parents have the strength and courage to make the decisions they need to make. Thanks for checking on G and I will update as soon as we get home. God Bless!!
Monday, June 20, 2005 7:43 AM CDT Hello All! Garretts doing well. It has been a long week. Like I said he is doing well but...he has been so cranky lately. It wears on you. G has wanted a treehouse for a long long time. So last night he would not get off it. He cried and cried and cried. Well, we don't have any trees big enough in our yard so I asked if a playhouse would work. No he wants a tree house. So we looked on the internet for some tree/play houses. Holy crap are they expensive. Neat but expensive. There were some that cost more than my house did. Really. Some came with heat, air conditioning, and water. Now really why does a kid need that. However there was a really neat one that is made out of a tree. It was so neat and of course G fell in love with that one and it was only $6000.00. Yes thats right six thousand dollars. Which if I was rich or just had the extra cash laying around, no problem because he deserves it. It was really cool. I cant remember the web page I just typed in tree houses and there it was. Every kid should have one. So anyway that didn't help one bit of course it made it worse. So, last night for 4 hours he cried and begged to get that tree house. Man was I crushed the poor kid has been through hell and back and now I cant even give him a little ol tree house. Oh well, I hope he gets over it soon. This morning he woke up saying can I get my tree house now mamma? As I sit here he is saying to me can we go get my tree house? Maby today we will go get some wood and build a play house for him since we have no big trees. Who knows.
I am not sure how he is feeling. One min. he tells me his is fine then the next something hurts. It breaks my heart because he will say to me mamma I just dont know whats wrong with me and he will start crying. He has really been rubbing his left eye and holding his head to the right. He complains that he is dizzy sometimes but I am not sure if he is confusing blurry for dizzy. Friday night he woke up in the middle of the night crying in pain. He said he hurt all over. I gave him some tylenol and about 1/2 hr after crying he finally fell asleep. He goes in spurts with his sleeping. He will go a few nights sleeping through the night then the next he will get up 3-10 times. His balance if off a bit. He is falling alot. He has days that its good then he has days that its really bad. When he is bad, he falls alot and is really shaky, weak muscles. He has been doing alot of horse riding and swimming lately also so that may be the reason of the weak muscles.
We return to St.Judes next week on the 28th of June. He has appointments until noon on the 29th so we hope to get together with some friends that live there and go to the zoo. G really wants to go to the zoo. Thurs he has his MRI later in the morning so we wont get the results until late on Thursday. We will the be returning home on Fri. July 1st. Just in time for our 4th of July.
Please say some extra prayers for our little friend Ryan. On his last trip to St.Judes, they found that his tumor was back and bigger than when he was first diagnosed. He is home on hospice right now. Please stop by his page and give his parents some encouraging words.
caringbridge.org/oh/ryan. Also please say a few extra prayers for G. Thanks for checking on the little man and please sign his guestbook.
**there are also new pictures to see**
Monday, June 13, 2005 7:45 AM CDT Hello all. Thanks for checking in with g. Yes it finally happend to me, I just got done typing the journal and yes I lost the entry. So, here I am again. G is doing well. He had accident on his John Deere tractor last week. I thought I was going to have to call the EMS. He rolled it several times. He hit his head and when he finally got done rolling, his leg was up around his neck. He only cried for a min. or two. He would have gotten right back up and gotten back on but I made him lay there. I checked his head and his neck. Those were my main concern. He complained of no pain when I felt those areas and after a while he moved them okay. So off he went right back on, speeding around. That freaked me out. I am good under pressure and stress though but I just didnt want him to get hurt from something with that when we finally have the a summer to do things that he has never gotten to do. He is fine and thats all that matters. We havent been doing to much. The weather has been really hot and humid. I have been working the weekends so G has been spending some time with his dad and Nanna. We got him a pool. Its one of those blue ones that you blow up the top ring and fill the pool with water and it gets taller. We are just waiting for the water to warm up. It a good size. Its 12 feet across and 30 inches deep. So unless I am in there with G he will wear a life jacket. He and daddy have been doing a little fishin'. Still havent caught anything but its the quality time they get to spend together. We return to St.Judes june 28-july1. I of course am a ball of nerves as you all know all the emotions you go through. Overall I feel that he is doing well. He is getting so big. His weight is up and he is getting taller. My only concern is his balance is a bit off but I will chalk that up to always riding the tractor and not getting enough "leg time" so I am making a point of getting him to walk more or actually pedal a bike. Other than that all is going well. Thanks again for checking in with G and signing his guestbook.
We would like you to pray extra for G and clean scans when we return. Also little Krista Kellon caringbridge.org/tn/kristakelllon gets an MRI on June 17(I think) so she needs some extra prayers. Another family in need is the Trewins-caringbridge.org/oh/ryan-they got some bad news on Ryans last MRI. His tumor is back and bigger than when he first diagnosed. So please pray for these little warriors and all the families at St.Judes.
On the good side Jay Gaskins got excellent news-no tumor to be found. Way to go Jay! Jill caringbridge.org/mo/jillsjourney-also got very good news no tumor and NED-no evidence of disease-way to go Jill. These kids will have a great summer being able to do what they havent ever been able to.
Well, thats all for now so take care enjoy the summer and be safe. Until next time.................Love Mel
Monday, June 6, 2005 7:23 PM CDT **UPDATE***June 9th, 20005
I just want to ask for some prayers for one of our St.Jude buddies. Ryan got some harsh news this week. His tumor is back and bigger than when he was diagnosed. Please pray for Jenni and Jose. Stop by and give them so encouragement. Thanks
caringbridge.org/oh/ryan
We had a wonderful weekend. The weather was finally beautiful. I had to work all weekend but it was still beautiful. Garrett and his dad went fishing for a bit on Sat. On Sunday we played outside and went for a walk..all the fun summer stuff. Tomorrow if it doesn't rain we are going to head to the pool. (Its always a scarry thought the first time you slip into your swimming suit!)Yikes!
Garretts doing great. He gets a bit of a break from speech. He will start up again in July and go until school starts and then start up again. He is now under the care of the school speech therapist. His speech continues to improve. About the only time you can't understand him is when he meets someone new and gets so excited to tell them a story and then it all runs together. I become the translator. He at least im good for something.lol Other than that nothing to report. We are just blessed to be able to spend this summer with him and we thank God for that each and every day. G is quite the little jokester. He always trys to make you laugh. Every day he comes up with something new and you wonder where in the world did he get that from. Right now if someone says a bad word or what he thinks is a bad word its "now now now, watch your mouth" Of course you have to hear him say it. It just cracks you up. Anyway like I said we are just blessed that we are able to spend this precious time with him.
Thanks for checking up on G and signing his guest book! Keep him in your prayers as our 1 year cancer free check up is coming up. God Bless..........
Mel
Monday, May 30, 2005 7:21 AM CDT Hello everyone! All is going good and not much to report. We had a good weekend. The weather was aweful. It has been chilly and rainy. It looks like today will be a beautiful day today. The sun is shinning. The baby colt Crystal is doing good. She is getting so big already. G loves to go out and play with her. We are expecting another one at the end of the week. G is doing great. I think we got a touch of food poisioning over the weekend. G was throwing up Sat. and I have felt nauseated all weekend. We are feeling better today. I bought him a fishing pole the other day so now all he wants to do is go fishing. The weather has been nasty so no fishing. I may take him next weekend or even sometime this week. Depends on the weather. Thats about all for now. We have nothing going on this week so we will just take it easy and go with the flow. Check out the new pictures. Take care and remember to sign his guest book! Until next time............
Monday, May 23, 2005 1:01 PM CDT Hello to all!! Garrett and I had fun at the Saddle up for St.Judes trail ride! My mom (aka nanna), jeremy, and some friends went up. We got there about 9am ate some panacakes that we had to catch. Everyone caught theres except for nanna. G even caught his. Then we played some kids games and G got to ride some horses. He had fun. I guess it is more fun to ride someone elses horses. I added some pics of the weekend. Sorry they are so big. We then took in the old west presentation. That was neat. They had the Old West Society of MN do it and they did a great job. They did some gun fights, some roping and some work with a whip. We also took in a wagon ride. Garrett thought that was neat. At about 3pm Richard introduced Garrett and I gave a short talk. I never say as much as I intend. I wanted to say more about Gs therapy and some other stuff about St.Judes but it all came babbling out. The people were very nice. I got lots of hugs and thanks as well as G met lots of new people and much to my surprise he was very polite. He usually gets upset at about the third person asking how he was doing. He did really good. He was out the min. he got into his car seat. My only complaint was that some of the people on horseback had no courtesy for those walking. They were running their horses around and not watching out for "pedestrains" if we were not used to horses and not paying attention, someone would have gotten hurt. Other than that it went very well and we thank Richard and Richard for all they have done in the past 9 years raising money for St.Jude. I am not sure what the ending total was but when we left (before the auction) they were at $41,000.00. So, I am sure they went well above that. Again we would like to say thank you to all that volunteered and took time out of their schedule to help out the kids of St.Jude.
G is doing well otherwise. This week is laid back. Lots of playing outside. His crankiness is passing. Slowly but surely. We return to St.Jude on the 28th of June returning home on the 1st of July. We were scheduled to go on the 5th of July which would mean traveling on the 4th of July. Well, our small town has a huge 4th of July celebration that G has only once attended and that was when he was 3 months old. The wonderful nurse schedulers at St.Jude got us in the week before so G could enjoy his 4th of July. I am going to have a cancer free for a year party for G when we get back. Probably around the middle of July. Of course providing the results of his MRI are clear which I am sure they will be. He will love that.
I am so glad to hear that some of our friends at St.Judes all got great result from their testing last week. Yeah!!! Easton got good result and got to take his central line out and Elliott is still cancer free! Well, thats all for now. Until next time................
Mel
Thursday, May 19, 2005 3:26 PM CDT Hello all! G is doing good. The last few days he has been very cranky and all he does is whine. I am not sure what is going on with that. Of course my mind races (as most of you know by now) and I think back to when he was first diagnosed with a tumor and that was one of the symptoms. I know all I do is worry. But right now I will chalk it up to his age and always getting what he wants and when I tell him no.....well we know how kids are. I just returned from school with the plan of action for next year. He will be in a regular class. He will be pulled aside for speech every day for 20 mins. He is normal in some things and below normal in other. As far as his speech goes they figure he is at about age 3yrs and 3 months. His cutting is not up to par and his block building needs improvement. Thats what they told me. But just from the time he had the tests, he has improved and as far as that goes, he didn't cooperated with the teacher very good that day. I am so very nervous. He still has balance issues. I am afraid they are not going to watch him very well. There again I will not worry until the time comes.
