3-28-11 Bear Down

Cole is back in Chemo this weekend.  He went in on Wednesday night and Chemo started on Thursday.  He had a little problem with nausea on Thursday, but since then he has been doing very well.  He does not have a monster appetite, but he has eaten some.  He even ate some of the leftover taco meat that I had brought for me to eat for dinner.  His spirits are high, and he is blissfully unaware that Uncle Chris and his cousins Jackson and Sophia are going to be visiting all next week, and will be in town on Sunday.  It is a secret so don’t tell him.  When he comes home from the hospital, they will be waiting for him. 

We got the test results back from his MIBG, MRI, CT, and Bone Marrow tests.  I was initially told that the tests showed no disease, and that the tumor was gone.  While looking back there was an obvious miscommunication, at the time I thought that we had been given a miracle.  Unfortunately, but now obviously, that was not the case.  That being said; however, the tests were very encouraging.  The tumor itself has decreased from 6X6 (cm?, m?, km?, fathoms?) to 4X4.  Also the MIBG tests showed no disease in the bone marrow.  The bone marrow aspiration test showed no disease at the more than molecular level (is there a word for that?  If not, I will dub the term supramolceluar).  At the molecular level, there was still a very small (test result used the word rare) number of disease cells.  All of this together means that Cole’s body is responding to Chemo exactly how we want it to.  Hopefully we will stay on this path, and beat this bastard.

We have been doing well at home, and have settled into a routine where Cole’s treatment is just part of the routine.  Logan is having fun in school, and recently made the best rainbow in his class.  I know it is early but he definitely shows promise as a rainbow engineer.  There is good money in that field…not everybody knows that.

We have used up all of the gift card money that my work gave me (thank you all for that by the way), but fortunately so many of you have been so generous with donations and dinners, and other forms of help that we are still doing ok.  The goal is to get to the summer, and then go from there.

For all of those who are interested, Julia is hosting a happy hour birthday party for her/fundraiser for Cole on Tuesday at a bar in SF.  We have a flyer going around, and if you bring in the flyer a portion of your tab will go towards the Cole fund.  There will also be a raffle of some of the most awesome raffle items I have seen in my long and distinguished career thus far.  Julia posted the flyer on her facebook, and I will post on mine.  If you are not on facebook, send Julia or me an email and we can get one to you. 

Cole has asked me to re-post his birthday wish list.  Again I caution you that this list has neither been approved nor edited by Mom, but here it is:

Ipad, Ipod touch, Iphone, ITunes credit
Spongebob Stuff (slippers)
Art supplies (paper, crayons, etc)
Jeans
T-Shirts
Sneakers
Crazy 8 Socks
Baseball Caps
Knit Caps
Books (Junie B Jones, Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew, Phineas and Ferb, etc.) that are at a 1^st or 2^nd grade reading level
Games (Guess Who, any strategy games)
Stuffed animals
Bag of balloons
Flip flops
New bedding (Spongebob, Cars, Mickey)
Amazon.com credit

Please review the list, but for now please raise your glasses and toast Cole the Zombie Farm super player.