Little Scare

Sunday night we got to go to Legoland and the Aquarium at the Grapevine Mills mall.  It was sponsored by the American Cancer Society, so we had the place to ourselves.  The boys had a really great time.

Then, to add to our "lasts", we thought we were going to have a last ER visit this week too.  Monday morning Grant woke up vomiting.  He was sick all morning, but never ran fever.  Of course, after 5:00, he began to run a fever.  It got up over the "magic" 101 degrees about 8:30, so we decided to go ahead and call the doctor.  For the first time ever, he told us to give him Tylenol and see if that brings the fever down.  If it didn't, or if the fever came back, then we would have to take him in.  Also, Grant takes the most chemo on Monday nights.  The doctor said we could hold his doses for that night to see if that would help his body recover.  By 12:30, the fever was gone and Grant was sleeping soundly.  No ER visit needed.  Praise God!  Grant resumed his chemo on Tuesday and we are back to the countdown......4 more days.
He is so excited to be finished.  I have heard him tell more than one stranger that he is almost finished with his chemo.  Please come celebrate with us at the Cats game!

It's the LAST.....

We are celebrating lots of "lasts" this month.  This was Grant's LAST chemo infusion at the clinic.  He has completed his LAST week of steroids.  Now, we are just counting down to his LAST dose of oral chemo on Aug. 20th.  Then, Grant is officially finished with treatment.  A day we all thought would never come and now it's so close!  Grant is so excited and we are all excited for him.  I look forward to seeing how good he is going to feel without all that medication in his system.  Good times ahead....

Looking forward:  Grant will continue to go to the clinic for a blood check every 4 weeks for the first year.  Each year after that, he will go less and less.  However, he will continue to see an oncologist regularly for the rest of his life.  He will have to take his Bactrim (antibiotic) for 6 months after completing treatment to allow his immune system to recover.  We will leave his port in his chest for a few months and then he will have surgery to remove it.

Thank you all so much for your prayers throughout this entire journey.  Please continue to pray for Grant as he finishes treatment and adjusts to his new "normal".  

Also, don't forget to get your tickets to the Cats game for Aug. 26th.  We hope to see you all there to celebrate with Grant!

We are celebrating....

GRANT'S END OF TREATMENT!  Woo hoo!  Please join us for a Ft. Worth Cats game on Aug. 26th to celebrate "no more chemo".  The game is at 6:05 p.m. at LaGrave Field (301 NE 6th Street, FW, TX 76164).  We have reserved a block of tickets.  If you would like to join us, you need to call 817.332.CATS to purchase your tickets.  You just need to mention Grant when you order so you will be seated in our section.  The tickets are $5/person and $5 for parking.  We are so excited for Grant and look forward to everyone coming out to celebrate with us!  Hope to see you there!

We are proud of you, say we are proud of you!

This is a picture of Grant at the clinic about to be poked.  Can you tell?  Wow, how far we have come.  The picture above that is of Grant's team winning the championship game after Grant's walk-off triple the day after the clinic visit.  This is one tough kid (that loves baseball).  

Grant's clinic visits have been more of the same.  His counts remain high.  Dr. Heym says we aren't giving up on reaching that optimum range, so he continues to raise his chemo doses.  Grant seems to be handling it fine.  Now for the best news of all:  Grant only has one more month of chemo!  He has one more clinic visit on July 30th for his last dose of chemo there.  He will take his at-home chemo until Aug. 20th and then..........., that's it!  No more chemo!  I can't believe it is so close.  

Grant is ready to stop taking medicine every day.  But, he can't remember his life without it.  I am so excited and scared all in the same thought.  God has been so faithful through this entire process and I know he is still holding Grant right in the palm of His hand.  

Love this boy!!!

Waaay Overdue Update

Grant has been doing great!  We are counting down days until he will be finished with chemo.  After he got out of the hospital, his counts bounced back up and stayed up.  So guess what...they raised his chemos steadily back up.  On his March 19th visit, his counts were actually in the 750-1500 range we've been searching for all this time.  But, it didn't last long.  His counts have been back up since then.  They were really high at his last visit, but Dr. Heym left his chemos alone.  He will have his LAST spinal tap on June 4th and Dr. Heym said he would reevaluate chemo doses then.
You can tell from the lack of updates, we have had a lot going on.  So thankfully, Grant is feeling well.  These are a few pictures of what's been happenin'....

Mother's Day

Grant's Birthday

Happy Easter

Cori Grace

They're baaaack!

Grant went to the clinic today for a regular visit. His ANC was 2690! I guess the boost they gave him worked. Dr. Heym said that by this time that was an accurate number and his bone marrow was working the way it needed too. Otherwise, the GCSF shot would have worked temporarily but then they would be back down. So today he got chemo in his port, a spinal tap, and he will begin steroids and restart oral chemo tonight. We are back on track for now. Although, his oral chemo will start back at half doses. He will go back to the clinic in 2 weeks to reevaluate. Also, Dr. Heym told him he could return to school tomorrow. Yeah! He was happy about that, especially since Spring Break is next week. He really wants to thank his class for the Get Well card. I just can't say enough how proud I am of him and how strong and brave he is. God is good and faithful and Grant trusts in that. Thank you for all your prayers!

Power of Persuasion

WE ARE HOME! However, Grant's ANC is 0. It was 25 yesterday and Dr. Heym told us he was tired of seeing Grant in the hospital, so if it was anything but 0, he could go home today. The nurses would not look at me this morning when they told me that it was 0. Unbelievable!

When Dr. Heym came in, I told him he had to send us home. I couldn't stay there another day. They had stopped his fluids and antibiotics. And they were only taking his vitals every 8 hours. I promised to take his temperature every 8 hours if he would just send us home. He ended up giving him a dose of some kind of growth hormone that is used in treating other types of cancers to help boost his ANC. All of his other counts had recovered. So, he is basically homebound (way better than hospital bound) and is still at a VERY HIGH risk for infection. If he gets any kind of fever, we have to call and go back in. Please pray for protection and that his body can recover and fight off anything it needs to. So happy to be home!

He will go to clinic for his regularly scheduled visit on Monday and this one happens to be a spinal tap. He will still get the spinal, Vincristine, and start steroids regardless of his counts.

This is a picture of him putting the beads from his hospital stay on his Beads of Courage necklace. Each color or type of bead represents a part of his treatment.