I just got some new pictures back that I had taken the. I will post them next week. I want to leave the St.Jude trail ride information up. That is this weekend. G is excited to go. I did a phone interview yesterday with a newspaper up there. G is also featured in the May issue of Wisconsin Horseman. I have yet to see the article. I will introduce G on Sat at 3pm and give a speach about Gs therapy and the importance of St.Jude. We are going early to take in the festivities. The weather is going to be perfect. Partly sunny and 75ish. Of course this is Wisconsin so that could change any minute.
Other than that, G is doing great. Thanks for coming by and checking in. Please sign his guestbook. He loves for me to read the entries and we love to meet new people. Please pray for all our friends at St.Jude. Easton has an MRI soon as well as Elliott. Jay is going in I think for more chemo or a scan. Sorry Cindy I can't remember. Please pray for great news on all of them they need every little bit extra they can get. Also please pray for the 890th transportation unit stationed in Iraq. We want them all to come home safe to us!! Thanks
Mel
Thursday, May 12, 2005 8:19 AM CDT UPDATE:Fri May 13th: Check out the new photos. We had a baby girl(colt) and named her Crystal. I named her Crystal because all the Fri the 13th movies are based upon Crystal Lake so I thought it fit.
Hello all! I posted a flyer about the St.Jude trail ride. It is kinda' blurry and I am sorry about that but it is still readable. We are excited about it. It will be lots of fun. G and I are not taking our horses but there will be all kinds of fun things to do. Papa and Nanna are going as well as my Grandmother and uncle, and our very good friends Mark and Kay and their 2 boys Brandon and Brent. G is very excited to see them. He has lots of fun getting into trouble with them. Boys will be boys. If you have any questions about it feel free to ask me or log onto:www.stjudetrailride.org.
G is doing great! He had more testing at school yesterday and he did so great! I meet with the speech therpist and 4k teacher next thursday to go over the results. They will want to keep him in early childhood classes I am sure. But he is doing great. He will go to speech this summer through the school and I am going to put him in swimming lessons. I want to enroll him in t-ball but I feel that he is just a bit to weak to do that yet. I do want to get him into some tennis lessons but funding might be an issue. The closest is 45mins away with gas prices the way they are is crazy. So I will save my pennies and see what I can do.The weather here has been very nice until yesterday. It is COLD and rainy. The high today is only going to be like 45. BRRRR for this time of year. G gets mad when he can't go out and ride on his John Deere tractor. He loves that darn thing. As long as he enjoys it thats all that matters. Thanks Andy!! We are going to have a laid back weekend because it is going to rain and be chilly all weekend. Next week not a lot going on. Play! Play! Play! thats our motto. Our time is coming very fast to return to St.Jude. It is the end of June. It seems to be coming fast. It will be here in a hurry. Well, thats all for now. Thanks for checking on G and signing his guestbook. Until next time......................
Thursday, May 5, 2005 8:47 PM CDT Check out the new pics of G and his party. I posted them last week I think? Well we are getting ready for the St.Jude trail ride in Lodi WI. Such an event. They have so much going on and I know this will be the year they will raise a lot of money. As a trail ride they have made the most money for St.Jude in the U.S. This year already they have made more in donations thanks to Gs picture and story so we are excited for that. We will go up on Saturday and spend the day. I will give my speach durring the awards. I don't get nervous because its such a great cause.
As far a G goes he is doing awesome. The weather is finally coming around. It was 70* here today. How weird is it that it was snowing on monday and now its 70? That is so weird. Welcome to WI. G had speech today and Nana went with us. She went back with him and he did great. He just gets so excited and talks so fast. Thats the biggest problem but he is coming along. Of course he had been out riding his John Deere tractor and 4-wheeler all day today after we got back from speech. He loves to go outside which is such a great thing. We are expecting to baby colts. One this weekend and one at the end of the month. He is so excited about that to. Every morning the first thing when we get up we have to go out and check to see if she had it yet. He always says not yet but soon. I cant wait to see the look on his face when she finally does have it. We are going to have mothers day out here on Sunday. Just my mom and sister and my grandmother will be out. Well, a few other relative to but it will be nice so we will cook out. It should be a great day. Well, thats all for now. Thanks for checking on Garrett and for signing his guestbook. We would like to take this time to pray for the 890th transportation unit stationed in Iraq. Also a few of our friends caringbridge.org/ga/jay he has an infection in his line, Taylor, they are not sure whats wrong with her. They are thinking some sort of blood infection. The trewins, caringbridge.org/oh/ryan they are just getting over a few obstacles and our dear friend Krista. caringbridge.org/tn/krista. Thanks Again and God Bless!!!
Saturday, April 30, 2005 4:00 PM CDT Hello all. Not much to report on Garrett. He did some more testing for 4k in our local school. I thought he did awesome! He did things that a month ago he couldn't so no matter what the results are I know that he has improved a lot. The weather is still no cooperating with us. It has been cool and WINDY. We did go outside a couple of days for and hour or two. Next week it is going to be much better, in the upper 60's. Can't wait. Other than that G is doing great. We are getting ready for the big St.Jude trail ride in Lodi, WI. It is more than a trail ride with all kinds of different activities. I will post more next week. Please sign Garretts guestbook as he loves for me to read the entries. Also please pray for all our St.Jude and Caringbridge friends. We also ask for your prayers for the 890th transportation unit serving in Iraq and all our armed forces. Have a great weekend and week and God Bless! Mel
Just a little note: Check out G on andyroddick.com. Go to the audio clips and click on the one I think the third one down, "Andy on Deco Drive" where Andy is featured on a south Florida news station. If you watch that clip, G is on it giving his IDOL Andy a big ol hug. We love you Andy thanks for all you do for the children and G!!
Okay so it's May 1 and can you all believe that it is SNOWING!!!! Yes I said snowing!
Wednesday, April 27, 2005 7:17 AM CDT Hello all and thanks for all the b-day cards and e-birthday wishes for G. All is going great with Garrett. Not really much to report. Please pray for the Trewins! They had a bad weekend last week. Jose had a heart attack on top of all of ryans health problems.
www.caringbridge.org/oh/ryan
G is doing great like I said. He is going to be going to a sitter on Tues and Thurs. His sitter is the sister of my best friend from high school. I have known her for years and she only has one other child so she can give more attention to G rather than somewhere where they have a ton of kids. I think he will like it once he gets adjusted. I start the big job on Friday. I am not sure how it is going to go. I have mixed emotions. Guilty is the biggest one. On the other hand excited. Only time will tell.
Really there is nothing to report on G. He is doing well. We have not been able to go outside lately. The weather has not been cooperating. The wind has been terrible. Of course the highs in the lower 50's but the wind added in and it is chilly. So of course that is all I hear from G is " has it warmed up yet?" I find something to keep his mind off of going outside then about 15 mins later, "has it warmed up yet?" At least he wants to go outside. There for a while he didn't want to go outside. So, being an outsdoors person I am fortunate that he loves to be outdoors. He hasn't wanted to ride his horse lately or play tennis. Right now its all basketball (sorry Andy) and of couse riding on his new 4-wheeler and his favorite, John Deere tractor. We are waiting for two colts to be born this spring. It seems like they are never going to get here! The tennis thing will pick up here when it gets a bit nicer and the newness of the battery operated vehicles. Tennis has been a great sport for G. It has helped his walking and especially his balance. I hope to get him in some lessons this summer if the job doesn't take up to much time. He also gets to do swimming lessons. Swimming, who would have thunk it. A year ago we were gearing up for high dose chemo with stem cell transplant and this year swimming. Thank God for that! Well, I will report again soon. Take care and thanks for coming on by and checking on G and signing his guestbook.
Also want to put a plug in for the annual St.Judes trail ride in Lodi WI. on May 20,21 & 22. Garrett is the poster boy for it. We will go on Sat and speak about G illness and treatment and most importnat how wonderful St.Judes is. This is only our second speaking engagement. They don't do a lot of fund raising for St.Jude in the area. Something we hope to change. I will post more on the trail ride soon. It's not just a trail ride there is lot more to do. Mel
Monday, April 25, 2005 10:13 AM CDT Hello all! Thanks for checking in on G. I hope to get the b-day pictures up by Wednesday. Thanks to the Memphis Racquet Club tournament team for the wonderful b-day card. All is going well for us. I took a full time job as the store manager for a major cellular company in our area. It will be an adjustment! Being a single mom and trying to balance a full time job with a "needy" child and keeping the farm up. Should be a good challenge but I am up for it. As long as G doesn't suffer. Thats the main thing-that G is taken care of. I will miss my precious time with him but we just can't live off of $500.00 a month. Thats what we were living off of. It is hard when your house payment is over half of what you make a month. I have thought long and hard about this job. The what ifs. What if G gets sick again, what if I can't make it work, what if, what if...so then I thought again and tried to make it positive. God only gives us what we can handle and I feel that he wouldn't have made this job availiable to me if I couldn't handle it or if G was going to get sick again. I have to think of the positive future instead of the negative/what if future. Many of you know that sometimes that is the hardest thing to overcome. My biggest fear is the regret I would feel if something happens to G. Anyway, G is doing great! It's been very windy and cool here so we haven't been going outside but he has been nagging me all morning because it is nice out so as soon as I am done with this we are going outside. His speech is coming along great. Of course he knows and says all the words he is not supossed to at exactly the right time. (thanks daddy) He is getting stronger with his legs all the time. He improves every day. It amazes me when he comes up with something new. I wonder where he gets it all and of course he credits nana with everything good or bad. I couldn't ask for any better results than we are getting with him. He is cancer free and he is rebounding very well! Go G!! Well, thats all for now. Take care and God Bless. Please sign Gs guestbook he loves for me to read them to him. Thanks again! Mel
Tuesday, April 19, 2005 5:14 PM CDT Thank you so much everyone for wishing G a happy b-day. He had an awesome day. Of course he got spoiled rotten which he totally deserves! Andy R. got him a huge blow up basketball game along with a battery operated john deere tractor with a wagon. He has had so much fun with that. The first thing out of his mouth when he gets up is can we go outside yet? I also got him a battery operated 4-wheeler. I need one to catch up with him on the other. He also got a spiderman table and chairs for outside, a remote control monster truck, a wheel barrel with garden tools, and a few little things. So, yes he had a great b-day!
Other than that he has been doing great. His speech is improving day by day. It helps without the pacifier, aka nukie. It was his comfort "device" when he was going through treatment and somehow they all started getting huge holes in them? The holes continued getting bigger and bigger. It actually only took one week to get rid of them completely so anyone out there going through the situation, cut holes in them! So, after that, his speech has improved greatly. The weather here has been beautiful, in the 70's. Pretty much perfect. It is very unusual for us to be in the 70 by May let alone April but hey let me tell ya, we will take it! So as you all can imagine I am suporting a very nice tan on my arms because we are out all the time. Usually 10-12 then 2-?? The kid loves to be outside which is great. It is so nice that he wants to be outside since last year we really couln't. Let me tell ya he is making up for lost time.
