Poker Night and 45 days down!!!!

Abby, Troy and I, Kelly Bray (Dean of Students), Chris Lineberry (Principal), Nate Braunhut (5th Grade Teacher and member of the awesome Dad's club) You guys are amazing!!!

We have made it through 45 of the 56 days and we are thrilled to be almost done with this phase. I thought this phase was 60 days but, yeah, it is only 56. Monday Troy went to the clinic for chemo and we found out his numbers were pretty low. Tuesday he had a blood and platelet transfusion that took about 6 hours. Luckily, at the pediatric outpatient treatment center (POTC) they have a portable DVD player so he just watched movies and colored on cars paper of course. The blood transfusion will help him get more energy and give him a little color back. I didn’t even think he looked pale but the doctor could see it right away. The platelet transfusion helps his body with clotting. He seemed to be doing fine until last night. Troy was up coughing and gagging in the middle of the night. We had a bowl in his bed thinking he was going to throw up but he never did, thank goodness. Abby and Wyatt are sick with a cold and Troy has gotten it also. Luckily, no fever so he is doing pretty good. The doctors expect his numbers to drop even more, so this is the critical stay home and go nowhere time. Once his numbers come back up we could be in the maintenance phase as early as December 10th. Maintenance will consist of spinal taps once every three months, an oral chemo at home every day, the steroid drug 5 days a month, another oral chemo once a week at home, and visiting the clinic for chemo once every 4 weeks. It sounds like a lot but it is certainly less than what we are doing now. Yes, his hair has fallen out and there is something strange about washing your child’s head and feeling only skin. Although, I don’t like it because now he looks like a cancer patient, I still think he looks darn handsome.

A couple of weeks ago Abby’s school (Jack Harmon) sponsored a “poker night” to help pay for Troy's medical bills and prescriptions. The PTSO and Dad’s club put it on and it was a great success. Chris didn’t even know how to play poker but still had such a great time. Abby’s principal & faculty has truly embraced our family. They have taken on so much just to help support us. What remarkable people we are surrounded by. We are so grateful that people still want to help and we are touched daily by their generosity.

If anyone out there is looking for a way to help we ask if possible to donate blood or platelets. Donating blood does not take very long while donating platelets does take about a hour. How grateful we are that people out there take the time to donate. This week Troy has benefited from their small sacrifice of time. Next week it might be another child battling cancer who will benefit from your time. I truly never thought about donating blood or platelets until all this happened back in June. What an easy way to help out. Go out on a date and make it a “blood and dinner” date. Just kidding but I thought it was pretty funny. Once I get pictures of the Turkey Waddle I will post those but that was awesome also. Thanks to everyone, we love and appreciate all you do.