Les had x-rays of his chest and sinuses last week and has finally been diagnosed with sinusitis. He’s on antibiotics now and I hope we will see some improvement soon.
His blood counts are outstanding. His ANC was just above 2000 last week. His weight is also slowly increasing. He was up to 16.5 kg (36 ¼ lb) last week. YEAH!!!
We have another clinic visit tomorrow (Tuesday). Les will also have another hearing test tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if his hearing has changed anymore since the last chemo treatment.
Next week Les is scheduled for his next inpatient chemo treatment with a whole new batch of chemo medicines. They are planning on doing an MRI at that time too. The MRI will tell us if the treatments are still working. The last MRI, back in July was very good in that one of the tumor nodules in his spine had disappeared since beginning treatment. We pray that this next MRI will show similar improvements.
Overall, Les has been doing great. We are really enjoying his company and he keeps us smiling.
We have had some fun activities in the last couple weeks. First, Les was invited to attend a dress rehearsal of the Blue Angels at Marine Corps Station Miramar in San Diego. Les took along his parents and some grandparents and we enjoyed the first class treatment of a private show and then a time to meet the pilots and get pictures and autographs. This was with the Make-A-Wish organization.
Les is now a Make-A-Wish kid. Please note that Make-A-Wish is for kids with “life threatening” illnesses, not necessarily terminal illnesses. Also, Les has until he is 18 to have a wish granted. I don’t know when he will do his wish, but I would like to wait until the treatment is over and he has regained more strength and stamina. Until then, Make-A-Wish sponsors many fun activities and has access to tickets to other fun events that Les is now eligible to participate in.
The other fun thing we did was going Valley Center to some pumpkin patches last weekend with daddy. We first went to Bell Gardens, which is a non-profit educational working farm. Mr. Bell of Taco Bell founded it. There are several different crops and demonstration gardens – including a pumpkin patch this time of year. They also have a ¼ scale model train with a 2-mile track that goes around the fields. We had a great time picking out our pumpkin and riding the train around. The other pumpkin patch we visited was at Bates Nut Farms. Our visit there was short, as it was near closing time. We did browse through the store and see the animals.
Our visit to Valley Center was on Saturday, October 25, 2003. At 2:30am Sunday morning, a fire broke out in Valley Center and it is my understanding that Bates Nut Farms has burned and I’m not sure about Bell Gardens. How eerie to have just been enjoying a wonderful day out there not even 24 hours before major destruction hits. It’s another example of how we never know what tomorrow will bring. Whether through a cancer diagnosis or a fire, we are reminded that we are NOT in control of our lives and we won’t always know the answers to life’s mysteries.
On a related note, Barry Robertson, Les’ grandfather is fighting the “Old Fire” up in San Bernardino right now. He has just come off the lines after 40 hours of continuous efforts. He will get some rest at the Mission Inn hotel and then back to the fire lines again.