On another note, our dear friend Krista Kellon found out this week that the mass they took out of her head is what they are calling a low grade tumor. Not the same as her first diagnosis. This one is not aggressive like the other. They go in Tursday to see if they can do more chemo or not. So, please pray the the wonderful team at St.Judes can help her! Caringbridge/tn/kristakellon. Thanks for signing Gs guestbook and I will post b-day pics soon!! Take care and God Bless!
Mel
Saturday, April 16, 2005 3:29 PM CDT HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GARRETT!!! TODAY IS GARRETTS 4TH BIRTHDAY. PLEASE SIGN HIS GUESTBOOK AND WISH HIM A HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! THANKS, MEL
Thursday, April 14, 2005 8:43 PM CDT Hello all! Check out the new photos. I try to change them every week or two. Hey, I am trying to do a slide show of pictures and I figured out the picture part but I want to add music and for some reason I can't get the audio on it. Can anyone help me? I am trying the sonic dvd program.
It has been a great week. The weather was rainy most of the week then cool but today was almost perfect. It was 67 but a bit breezy. The next 5 days look to be about the same. Which is great. That means we can have G's b-day bash outside. I have a tiny house so that makes it much easier so people aren't tripping over each other. Spiderman is the "theme" this year. It will be so nice. Last year he spent his 3rd b-day in hospital getting chemo. I still need to get his pictures taken. He is going to wear the shirt that I got him from the Jude last week. It is orange checked with a t-shirt underneath with the St.Jude "head" on it. It will be so cute.
The funniest thing happend at the Jude last week that I just was thinking (more like remembered) about today. I was so excited to see Dr.Usif (I know I spelled it wrong) from the bone marrow transplant team. We ran into him in the cafeteria. He had a big grin on his face, it was the cutest thing. He had said he had seen the mastercard commercial with Andy Roddick on it. Then he got this big smile, and he pointed at G and said is it true, is it true? He got so excited. I said is what true? Just to see what he said. He said that someone in the medicine room had said G and Andy...I said what? what?...He was just like a little school kid. I said without further due yes it is true! Of course not many people know and we like it that way just because we don't want special treatment. It was just a cute experience. I guess ya had to be there.
Anyway not much planned for the upcoming weeks. Friday is our Relay For Life. I think we are going to do the survivor walk. Then Sat. is the big b-day. I am going to go out Sat night as well for some much needed "adult time and beverages." Next week is laid back. Go out and play play play. I am in the process of cleaning up the farm. I am going to lay some cement so G has a place to ride his bike and play ball. Other than that, hopefully uneventful! Thanks for checking in on G! Take care and God Bless!! MEL
Friday, April 8, 2005 5:46 PM CDT We are home! Wow thanks for all the journal entries and all your support and prayers! They paid off. G got good news. NO TUMOR! He does have a couple of spots that they are watching but no tumor. He does have leasons on his brain that they say are just because of therapy and they are no harm! So yes we had a great trip. He also got his "buddy" out. (central line) That was an ordeal. He cried because he didnt want it out. But after about 3 hours and a rest it was okay. He showed it to anyone who said hi to him. Really anyone. It didn't matter if he knew them or not. He loved to see his special nurses Shante and Rebecca in the Medicine Room! He wants to invite them to his b-day party next Sat. He loves them so very much. We were in the cafeteria Thurs. evening and there was a nurse in there and G saw the back of her and thought it was Miss Crystal and was having a fit because he couldn't go talk to her and give her a hug. Then he realized it wasn't here and he was okay. For some reason Miss Crystal he really bonded with you this time. He didn't get to see Dr.Fouladi because he was sleeping he was disappointed. But, it was awesome to see all of our friends and of course they were all impressed with Gs progress! He had his testing to see "how smart" he is. He is right on track. Of course his speech is not up to par but we are working on that.
It was so nice to see the Trewins. Ryan has made so much progress and they also had wonderful news! Be sure to check his website at oh/ryan on caringbridge.
Thats all to report right now, we just got home so its time to unpack and laundry! Thanks for checking in on G! Mel
Monday, April 4, 2005 9:37 AM CDT Well, Tuesday we head for the big Jude! The weather has been so very nice that I haven't really had time to think hard about what could happen when we are there. I am trying to focus on the good. The clear scans, getting "buddy" out, seeing everyones reaction to how big G has gotten and how well he is walking. G is excited about going. All weekend he kept saying c'mon let go the Jude, c'mon let go. He misses it there because it really is all he knows.
Like I said the weather has been great here. In the lower 70's to upper 60's, so needless to say, we have been outside all weekend. We have been cleaning up the farm. It got neglected last year since I was not here to take care of it. Stupid me, not thinking..it's April in Wisconsin so I figured the sun wasnt going to be that strong-wrong. I wore a tank top and I didnt put sunscreen on soooo yes, I got fried! G was well covered though. He had a floppy hat on long sleeves and pants. He did eventually put a short sleeve shirt on but it was early evening so no sunscreen. I guess I learned my lesson. I have always had a job so I never got outside much except in the summer so, I know no excuses, at least it was me and not G.
I am so excited to see our friends Krista and Ryan. We will get to see them at the Jude. Ryan is getting his MRI so please pray for excellent results for him. Krista is having surgery as I write this. The doctors found either scar tissue or tumor regrowth. Dr.Boop is going in to see what it is. Please pray that it is just scar tissue and no tumor. Please pray for my little G man. We want no tumor. If he does have regrowth there is nothing more that the doctors can do so we need all the extra prayers we can get!!!! Thanks so much for coming by and checking on G. Please sign the guestbook. I will update this as soon as I can. It will probably be later on Friday. Take care and God Bless! MEL
Monday, March 28, 2005 6:56 PM CST Hello All and thanks so much for coming on by and for signing Gs guestbook. He loves for me to read them. Congrat to Andy Roddick on winning the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award! If you go to andyroddick.com and go to the bottom of the home page, click on the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award and you will see a very special picture of G and Andy. We are so proud of the both of them.
AHHH sunshine!!!! What more can I say? It has been beautiful today. Yesterday was nice but today was awesome. Yesterday we went to my sisters for Easter. The kids did the egg hunt outside. They had a blast! Of couse we ate way to much. Today the temp was in the upper sixties. G and I were outside most of the afternoon cleaning up the yard, tending to the horses and just goofin' off! So much fun. Finally we got to get out of this small house! Tues is going to be just as nice so I am sure we will get out some. We will probably go to the park and do the tennis thing. Gs been itching to do that. This sounds aweful but I cant wait for G to go to bed because I think with all the fresh air he had he will finally sleep the whole night through! That would be the first time since.......I cant remember when!
Please pray for out friend Krista. She had scans last week and Dr.Fouladi thinks maby her tumor has come back but Dr.Merchant thinks its scar tissue from radiation. Please pray that it is just scar tissue. She will have surgery by Dr.Boop in the next couple of weeks. Krista is Gs good friend from Memphis that we met at LeBonner getting their ommays put in. Turned out that they were both diagnosed the same day, had surgery the same day but 653 miles away. How weird is that. Krista does have a caringbridge website so look her up.
We return to the Jude April 5th-8th. G has his scan on Wed. then other testing on Thurs. We will then drive home Friday. Thats the plan anyway. All is well, he is still getting irritable. I have been talking with some parents and some say its the age so I am going to try not to read anything into it until after I know what the MRI says. I will go nuts if I keep thinking about it. I hope we will see some of our friends while we are there. Chances are we will miss everyone and we will feel like the odd balls, the newbees so to speak. But hey thats okay at least I know I dont have to spend anymore time than 4 days there. Not thats its a bad place because we all know its the best place on earth but there is a few bad memories there. The Jude is the best place on the face of this earth! After all they gave us extra time with G and hopefully more to come! Well, thats all for now. I am not sure if I will update anymore before the scans if not, I will post the results of the scans on next Friday! PRAY FOR CLEAN SCANS!!!! Thanks again and God Bless!!! Mel
Friday, March 25, 2005 9:35 AM CST Hello all! Thanks for checking in on G and signing his guestbook. He loves for me to read each and every entry. Be sure to check out andyroddick.com. Go to the current news section at the end of the home page. Andy won the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award. Click on that article. There is a very special picture of Andy and G. Congrats Andy we are very proud of you!
This week has been a bad week for us. Of course we are starting to feel the stress of the upcoming MRI and other tests. Then I am starting to see changes in Garrett. He is very irritable most of the time. That was one of his initial symptoms of the tumor. He will play for a while then he will just get on the couch and crash for a bit. That is so not like him. He hangs in there till the bitter end even if he is tired. He tells me at night that his head hurts. Not all the time but enough to worry me. But on the other hand, he is making leaps and bounds when it comes to speech and his walking. He is so smart. His speech has improved a lot over the last few weeks. He is running very fast and he can balance on one foot on each side. So, as far as that goes, he is doing great. I am not sure why he is irritable or what is going on. I think that he is scarred because he may know that something different is going on. I pray that is not the case! I also pray that it is just the pre MRI jitters!
We woke up to snow this morning and it is still snowing! YUCK! We are so ready for spring. Hopefully G will get "buddy" out and we will have nice weather so we can go outside and do stuff. We have be house bound since we basically got home in August. His counts were very low when we got home so we limited his outside activities because of the animals. When his counts finally came up, it got cold. It wouldn't be so bad with the cold but the wind is what is nasty. Being out in the country the wind is worse. So I am looking so forward to G getting outside to be able to be a little boy again! I want him to be able to at least have a nice summer. I want him to be able to go swimming and play outside do the things he wasn't able to at all last summer because of high dose chemo and stem cell transplant then there was radiation. I just want him to be a little boy again and he is not able to do that sometimes. I think that he is more of a man than most I know. He is a very wise young man. I just ask for extra prayers for G in the next coming week. It will be full of stress! Thanks again and Happy Easter to all!!! Melissa
Saturday, March 19, 2005 6:38 AM CST Wed. March 23, 2005
Please say an extra prayer for our little friend Regina. She has had some leg, walking and foot problems yesterday and the doctor is thinking maby tumor so they are going today for MRI. Diana (her mom) and Regina need all the extra prayers they can get today! Thanks
SNOW SNOW GO AWAY!!!! We have been getting snow the last couple of days. YUCK!! We are so ready for spring. The good thing about snow this time of year is that it melts rather quickly. We got 3.5 inches thursday evening and by friday mid morning, most of it was gone. But there is still to much for this time of year. The first day of spring is sunday and we haven't even seen our first robin yet. I hope thats not to say that its going to be a longer winter! Oh wait its already been a long winter.
