A visit to Goddard

Last year, when we were in the middle of Alan's treatment, our little friends Jaz and Emily's preschool gave us a big hand by making us the beneficiary of their preschool prom and sponsoring a fundraiser at Baskin Robbins for us. The prom was a big event - there were even TV and newspaper reporters there! As Alan's treatment progressed, they even helped out with Kevin from time to time.

Now that Alan is done with treatment and is looking and feeling so much better than he did last spring, we wanted to visit the school so they could see how well he was doing. We brought a bucket of lollipops and little thank you cards for all the kids and a great big thank you card for Miss Julie, the owner.

Julie, Tiffany and Marissa were so happy to see how active Alan was. He was running around the halls exploring this wonderful new place. We dropped into the room where Kevin sometimes stayed. Alan was fascinated with all the big kids, and after a short time sitting for a story, he was off again. We have a lot of thank you's to catch up on and it was nice to share our happiness with people who had given us their support.


Alan explores the halls of The Goddard School


Alan (completely distracted with a new toy) with Miss Tiffany, Miss Marissa and Miss Julie


Alan is fascinated with a magnifying glass


Alan pauses momentarily for story time

Office visit 2/24

02/24 09:40
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Doc P was very happy with Alan's counts and amused to hear his "Yee ha!" when I sang the opening bars of "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain". Since Alan is still hardly eating any real food (keeping to Chocolate Pediasure and crunchy snacks), we were wondering if we should do anything to force the issue. Doc P said to concentrate on keeping his nutrition up for now - one battle at a time.

Since Doc P had given us the go-ahead to enroll Alan in a Mom's Day Out program, we have registered him in a Summer Fun program with his big brother and starting in the fall, he will be off to play with little friends twice a week. As luck would have it, they also had a half day spot opening up in March for the rest of this school year, so Alan will have a few hours a week to get used to being around other kids his age. Because of the chemotherapy, Alan has been so isolated. I asked about immunizations since Alan has not had any since his one-year well visit (he was diagnosed shortly before his 18-month well visit). Kevin had to put off his chicken pox vaccine because of Alan's vulnerability. Kevin is cleared back onto the regular schedule, but Alan will not be receiving any shots until 18 months after he finished chemotherapy. Doc P has written a note for us so he can get a medical exemption from the school. We are so happy that he will finally be able to make some little friends of his own.

We have an MRI scheduled for March 12, so we won't be having another office visit until afterward. Doc P seems to be weaning us in terms of visit frequency. Going from twice a week (or more) to every two weeks, and now a month! What will we do with ourselves!


Alan tackling the jungle gym at McDonald's


Now that his hair is growing back in, Alan decides he needs TWO hairbrushes!

Office visit 2/10

02/10 09:15
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A two week followup with Doc A. His numbers look good and Doc P is happy with how active Alan looks. We're looking at an MRI at the end of March - three months from his last MRI just after Christmas. We'll try to book this one first thing in the morning so Alan won't have to go NPO for too long.


Alan enjoys a long-awaited day of sunshine in his Team Canada gear

Office visit 2/3 Post-Surgical Followup

We went to see Doc R today. This is the first time we've seen him since the morning of the surgery and the first time he's seen Alan up and about since his partners had done the check-ups in the hospital. Even though Alan had ripped off all the Steri Strips during the first week out of the hospital, the doc was pleased with how the incision was healing. A few of the stitches were working their way up through the skin, but he said that wasn't unusual - in young kids with thinner skin, the stitches sometimes surface before they dissolve. We just have to scrub well during bath time.

The whole family has been sick since Doc P told us we were off the hook from further treatment. We haven't really absorbed the full impact of the news yet. We'll be meeting with ECI tomorrow to get Alan on a schedule for therapy, and we will slowly be starting to live something of a normal life!