Thanks for checking in on Garrett. He loves to read the guestbook entries. All is going well. We went to the dentist yesterday for his first check up after he got his "new teeth" she said everything looks great! We were so happy to hear that. G is gaining weight. He eats so much better now. More of a varitey of things that he wouldn't even think about before the new teeth. I will get a picture up soon of them. He is so proud of them.
We had 4k screening this week. It went good as far as G cooperating with them but one of the teachers/speech therapist was a dink to say the least. He told me that G needed extensive speech therapy and I think he said concept therapy? Whatever! I of course didnt like to hear that. G has speech therapy already is what I told him. I also told him that he just got a mouth full of new teeth so he is still getting used to that. The teacher wants to put G in early childhood and special education classes. I am all for getting G the best education that he needs but, he does not need special education classes! He is very smart. He just has speech issues. Which he has always had. We are doing everything we can to get him over it. I am okay with getting him in early childhood, that just means he will be a year behind where he should be. I'm okay with that part. I know that when he gets going he will pass everyone. He catches on very quick. One of the other teachers was very nice. She agreed with me on everything that I thought. She told me not to worry he would totally catch up a probably pass everyone else. She said she wasn't saying that just to make me feel good either. So, the next step is to do more sreening to see what his need exactaly are. G is going to get so tired of it. When we come to the Jude in early April, he does speech, pt, ot and behavior assesments to see where he is. So, when we get back and he has to do more I am sure he will have one of his "FITS" oh well, he will get over it. Bribery always works!lol
Gs Birthday is coming fast. April 16th. I cant believe he will be 4. Yes he looks like hes about 6. I had one guy the other day guess him as being 7. That was a bit off. Not even close. Anyway we will have a party for him. Invite some friends and family. I can't do anything to big I have a teeny house. So, I cant fit to many people in it. Sometimes the two of us is way too much. Can't imagine if the dogs were in the house. Of course they are like two little people. Mia weight about 120lbs and Shante weights about 45-60lbs. Anyway, thats all really for now. We are just hanging out waiting on spring to get here so we can get outside and play play play!!! Thanks again for checking in on G and be sure to sign his guestbook!! Mel
UPDATE: Sunday March 20
I was so happy, last night on the way to church guess what....Yes we saw our very first ROBIN!! Thats a big deal in Wisconsin, it means spring is right around the corner!!! Yahoooo!
Friday, March 11, 2005 3:57 PM CST Hi! Again thanks for checking in on G. Papa gets to come home today so Garrett was excited about seeing him at home. He will have a long road to recovery infront of him.
Garrett and I did a radiothon in Madison WI today. Its all part of the country cares program. I got to tell some of Gs story and he got to talk on the radio. Okay so he got scared and laughed alot. But it brought tears to alot of eyes. John and Tammi, thank you so much for letting us be a part of this. It is really important to us that we get out there and tell stories to get more money for these kids. I really think that I want to do more of this somehow. There was 3 fireman that came by to drop off a donation and they were also brushing tears from their faces as well. Actually I think that I was the only one not crying. He this is a happy moment. G is cancer free and we get to go out and tell everyone this and tell how great the Jude is. Anyway so the fireman asked if G wanted to go for a ride- well dah of course he did. So we all loaded up in the firetruck and away we went. G and I got to blow the horn and siren. Cool. G was getting tired by that point so he wouldnt get his picture taken. Thats okay. So another thank you to the middleton fire dept. for taking us for a ride. There is a gal named Tammy that does the morning show and she made a challenge. The challenge was that she wanted one coorporate sponser to donate ten thousand dollars if this happend, she would shave her head. Well thanks cost cutters, they are the company who donated the 10 thousnad dollars so at 5:30 pm Tammy has to say good-bye to her long georgeous hair. She is a beautiful person on the inside and on the outside so being bald will look great on her. You go Tammy! She got the money and she will also be able to donate her hair to locks of love. How cool is that. We just want to say thanks to everyone who donated and remember its not to late.
Other than that G has been doing great. His platelets are up to 79. They went up over 10 in a week. Yeah G. Cant wait to say bye-bye to buddy! SO, thats really all to report on. Thanks again for checking in on G. Melissa
Monday, March 7, 2005 7:20 PM CST Hello all and thanks for checking in on Garrett. All is well. We went to see papa today. He is doing okay a few complications here and there. He is very disorientated and just wants to go home. He is on valium and he keeps on trying to get up and go home. He didnt like it when I was there because I made him lay back down. He says he just wants to go home to get comfy. Of course he asked for a 30 pack of beer. He hasnt lost his "spunk" even though he is on all the drugs. He is still a smart alec. Anyway Garrett was glad to see him. He knew that papa had a heart attack and was in the hospital but he just needed to see papa. It was good that G could see that sometimes adults get sick to and need to stay. I wasnt sure how he would react to all the tubes and ivs in someone else but as usual it didnt even phase him. He was just glad to see papa.
Other than that not anything to report on G. We are going to be a part in a local radiothon to help raise money for the Jude. Of course coming up in May is the St.Jude Trail Ride in Lodi WI. We are looking forward to that. We are hopeful that this year will be the best year yet. They finally have a patient from WI that people can say okay so it isnt just for kids down south. The ride is may 20-22. I will post more when the time gets closer. They have tons of stuff going on.
Not sure what Gs blood counts are this week. We are going to wait and go wed or thurs. this week. Stretch it out to be a week and a half between. Next time I think I am going to wait 2 weeks. I dont know if I will be able to hold out or not. We havent been able to get to pt or speech. We have had a lot of things going on.
Sunday the temp here was 63 degrees! It was so nice. Just a teaser though! It was only 30 today. Sunday we were outside most of the day. We got the horses out wormed them, trimmed feet and gave my mare her steroid. Shes got allergys and they are staring up. G had a good time just being outside and oh did he sleep well. Finally a good nights sleep. Well, its almost bed time for G so, I will update again soon. Thanks again and PLEASE sign the guestbook, G loves for me to read the entries. Even if its a simple "hi". MEl
Wednesday, March 2, 2005 8:19 AM CST UPDATE:3-4-05
My stepdad aka papa has had a heart attack and air lifted to St.Marys Hospital in Madison WI. Today he had a 5 hr bipas operation. We thought he was only going to have a triple bipass but it ended up that they did 5 bipasses. He is doing well but he sure needs all the prayers that he can get. Thanks and we will keep ya updated.
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Garretts teeth look AWESOME! Even though his mouth is sore he cant stop smiling and showing them off! Of course G had all the nurses wrapped around his little finger. They were all asking about the Jude and asking how they could donate. We love spreading a good word for the Jude! So, even sleepy when the nurses said they were going to donate to the Jude, G said Thank you so much. How sweet is that.
As most of you know little Ben Bowen earned his angel wings on Friday. We ask that you please pray for Tom, Jennifer and Eli. They need all the support and prayers that they can get.
Other than Gs teeth not much going on. Oh wait how could I forget, all of his counts except platelets are NORMAL. Yes I said normal. Cant believe it myself but yes normal. Platelets are 65 so they are going up really good. 150 is the low normal range. We go back to the Jude April 4th I think so bye bye "buddy". (his central line)
I also want to tell you all about a website that I came across its www.choosehope.com. On the website they have tons of cancer stuff like shirts, hats ect. They also have ribbons and the famous bracelets. They have a special color for different cancers. So we got the beautiful grey ones for brain cancer. The proceeds go to cancer research. Also dont forget about the big ben bracelets all the proceeds there goes to the Jude. You can get those at www.bens-story.com. Thanks for checkin in on the little man.
Also J.D.(my best friend) and his troop the 890th finally left for overseas. Please say an extra prayer for all of them and the families as we want them all back safe and sound! Thanks
Thursday, February 24, 2005 7:08 AM CST All is well here. Not much to report. Yesterday we went to see our nurse practitioner here to get a physical before Garrett gets his teeth fixed on Tuesday. Not good. She wants to cancel it because he has a bit of a cold. Not going to happen is all I told her. We have been waiting for 2 month to get his teeth fixed. They hurt him all the time he has nothing hardly left in the bottom front. I called and it would be 2 more months before they could get him back in. So needless to say hes on an antibiotic. We will see Friday if it will be safe to sedate him. He is like already over the cold and he only has had 3 doses. Go figure. So we WILL be getting his teeth fixed.
Shante went to a good home. (I thought) She left on tuesday by wednesday, she was back home. I think that we named her right-shes a little spit fire just like Garretts favorite nurse. Right Shantae? lol. She really is a good dog. She is still a pup. On one hand I feel bad for her but on the other, I know its not just me. So until we find another good home, shes here!
Other than that we are just waiting for the weather to warm up! Its going to be the big 40 all weekend. Thats right all weekend. Spring is near. Garrett cant wait to go ride his horse. Today Jeremy is going to come down and watch him while I go buy him a riding helmet. Something like that is a must in Garretts condition. Other than that he just keeps growing up, getting stronger and stronger. He is starting to become a little smart alec though.
For all of you who are wondering how Jeremy is doing, not much change on him. He is still waiting for a kidney and pluggin away at dialysis. Please be sure to sign the guest book Garrett loves for me to read them to him. Also please pray for all the kids at st.judes! Thanks
p.s. be sure to get you big ben wrist bands to support st.judes.
www.bens-story.com
and also you no compromise blue wrist band from Andy roddicks foundation-children in distress. www.andyroddick.com
Friday, February 18, 2005 6:06 PM CST Hello all. Thanks for checking by. If you get the tennis channel check out Garrett and Andys commercial. I hear it's great. Good luck Andy. (like he needs it) Bad news this week. We have to get rid of Garretts dog Shante. I am not one for keeping dogs penned up of having them on a chain and unfortunatly she is a coon dog so her nose is always to the ground. The other night I called for them (mia too) and they were not around. Garrett and I were just getting ready to head into town so we were going to go look for them and in pulled some guy with the two dogs in the back of his truck. Thank god he new where they lived and was kind enough to bring them back! He said he found them about 5 miles away. I am sure she got a scent of something and took off. Mia is such a big mother. She is always making Shante mind and makes her come in the house when it is time that I am sure she went along to try to get her home. Anyway this is not the first time this has happened so...one of my step dads friends are going to take her. She really is a beautiful dog. She just needs a lot of tlc. She is such a people person and right now we just can't give it to her. It's cold out and I don't let them in the main house and I won't let Garrett out with them just for fear of the central line thing. One little jump or nip and that would be all it takes. I am not sure where garrett stands on the issue. One day he will say he doesn't care the next he will say don't let her go so the good thing is that we will only be about 5 mins away and he can see her whenever he wants. As for Mia, she will love the fact that she is again the center of attention. I'm sure she will be sad but we will make up for that! It is a good thing for all of us. I have found that no matter how much you love an animal some you just don't bond with or some are just too much to handle at a certain time in our lives and unfortunatly, the time was just not right for us to be with her. We love her to death and I am sure will visit a lot. Other than that, all is well. Garrett had therapy this week and did great. He can now balance on one foot. How awsome is that! We register for 4 year old kindergarten on the 15th of March. That will be hard and it is only registration. Garrett goes March 1 to get his teeth fixed. The chemo ate away at all his teeth. He has cavitites galore. Most of them will be capped/crowned or filled. There is not one good tooth in his mouth. Poor kid. I can't imagine how sensitve his teeth must be. He is eating and gaining lots of weight. He is up to 35.5 lbs and his chubby cheeks are back! Yeah! Well I must go for now and I will try to check in on all my friends! God Bless and Take Care! Melissa
Sunday, February 13, 2005 6:30 PM CST Well, we're home. Exhausted but home. I am not really sure if Garrett had a good time or not. He was frustrated alot because all he wanted to do was play. Well, he couldn't go on any rides because....most of them were water rides and he still has a central line, he was to short or they were aimed for bigger kids. Then it came to the shows. He hates dark places and loud noises. We tried a couple of shows and he yelled and screamed threw them all. He did however love sea world. He loved feeding the dolphins and the Shamu show. Thats really all we had time to do that day because we had to be back so jeremy could go to dialysis. My mom ended up not going because she was sick so it was just the three of us. Nice-not. We went to Universal Studios on tuesday the whole day and it was nice. Garrett loved to see all his favorite characters in person and get his picture taken with them. Wed morning we went to Coca Beach. It was beautiful. We played in the sand and collected shells. The weather was beautiful. Once again we had to cut it short because of dialysis. Thurs we went to the Magic Kingdom which was okay. I just wish Garrett was a bit older then I think he would have enjoyed himself. He was able to play on some things there. He mostly wanted to go back to give kids the world and play. By this point I ended up getting a cold and so did G. Friday we went to the animal kingdom. We left early-it was COLD-yes I said cold. It was about 40 degrees and windy. I didn't want us to get sicker. We were not prepared for that kind weather at all. So, we left early. Jeremy had dialysis anyway so no biggy. Garrett was getting run down. He slept from 12:30 until 5:00pm that day. Then saturday was our return home.
Give Kids the World Village is awesome. You got a 2 bedroom appartment with 2 bathrooms. You got breakfast, and dinner free of charge. Actually everything at the village was free and mostly run by volunteers! Of course they have a ice cream shoppe that was open from 7:30am-9:30pm. So that was by far garretts favorite. He ate ice cream like no tomarrow! At least twice a day. That was not good for me as I have no will power so my 20lbs that I lost...well lets just say I need to work out a bit more in the next few weeks. Garrett loves to talk about about the trip so that makes me think he did enjoy it. It was just frustrating most days. He was sure glad to be home and sleep in his own bed and so was I! As soon as I get my pictures downsized I will get some posted. Overall I would rate it a 8. It was nice to get away and enjoy the weather!
Remember all you in Memphis to take in the tennis tournament this week. It is always a good time. Be sure to check out Garretts commercial on espn with Andy. Good luck Andy!
Friday, February 4, 2005 2:52 PM CST Hello All!! Nothing new to report. G's just getting excited about going to disney. We leave saturday evening to stay in Madison WI. Our plane leaves at 6:23am so it's a good thing that we are staying otherwise we would need to leave our house by 2:00am to get there early enough. We change planes in Memphis which will be weird that we are not staying and tennesee carriers are not there to pick us up. A good thing though. G got a little of the "runs" yesterday and today so we have him on meds to get rid of that. That would be a big mess if we don't get rid of it but so far so good. I will try and update when we get back. Probably sunday we get in late on saturday. Thanks for checking in on G. Mel
Friday, January 28, 2005 7:09 PM CST Hello everyone! Thanks for coming on by and seeing how "G" is doing. We had a great week. The weather on I think it was tuesday was awesome. It was like 40. Hey, right now we are happy if it is above zero. Anyway G and I went out and made a snowman. (Then Nanna came out and made it a snowwoman) We had a blast. G's first ever. After we did that I drug him around on a sled. He then made a snow angel and of course we played with mia and shante' (our dogs). We couldn't let the horses left out so we went down and messed around with them. It was so nice to get outside. I have spring fever soooo bad. I love to be outside doing whatever. G is going to be the same way. We stayed outside for about 2 hours. G slept really well that night.
Yesterday we had speach and p.t. We found out that Pam our physical therapist is leaving so G's new therapist is Lindsey. Speach went well. It is just hard to keep G's attention. He did really well though.
Check out G in this years tennis tournament program (I think) Mac and Claire have worked so hard getting together an article about G and Andys relationship and how Andy is such an inspiration to G and how Andy helped us get to the Jude. I also think that he is going to be in a comercial. I was contacted by ALSAC but I wasn't exactly sure as to what they are doing. Anything we can do to help! Keep praying for all our friends at the Jude. God Bless and Take Care! I am in the progress of gettting some new pictures posted to check them out.
Melissa and Garrett
Friday, January 21, 2005 6:39 PM CST Finally the flu passed. G got it last week and then I got it this week. It's some nasty stuff! Thank god mom was here to help out. She lives in town and Jeremy lives about 20 mins away so G didn't want to be to far away from mommy because he was worried. He is just the sweatist little man. Always thinking about someone else first.
We got word this week that G's make-a-wish is going to be feb.6-feb.12. It will be so awesome. The weather here is very very nasty. Last week we were lucky if it got up to zero for the temp now we are dealing with 7-10 inches of snow on the way tonight. Ahh the lovely Wisconsin weather! I wouldn't have it any other way! Anyway we are so looking forward to the nice weather.
Other than that nothing new really to report. G just keeps getting stronger and stronger each day. He shows improvement in everything that he does. His words his physical abilities everything. I am so proud of him. He never ever gives up.
Thanks for checking up on G and please pray for all the kids at the Jude. Here are some that need a little extra.
www.bens-story.com
www.caringbridge.org/ga/jay
www.caringbridge.org/mo/bretbrady
Please Please sign G's guest book He loves me to read them to him! Thanks again and God Bless
Thursday, January 13, 2005 6:23 PM CST Well, just when I thought we were sitting pretty.....G got the FLU! Type a influenza. Last night he threw up two times, not unusual for him to do that but when he woke up this morning, he had an elevated temp, 99.1. Not quite a fever but close. I had to call the local doctor to get a request for blood cultures of his line. I called at 8:00am and it finally got faxed at 10:30am. Good thing his temp didn't go up until after noon. So at noon it was 100.0. So, phone call to elizabeth at the Jude then off to get cultures and finally our local doctor. After several little tests she finally did a influenza test. It was a bit uncomfortable for G but not to bad. They stuck a tube up his nose and filled it with saline and have him blow his nose in a cup and thats what they use for a sample. Just thought you all would love to know that. Anyway, fifteen mins. later it came up positive so they put him on some medication that doesn't cure it but it does make it easier to handle. His fever finally came down tonight. I didn't realize how easy we had had it for the last two months with no fever, line infections or anything but a few sniffles. It's back to reality to a child whose counts are not quite up to par and realizing that he is still sick no matter how well he is doing. It's all about keeping G safe. It's so hard to see him just laying on the couch not wanting to do anything especially when he is so active. I just ask that you all pray for ALL the kids at the Jude and just cherish every day that you have with your kids or loved ones. Thanks for checking in with us and God Bless!
Wednesday, January 12, 2005 7:10 AM CST Hello all! I hope to add some new pictures soon. I just haven't had the time lately. Not much to report this week. It has been a laid back week. G's doing great. His scans were all clear last week so what a blessing that was. We go to pt and speach on thursday. We haven't been able to go since like before Christmas. Bitter cold weather, snow, the holidays...everything adds up. Despite the fact that he hasn't been able to go he keeps improving. He can jump with both feet off the ground he actually loves to dance now. He is doing so many more things than I ever thought he would do. Actually I thought we would never get to see due to the cancer and side effects. He is a true inspiration to me. There are many days I don't feel like getting out of bed (only because he gets up between 3 and 5 times a night) and he just keeps me going. I look so forward to nap time. Garretts so been wanting to go out and ride his horse but the weather is just not cooperating. We are both looking so forward to being able to go outside and go for rides. Yes cabin fever has set in. We got spoiled with the weather last year in Memphis. The high here the next couple of days is 2 degrees. BRRRRRR. Oh well. We are looking forward to out make-a-wish in Florida. I still am not sure when. I am still debating about waiting until his line comes out but I am afraid if I wait to long it will be to late. Anyway G's doing great and hanging in there. Thank you all for your prayers and remember to sign the guest book so G can see whos checking in on him.
Melissa
Thursday, January 6, 2005 5:50 PM CST Back from Memphis with GREAT news!! All CLEAR!!!!!! Everything was great except the fact that the chemo ate away at his teeth and he needs to get extensive dental work done. Oh well thats nothing! Garrett did not get his line out. He needs to have one more clean scan and his platelet count needs to come up however it is week 3 with no platelet transfusion! He is doing so awesome. Everyday he amazes me. He picks up something goofy to say or he experiments with his walking or running or jumping. He is so funny. We were so "glad" to be back to Memphis. Our home away from home. It was so nice to see some of our old friends. All the nurses and doctors were so impressed with the progress that G has made. We were so busy with appointments and stuff that we did not get to call some of our friends and see them but in April we will for sure. Our drive was great. All the bad weather was gone and roads were clear. Thanks for checking in on G and for your prayers. God bless.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004 10:05 AM CST Thank you everyone for checking in on "G" and signing his guest book! Can you believe that it has been 3 weeks since our last platelet transfusion?!?! Yes that's right I said 3 weeks. He finally is over the hump. That gives us reason to celebrate. (like we need a reason) We return to the Jude on monday Jan 3 with scans on the 4th and results on the 5th. We are thinking that we will drive home on the 5th if all goes well. I am trying not to think about the trip. I am going through all the emotions. Anxiety, nervousness, excitment to see all of our friends, most of all scarred to get the results. All we can do at this point is to pray it's in Gods hands.
I am thinking that maby they will take his central line out. G and I will be going to Disney soon after our trip to the Jude. G really wants to swim with dolphins so I hope his wish can come true.
We had an awsome Christmas. My very best friend J.D. got to come home for 4 days from Ft.Dix, NJ. He is stationed there until he goes to Iraq for 12months. It's all about spending it with the people you love. That is why it was so good. We went to moms then to my grandmas. My uncle came home from Minnesota so we had a great time. As usual, G got way to many presents. I will have to add on to my house to make room. Anyway thats about all to report until we get back from the Jude.
Sunday I had gotten a call from my very good friend Ronna. She called to tell me that she was reading the "Star" magazine and wouldn't you know it, G's name was in it. It talked about Andy Roddick (in the above picture) and G's moment a couple of weekends ago. That was cool. Also Richard and Richard from the Lodi WI trailride for St.Judes are coming Saturday to take pics of G to put on the website. The whole thing for us up here is that they raise money for the Jude but didn't know anyone who has gotten treatment there. We are more than happy to help especially for all the Jude has done for us. After all they have given my son back to me even though he only has a 10 hance of survival. That was a year and a half ago. God Bless the Jude. Other than that, G is back to his old self which is an amazing sight something I thought I would never see again. Well, thats all for now. Thanks for checking in and talk to ya later.
God Bless the 890th transportation unit.
Melissa
Tuesday, December 14, 2004 6:49 AM CST Friday December 24th
Merry Christmas everyone!! Garrett is doing very well. Can you imagine, no platelets for 2 weeks. Yes I said 2 weeks!! I never thought I would see this day come. Right now he is holding his own at about 42. We go back to the "Jude" Jan 3-5 and Garrett really wants to get "buddy" out. It would be a miracle but as we know it does happen. We will go to Disney for Garretts make-a-wish in Jan or Feb and "g" really wants to swim with dolphins so we are praying that soon he will get it out. Anyway thats really all to report. My very best friend got to come home for Christmas to spend it with "g" and I before going to Iraq. We are so grateful for this. We want everyone to have a very Merry Christmas and a healthy and Happy New Year!!!
Mel and G
Hello All! WOW did we have a FANTASTIC weekend! We were treated like a king and queen. Where to start? First of all it all started with a phone call from Blanche Roddick, (Andy, the no.2 ranked tennis player in the world-his mom)See Andy has his own foundation called the Andy Roddick foundation,"helping children today for tomorrow" and they were having the big fundraiser for the foundation. (Andy is the reason we got to St.Judes.) Long story short, when Garrett was first diagnosed, Blanche made a few phone calls on a sunday and got us to the Jude. So if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be where we are today. 5 months cancer free. Anyway, Blanche wanted to surprise Andy with Garrett being there and oh what a surprise it was. Andy had met Garrett once and Garrett was not able to walk at that time. So it was going to be a huge deal.
So my mom went with us and when we got to Chicago, the airlines upgraded Garretts and my ticket to first class. That was fun for us country bumkins. Garrett didn't get to enjoy it much because he slept through most of the trip. We arrived to Ft.Lauderdale only to be met by Jerry Roddick and Andys childhood tennis coach Moe. Very nice people. They took us to the Roddick house when they spoiled Garrett rotten. Not like he already is but he deserves it! He got another tennis racket along with some t-shirts and a huge stuffed dog. Oh and we can't forget the canister of tennis balls signed by Andy and a baseball cap signed by Andy. We then went to the hotel and got settled.
The next day we were taken to the beach by the two most polite and wonderful young girls that I have ever met. Heather and Bree. They are sisters and Garrett just loved them. We first went to place (I can't remember the name of it) where they had some snakes, sharks and other marine life. Garrett really enjoyed that. He keeps talking about the sharks. We then went to the beach. Oh my I was in love and did not want to come back home. After all the temps there were in the 70's and this morning, -3. Yes I said -3. BRRRRR. Anyway Garrett built some sand castles with the girls while my mom and I walked the beach searching for the perfect shell (which we did not find) Our pants were soaked. How fun. Then Garrett thought he would get in the fun so I took him for a walk in the water and of course he kept wanting to dive right in. Oops. We were careful not to get "buddy" wet. We did have a couple of close calls though. Thanks Bree and Heather!!
On to the evening. All decked out in our cocktail attire Hayden picked us up and off we went to the fundraiser. We arrived with cameras in Garretts face. That was cool. Then they wisked us off the hide for the big surprise. We then got escorted to the dinner where we were hiding out again making sure for Andy not to see us because he was just a few feet away making his speach. Then it came the big surprise. Andy played a video of some of his other friends and the last picture was of Garrett where it paused. Andys had his hands over his face at that point i'm not sure if he knew what was going on yet but then infront of about 500 guests, Garrett made his big appearance. Wow what a moment. I don't think there was a dry eye in the place. After about 5 mins of talking with Andy Garrett was brought back to the table. We ate, Andy came over to talk some to Garrett and he was so impressed that Garrett was walking. He told a reporter that it was great because he had never seen G walk before. Andy has to take lots of credit for that because if it wasn't for G watching Andy play tennis and wanting to be like Andy, it would have taken longer for G to learn to walk again. Lots of pictures and interviews. After the meal Garrett and I went out to dance with Andy and then the G-man was all tuckered out so went back to the hotel.
The very next day was the "play day" with Andy. They had like a mini carnival type thing. Again Heather and Bree took Garrett to play on some of the inflatable toys. That was fun. A photographer was following Garrett taking pictures. He was a very nice man and I don't remember his name because we met so many people. Thank you. Anyway, we then went to play some tennis for prizes and of course G got a t-shirt. He wanted to play tennis with Andy so bad but Andy was just to swamped with things to do. Understandable. Then we went to the vip tent to eat where we got our picture taken with Mr.Macenroe. Okay so I don't know how to spell his name. Sorry. On our way back to get our seats for the tennis match, we saw Anna and I don't want to totally chop her name up but here it goes, Anna Cornacova. Sorry again. Media everywhere taking G's picture with her. The photographers were yelling "over here look over here" Ya know like you see on the red carpet or something. Anyway, we finally got to our courtside seats to watch a doubles match with Andy which G enjoyed very much. But once again, he got tired. Heck, I was tired. We went back to our hotel to rest up for our plane trip home. Not that any one of us wanted to go back home.
Even our trip home was cool. In the airport we met John Mayer. The singer. I am very impressed with myself because I don't listen to that kind of music often but I actually knew who it was. So G and I got our picture taken with him. Very Very nice man. He was so polite and sincere. Thanks John!
I can't say enough thank yous to everyone who we met and who helped us out. Heather and Bree, Hayden our "driver", Blanche and Jerry Roddick, Moe, Ginger Roddick, the photographers, and most of all Andy Roddick. You all truely made this little boy feel extremely special. In more ways than one. Thanks a million.
Monday, November 29, 2004 6:36 PM CST Today is Wednesday Dec, 8 2004
As our "surprise" gets closer Garrett is ready to go and see our well more his friend. Well as much as a friend that you can be with a 22yr. old and a 3 1/2 year old. Our plane leaves on Friday and we come back on Monday. We are so looking forward to this as we all need a break. Especially with the seperation and all. Can you believe that Garrett has gone 2 weeks and he just now needs platelets. Yeah. All for now and we will let you know how the surprise goes.
Hello all. Not much to report. Same old stuff. Platelets once a week. Still no blood since October. Thats a blessing. We return to St.Judes Jan 3-5. I am very nervous. Next weekend Dec 10 Garrett and my mom and myself are going to go away for the weekend to surprise a family friend with Garrett. I will fill ya in more when we get back because I don't want to ruin the surprise but it will be good. Promise to take lots of pictures. Speaking of pictures, check out the new ones.
Please continue to pray for all of our friends from St.Judes as well as all of our friends from the 890th. They are headed over seas. Thats been very difficult for Garrett and I because my very best friend of 9 years is headed over and it scares me to death. Garrett and I are very very close to him so take care J.D. Come home to us safe. He will spend about a year and a half there. Please pray for all of the families that are left behind. God Bless.
Melissa and Garrett
Wednesday, November 24, 2004 7:01 AM CST Hello! I got this poem from another caringbridge website and I wanted to share it with you because it moved me.
The medals on our chests
are porta-caths for meds
Helmets won't stay on
cause no hair is on our heads
Our weapons of destruction
we take every day
We fight the battle within us
While we struggle on to play
we fight with honor and courage
No marine could do as well
We are only little children
Living in this hell
So bring on the medals
The purple hearts of wars
The gold cross, The silver star
To place upon our scars
For we are the children of cancer
No one has fought so hard
But everyday we struggle on
our life is our reward!
---Cheryl Jangannathen
Wow. That pretty much sums up what hereo we all have in our children.
Garrett is doing well. Still getting platelets. No blood since Oct. That is a great thing. The platelets still concern me. They are not getting any better but they are not getting any worse. So we will deal with that and just be thankful that it's not worse.
Garretts doctor told us that Garretts line could come out in our next visit in Jan if his counts come up. It looks like that will pretty much take a miracle for that to happen. I was really looking forward to the line coming out because we will be going to Disney for Garretts make-a-wish and when we were down there Garrett really really wants to swim with the dolphins. But with his line in that is not going to happen and I am not willing to risk infection.
I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and happy Christmas shopping. We have a ton of things to be thankful for this year. That goes without saying!
I also ask for you to keep praying for Garrett and all of our friends at St.Judes. Below are some web pages of our friends that could really use some prayers. Thanks! In Love Melissa
www.caringbridge.org/ga/jay
www.caringbridge.org/oh/ryan
www.caringbridge.org/fl/easton
www.caringbridge.org/la/carsonbraun
www.bens-story.com
Wednesday, November 24, 2004 6:41 AM CST Hello everyone! This week is going good. We are having problems working out our therapy appointments but that will get better. Next week Garrett goes to Madison for pentamadine again. Platelets are still a concern with me it's not getting better but on the plus it's not getting any worse.
Garretts doctor told us that if his counts all come up that he could get his line out on our next vistit. I was really looking forward to this. We are going to Disney for Garretts make-a-wish and Garrett really wants to swim with dolphins but I am also not willing to risk an infection in his line either. It will all work out. It always does.
Jeremy is doing good. Still waiting for the kidney transplant. He goes to dialysis 3 days a week for 4 1/2 hours a day. I couldn't be hooked up to a machine that long. That would drive me nuts and believe me these days it's not a far drive at all.
Please continue to pray for Garrett and all of out friends at St.Judes. Here are some web sites of some of our friends that could really use your prayers. Please remember to sign Garretts guestbook. He love for me to read them to him. In love, Melissa
www.caringbridge.org/oh/ryan
www.caringbridge.org/fl/easton
www.caringbridge.org/la/carsonbraun
www.caringbridge.org/ga/jay
Thursday, November 18, 2004 6:56 PM CST Hello all! So far we have had a great week. Garrett and Jeremy are at the hospital getting platelets tonight so I thought I would do a quick updat. The weather here has been great. A little rainy but at least it's not cold. Garrett went out last week and wanted to ride his horse so I threw him on bareback and he did so awsome! His therapist Pam says that is the best therapy. Garrett had a major acompishment this week. He started walking on his tippy toes. He has not done that in about a year and a half. Still getting platelets every 7-10 days. Hopefully it will get better. Garretts wish was approved so now we just have to figure out when we want to do it.
Tues. night Garrett and I went to the Badgers basketball game. They played my hometown UW Platteville. Coach Bo Ryan coached at Platteville for 15 years and this was the first time they have every played each other. Thanks Coach Combs!! A man from Madison donated the tickets to Garrett and I because he could not go. We had a blast! It was a little noisy for Garrett at first but then he used to the noise. Well they are home so talk to you all later and please sign the quest book Garrett love for me to read them to him!
Melissa and Garrett
Wednesday, November 10, 2004 2:36 PM CST Hello all! All is great. Garrett continues to do great! He had physical therapy and speach therapy yesterday. He did great. Pam (his physical therapist) and Garrett get along so well. She has horses so Garrett and Pam talk "shop." As much as you can with a 3yo. He saw his new speach therapist also and he didn't really take to her but I am sure after they get to know each other they will do just fine. He continues to eat, eat, eat!
Please continue to pray for all the kids at St.Judes especially little Ben Bowen. www.bens-story.com. His parents Tom and Jennifer got some bad news. This weekend they are at Disney so Ben can see "MICK-MEE"
Once again Garrett is ready to go, go, go. Now he wants to go out and brush off his new horse Flame. The weather has been great. Especially for Wisconsin. Today it is supposed to get up to 60 and then rain and snow tonight. For once in my life I can't wait until it snows so I can take Garrett out sledding. He can't wait for that either. Last year when we were home for x-mas his counts were down to low to go out and play. We will make up for it this year.
I also want to say "thank you" to Mac and Claire Winker owners of the Memphis Raquet Club. Claire is in the process of writing and article on Garrett for the tennis tournament in Feb and the article looks wonderful and I can't wait to see it.
Well it's off to go brush Flame so we will write to you all soon.
Melissa and Garrett
Friday, November 5, 2004 1:01 PM CST Hello! Garrett had a great week. He is finally eating. Now he is eating everything in sight which is a great thing. We went to UW hospital to get pentamidine on Tuesday and that went fine. We go again in 4 weeks. He counts are constantly on the rise. This week he went 10 days without platelets. Thats the longest since May. Blood he still hasn't needed blood for about 4 weeks and now I probably jinxed us. The temperature here is up and down. Garrett loves to play outside and he finally got to go out the other day. We live in the country and it has been so windy so I don't let him go out to much if the temp. is not up. He is finally going to get back on track with all his therapys. He hasn't had speach for about 4 weeks and pysical therapy for 2 weeks because both of his therapists took new jobs and it is taking them forever to get someone new in. But next week he goes on Tues. which he will love because he needs it and he likes it. I just hope that he will like the new therapist. He usually takes to people good especially if it has to do with playing. Well, Garrett is taking a nap so I am going to say goodby for now so I can go workout. Something that I very much need.
Melissa and Garrett
Friday, October 29, 2004 10:59 AM CDT All is going oaky. Garrett had a rough week. We all got the flu shot last friday and he had gotten pretty sick. His weight is down drastically. He had to go back on periactin to increase his appetite. So far it is slowly working. His appetite is up but no weight gain as of yet. He had lost a bit of weight when we first got home so he did not have anything to fall back on when he got sick. Other than that he is active. Wanting to play all the time and go to nanas house. Platelets are about one week to week in a half. Blood, thats the great news...he has not had a transfusion for 3 weeks. YEAH!!!! That is a major acomplishment. Garrett is exceited for trick-or-treating. He is going to be the blue power ranger. He walks around the house practicing saying trick or treat. He had a blast carving his pumpkin. We are going shopping in a few minitues and he wants to go now! I swear he comes by that naturally!
In Love, Melissa and Garrett
P.S. Please pray for all of our friends at St.Judes!
Friday, October 22, 2004 3:03 PM CDT Hello all! Everything is going well. Yesterday we had our pictures taken. It went well. Better than I expected especially with the dogs and all. Garrett is so pumped because his hair is growing back! Garrett and I carved his pumpkin for halloween yesterday. It was fun. Other thank that we just go to therapy twice a week and are still getting platelets and blood once a week. However it is getting better with the platelets. Once a week is better than every other day. Garrett is going to be in a tennis magazine for the tennis tournament in Memphis in Feb. to benefit St.Judes. Mac and Clare Winker are the owners of the raquet club in Memphis and they are who made that phone call to get Garrett to St.Judes. Thats going to be fun. Hopefully we will get to be there again this year and see our friend Andy Roddick. That is all the fun we have ben having. Garrett is just waiting to ge trick or treating. He asks every day at least 5 times a day about going. Thats a 3 yr old for ya. TTFN
Melissa and Garrett
Thanks everyone for keeping us in your prayers and remember to pray for all our friends at St.Judes.
Saturday, October 16, 2004 3:56 PM CDT Hello! All is good. Garrett got his braces taken down a bit so he does not have so much support. I wish they could have done more but at least they took some off. He gets around just fine without them so he is hardly in them anyway. Jeremy (Garretts dad) found out that something is wrong with his bloodwork. He has to talk to the doctor yet but the nurses at dialysis think his goodpasture disease is back. We are not sure what will happen next. As most of you know he is on the kidney transplant waiting list and goes to dialysis 3 times a week for 4 1/2 hours a time. We are not sure what it will mean if his disease is back since it is a rare disease and it attacks your kidneys and lungs and well, his kidneys are bad. He may have to go back on chemo himself. Hopefully it will be nothing. I also got news that my best friend in the whole world (J.D.) will be going over seas to serve our country. He will be leaving soon. So we just ask for all your prayers for J.D. and for Jeremy and as always for My little hero Garrett. The wish granters came and it looks like Disney for us. We won't go until after the holidays. It will be a great start to the new year. Today Garrett got a new horse "flame". She is 21 years old. His physical therapist thought it would be a good idea for garrett to ride alot and since his first horse "dallas" is a bit to much for him right now I thought it would be good to get a little older more matture very quiet horse. He took a ride on her today bareback and he did a great job riding her all by himself so I think that by next summer he will graduate back to Dallas. Shante (new puppy) is doing great. She has doubled in size since we got her. So all is going good and we hope and pray that it keeps getting better. Please pray for all our friends at St.Judes.
love Garrett and Melissa
Wednesday, October 13, 2004 2:21 PM CDT All is well. We just found out today that his Pam (Garretts physical therapist) is going to take a new job. Garrett absolutley loves her. So she thinks she is going to keep like 6 hrs a week doing pt. We hope so. We found out 2 weeks ago that his new speach therapist took a new job so we have to start over and find a new speach therapist. Oh well. When we were back at St.Judes Garretts therapist there did not think that he was ready to come out of his braces or even take them down but both myself and Pam think that it is time. So tomorrow we will make another trip to get them taken down so he relys more on his ankles and he has less support. I think that in a month or two he will be totally out of them. That is a major accomplishmnet for the little man. Shante is getting big. She had a check up yesterday and she has doubled in size. She is now 25 lbs. Garrett is not to far ahead of her. He comes in at 32lbs. The thing is he eats and eats. But being home he is so much more active. Tomorrow the wish granters come for Garretts wish. No clue where we will go. He loves the rodeo so maby the NFR or the famous Disney. Who knows. (Of course I am thinking of a nice warm secluded beach somewhere with oh maby Kenny Chesney or Keith Urban as my "go-for" boys.) Keep ya updated on where Garrett picks. Ta Ta for now!
Love Melissa and Garrett
Friday, October 8, 2004 1:59 PM CDT Hello!! Great results from Garretts MRI. ALL CLEAR!!!
We couldn't ask for better that is for sure. Our next visit is in 3 months. We just got home yesterday so not much going on except rest. Catch you all later!!!
Melissa and Garrett
Sunday, October 3, 2004 7:04 PM CDT Hello all!! Garrett had a great weekend. It was our little towns cheesefest. On the main drag they had some vendors and pony rides. Of course my favorite, cotton candy. Garrett had a great time riding the ponys. Of course it is always better when you are on someone elses. Anyway it proved to be to much as when he awoke from his much needed nap he got very sick. The friendship fund had an auction for Garrett last night. It was nice to see how the wealthy spend money. Anyway it is back to Memphis mon. Pray that all goes well.
Melissa
Friday, September 24, 2004 11:44 AM CDT Hello everyone. Garrett is doing great. He has to get platelets today. (go figure) He does not want to go but on the up side, one of my friends just had a baby girl. We are going to visit her first. He is looking forward to that. All is going well. His counts are finally going up. He is still as skinny as every and growing very tall. His big thing right now are carmel apples. The boy loves them. Well, bye for now
Melissa and Garrett
Thursday, September 16, 2004 4:41 PM CDT Hello everyone!! I am so sorry to all those whom I told I would update the website like 3 weeks ago. My computer crashed and we had to switch internet providers. Which is hard when you live in the rural midwest. Anyway, we made it home and it was so great to be home. The first thing I did was mow the lawn. I couldn't wait. The first thing Garrett did was of course ride his horse. He has been going to therapy once a week and getting blood and platlets about once a week. Things have been so crazy!! To all of you who have not heard the good news, Garretts cancer is gone!! Happy day. Garrett got a new puppy and he named her Shante after one of his favorite nurses from St.Judes. I had to put my cat that was 17 years old down so it was time. I just hated to do it so soon after we got home but thats the way it goes!! I promise everyone that I will update the site more!!! XXXOOOO
MELISSA AND GARRETT
Saturday, March 13, 2004 3:26 PM CST Hello Everyone!!
Garrett is doing very well. He finished with his first treatment of ICE. We go back march 15-22. Our last stay in Memphis was busy. We finally got to meet Andy Roddick, and watch a few tennis matches. Garrett got his picture in the Memphis paper. A nice article of how Andy played a role in getting to St.Judes so fast. We re-scan April 7 to see what the cancer is doing. Keep praying. Also if I could ask you to send out a prayer for a young boy by the name of Matthew Sens. He is Garretts age and is loosing his battle with the same disease that Garrett has. He has about 2 months left. Thank You!!
Melissa
Wednesday, February 25, 2004 12:03 AM CST Hello everyone!! I have not been able to update you all to much. Sorry!! Some of Garretts cancer came back in his head but only a small small amount. His back continues to get better. We are doing a different type of chemo now with 4 days now and in 3 weeks, 4 more days. After that is done we will re-scan and see if he is improving. If he is then it's high dose chemo with stem cell transplant otherwise it is going to be trying yet again another kind of chemo. They will not do radiation until about 3 1/2 yrs old. He will be 3 in april on the 16th. Right now we are in the ronald mcdonald house. We should be back at the target house by the end of the week. Keep praying and he will get through this.
Melissa
Monday, December 29, 2003 11:56 AM CST HELLO!!!!
WE ARE BACK AT ST.JUDES GETTING CHEMO. GARRETT IS DOING WONDERFUL. WE SHOULD BE BACK HOME BY THE WEEKEND FOR APPROX. ONE MONTH WITH ONE TRIP BACK FOR A DAY TO START ORAL CHEMO AND TO GET HIS IT INJECTION. WE HAD A GREAT CHRISTMAS. HOPE YOU ALL DID AS WELL. CAN'T WAIT TO SEE EVERYONE AT GARRETTS BENEFIT!!!!
MELISSA
Friday, December 5, 2003 7:40 PM CST Hello all!!! We had or Garrett had his MRI yesterday and we haven't talked into detail with the doctor but...........
"THINGS LOOK BETTER" that is what she said. Thank GOD and everyone for your prayers and support. He IS on his way to getting better. Right now he is starting his second 10 weeks if chemo. He is in the hospital for 4 days of chemo. Then in 4 weeks he comes back for 4 days, then oral with weekly injections in his main line and 3 injections in his back. Anyway, we will get to come home for 3-4 weeks in Jan. If anyone would like to help out with the benefit for Garrett, Please contact Mandy Barltles 763-2245 or Tammy Feyen 348-3156. It is set for Jan 30 at the Elks.
Thank you sooo much Karen and Richard Heer for the purification system. Tell Charlie and mike sorry for the smell. When we got home I found that teegra was not doing what she was supposed to . It's all under control now....
Thanks again for all your support!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MELISSA, JEREMY AND GARRETT
Wednesday, November 19, 2003 10:06 AM CST HELLO!!! GARRETT IS DOING WONDERFUL!!!!
CAN'T WAIT TO COME HOME FOR A VISIT NEXT WEEK. THE BENEFIT IS KINDA SET FOR JAN.31 2004. CONTACT MANDY (MAGBY)BARTELS AT 608-763-2245 OR TAMMY WALL-FEYEN AT CHIROPRACTIC ASSOCIATES 608-348-3156. IF YOU WISH TO DONATE OR HELP IN ANY WAY JUST LET ONE OF THEM KNOW. I DO KNOW THAT THE D.J. IS ALREADY LINED UP. THANKS FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT IT'S WORKING.
MELISSSA
Sunday, October 26, 2003 10:47 AM CST Hello!!! We finally get to go back to the target house 2. Two weeks in the hospital is enough for me as well as Garrett. He is doing well. If you look at the past journal entries, you can see that we have had quite a time. On friday his anc count(white blood count) was very low at 1000. Today when they checked it,it is at 15,0000. That is a dramatic change. The nurse said she had never seen anything like it before. But than again our whole ordeal with this has not been "normal" His anc level will continue to drop to 0. That is when he is more likely to get an infection. So far all is well. Your thoughts and prayers are being heard. I feel that there was a reason that his anc level had dropped and he did not have the surgery. Keep praying and don't forget about us. Our new address is somewhere in the past journal entries. Garrett really LOVES to get mail!!!!!
Melissa
Friday, October 24, 2003 7:05 PM CDT Hello Again!!!
It's friday night and Garrett is sleeping. He was supposed to have surgery today to get rid of the fluid that has been building up but.... His anc (white blood count) levels have dropped dramatically. That is to be expected durring chemo. Usually they do not drop this fast but considering the fact that he is just getting over a major infection thats to be expected. So if he were to get another infection, he could not fight it. We are going to let his body heal first. They will go in and do the surgery in a couple of weeks then after he has healed from that, (about 2-3 more weeks) they will put the ommaya back in and start the injections in his head and back. GOOD NEWS...... he had an mri last wed at the other hospital before they took out the ommaya and Dr.Fouladi said that it looks better than his last one. So the chemo is working. Yeah!!!!! Go Garrett!! Finally some GREAT NEWS!!!
Melissa
Tuesday, October 21, 2003 2:23 PM CDT Hello Friends!!!!
Garrett had his ct scan on monday and the fluid in his brain is still there. It has not gotten any worse or better so they are not going to do any mafasfamide injections in his spine. He is starting his second go of chemo today. I am thinking that we will get out of the hospital friday. Only if he will be done with his antibiotics. If he is not done with those then we will get out sunday. He needs to get out. He has been in for 2 weeks and we are all going stir crazy. Garrett got a package in the mail mon. from the Miskeys. Go Packers. Garrett loved the hat and football. I took pictures and will be sending them. Once again thanks for all your prayers and support!!!
MEl
Saturday, October 18, 2003 2:35 PM CDT hello everyone!!!! Sorry it has been so long since we have been able to update everyone. We have had a rocky road this last week. Everything was going well until.....
There was a fire in the appartment next to ours 2 weeks ago so they had to evacuate the whole building. We got moved to the mariot hotel. Then my graceful mother went and fell on some transmission fluid or some kind of fluid in the parking garage and badly sprained her wrist and hurt her back and shoulder. On Sunday Garrett started leaking spinal fluid out of his ommaya. His ommaya is in the top of his head which has a "tube" that goes into his braid to allow them to inject chemo directly into his brain area. The doctors stitched it up so it stopped leaking. But in the mean time because it leaked spinal fulid, he got a staph infection in the fluid. On wed. they went in and took out the ommaya. He is recovering well back at St.Judes. He also has more subdural fluid collecting in his brain. The doctors are going to address that when they know his infection is gone. They might have to put in a temporary shunt in to get rid of the pressure. He will start his second dose of chemo on wed. or after. His lp injections will depend on the fluid in his head. Of course his chemo injections have stopped in his head because the ommaya had to be taken out. Hopefully he will be able to get the ommaya back in, in the next 10 weeks of chemo. we are now at the hospital for about 2 weeks and at the target house 2. Oh yeah, we got moved from the mariot back to the target house 2. The address is the same:
Garrett Starr
Target House 2
1811 poplar
Memphis, Tn.
Thank you for all your support and prayers!!!!
Melissa,Garrett,Linda and Jeremy
Sunday, October 12, 2003 9:06 AM CDT Hello everyone. We have had to move to Target House II and our phone number is 901-545-0110 room #218 Garrett is handling his treatments well and is in good spirits. We thank everyone again for all their prayers-calls-cards-and calls. The support helps more than we can explain. We will keep you updated of any changes as they happen. Again thank you. Mellissa and Linda (Dad and grandpa had to go home)
Sunday, September 28, 2003 2:38 PM CDT HELLO EVERYONE!!! IT'S MELIISSA SIGNING IN. ALL IS WELL. GARRETT STARTED CHEMO FRIDAY AND IS DOING OKAY. HE GOT SICK LAST NIGHT AND TODAY. HE FINISHES HIS LAST DOSE OF THIS HOSPITAL STAY TONIGHT. WE WILL HOPEFULLY BE DISCHARGED FROM THE HOSPITAL TUES. OR WED. HE STILL WILL GET INJECTIONS IN HIS HEAD AND SPINE TWO TIMES A WEEK AND ONCE A WEEK HE WILL GET A 6 HR DRIP OF CHEMO. AS YOU SAW ON THE PREVIOUS PAGE WE ARE AT THE TARGET HOUSE ONE. KEEP US IN YOUR PRAYERS AND THANK YOU FOR SUPPORT AND PRAYERS.
MELISSA AND GARRETT
LINDA(NANA) AND JEREMY TOO.
Saturday, September 27, 2003 7:58 AM CDT hello everyone this is the latest news from st. judes. garrett had surgery thursday forinstalling the lines for chemo and the resevoir in his head to be able to use this other new drug. all went well he will start chemo on friday. they are now staying at target house. their address is. garrett starr room 304 1811 poplar ave. 38104 thank you for all your prayers and everything you people are doing and have done. the support means a lot. i will try to keep updates as often as i hear them. carl.
Sunday, September 14, 2003 8:20 PM CDT Melissa got word today that Garrett was accepted into St. Judes hospital in Memphis, Tenn. They will be flying down there on Monday or Tuesday. The doctors that she talked to were very encourging and things sound promising. Carl and I will be driving down there after they get on the plane. Thanks for all the messages and prayers but dont stop praying.
Friday, September 12, 2003 9:30 AM CDT The news is not good. Garrett's cancer has gone to entire spinal colom. The doctors give him a 20% chance. They want to do heavy doses of chemo along with stem cell transplants. If that doesn't work then nothing will. We are actually looking at a clinic in Mexico that has cured cancer. A good friends mom went there and she was cured of her cancer. We are still looking into it. Otherwise he goes in monday to get a central line and start chemo on tues.
Sunday, September 7, 2003 3:24 PM CDT Hello everyone!!! I look so forward to reading your "little notes!" Garrett is so glad to be home. He is not yet strong enough to walk on his own but he sure gets around great. We go to dubuque mon. and wed. for physical therapy and occupational therapy. Thursday we go back to madison for MRI and spinal tap. On friday or saturday he gets a central line for chemo. I am not sure what the plan is if we will get to come home for the weekend or if we will have to stay and they will do the chemo right away. He will stay in madison for 3 to 4 days while he gets the chemo. Thanks for all the support and keep praying.
Friday, September 5, 2003 5:17 PM CDT garrett and family returned home friday 5 sept. will be going back wed. for mri and spinal tap. seems to be doing o.k. thanks for all well wishes and prayers.
Wednesday, September 3, 2003 8:47 AM CDT Hello!!! Garrett has made a great deal of progress. He got his shunt removed last night at 7:00 p.m. He will get out of picu today and moved to a regular room. He starts physical therapy also. The doctors are saying that we should be home in a few days. His MRI and spinal tap are set for next thursday. We will know that day if it has spread into his spine. Keep praying for him. Thanks again for everyones support!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, September 1, 2003 12:03 AM CDT hello everyone!! thank you so much for all your support. Garrett is doing wonderful. He is feeding himself and drinking all on his own. Dr.Iskinbar(sp?) said that he will get the shunt and his turbin off tomarrow. He gets his iv out today. After he gets his shunt out he will be moved to a regular room either tues. or wed. It sounds like he will not have to be here much longer because the dr. said that we can come back to get the mri and spinal tap. So it's just a wainting game right now. Again I can't begin to thank everyone enough!!!
Sunday, August 31, 2003 9:22 PM CDT it's sunday (i think) everything is going so good. Garrett got his breathing tube and resperator out on sat evening about 10:00pm. He is talking and as sassy as ever!! he has been eating mac and cheese and mashed potatoes and drinking just fine. he will hopefully get his shunt out either monday or tues. we have to wait 10-14 days to do an mri and spinal tap of his spine to see if the cancer has spread. his tumor was totally removed 100%!!!!!!!!!
his tumor is called mudulloblastoma. so far so good. just keep praying for him and we will be back home in no time. he will need chemo and radiation. as to how much we do not know because we have to see if it has spread.
Friday August 29th, 5:00pm Garrett went into Surgery at 8:00 a.m.
Every couple hours doctors checked in and said he was doing alright
At 5:00, news came that the brain tumor he has is cancer
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