No news is good news

We have been lax this week with our posting (primarily due to my work schedule... uugghh!), but Logan is doing well. Round 4 has been like rounds 2 and 3, which I have to assume is good. No immediate side effects, but his hair loss continues. My guess is that his eyebrows will be totally gone soon. Logan couldn't care less, so we don't dwell on it.
Logan got to meet his classmates on their field trip to the pumpkin patch today, and had a great time. His teacher and classmates were happy to see him. Logan was very excited to see them as well.
Thursday is the last day for this round. We hope things continue to be boring. Contrary to what a five-year old cancer patient will tell you, boring is good.

Chemo Started Again Today

We were the the doctor's office for 4 hours today with the next round of chemo. Logan also got a spinal tap and did great. What a strong, brave little man. So far tonight he's not having any problems with the new drug, however we are on the look out for some cool green pee! (Apparently blue medicine and yellow urine make... GREEN!!!!!) : ) Logan is looking forward to that side effect. Eric will be administering the night dose at 10:00 as before. The only down side so far is that Logan will be missing his school field trip to the pumpkin patch that's on Wednesday. : ( We'll have to plan something fun to do after the doctor's visit to make up for it. Maybe the zoo or Exploration Place (Logan LOVES that place!) His class has offered to pick him out a pumpkin and bring it back to school. Gotta love those big hearts!

Chemo Monday - Thursday

A week of recovery time was just what Logan needed. He is now healthy enough to begin chemo again on Monday. From 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. every day Monday through Thursday you will know where we're at!

We are expecting family this weekend so I doubt that I'll have time to post again until Monday. We'll let you know how Logan is doing with this new chemo drug.

Random Pictures

These are some photos I've taken with in the last few weeks that I haven't had time to post... until now. : )


Here is our loving family (minus the camera girl) demonstrating a family tradition passed down many generations! Can you hang a spoon on your nose?

Logan and Amanda made me a special gift. Here they are posing with their clay creation.


Logan and Amanda were invited to a skate party. Here is our monkey man on skates for the first time ever!

Skating buddies!

Amanda (3 YEARS OLD!!!) took off like a rocket! We have a rival in the Neal household for the Dare Devil title!

I snapped this one as he was flying by. Too bad I cut off the top of his head. Still cute though!

I said "hold still" and he did! : )

Not 'til next week

Logan's blood counts aren't high enough for chemo this week. They'll test again on Thursday and start chemo next week if he's well enough.

Some Questions Answered

Logan had a doctors appointment today for a CBC and we were told that if the results come back good (blood counts up) then he will be starting chemo again tomorrow. We will get a call tomorrow morning with the results. This round will only be 4 days long. High dose of Ara C twice a day (and since Eric is out of town, I'll be the one up at midnight doing that) and a new drug, Mitoxantrone (similar to Doxorubicin, the nasty red stuff).

We also got the results of the tissue typing and Amanda is not a tissue match for Logan so we'll continue with the maintenance therapy for 2 or 3 more rounds (depending on how his blood counts do) and be finished unless he relapses. After his maintenance therapy is finished he will get another bone marrow biopsy about 4 weeks later. Then it's one CBC a month for a year. With a little luck, Logan will be finished with chemo therapy by Christmas. What a wonderful present for all of us that would be!

Walk Highlights

Our Light The Night walk was a success! It was a beautiful night and the Logan and Amanda were ecstatic to hang out with their good friends. Pizza Hut provided free pizza to all and the snow cones were flowing freely so how could you not have fun? There was also a GIANT moonwalk and a bouncer for the kids to play in.

Here is Logan and Amanda and their two best buddies waiting in line for the moonwalk.

MOONWALK

Logan in the "big squeeze"

WHEEEEEEEEEE

Logan decided that the HUGE, GLAMOROUS, EXPENSIVE moonwalk just wasn't as fun as rolling down a hill! (or sideways : )

Our little family right before the walk. We were worried that the kids were going to wear themselves out with all the jumping, climbing and rolling but they were troopers!

Here we go! - Logan got to wear a survivors shirt! : )

Here is some more of the kids we walked with.

Logan also had a white balloon to hold since he is a cancer survivor. All us other folks were carrying red. The balloons had little light bulbs inside that flashed at random intervals (however, very hard to capture on film!)

Thank you all for supporting us in our walk to raise money for leukemia research. The Wichita Mom and Tots Meetup raised $1600 for the cause!

Let's Have Some Fun

When Logan got home yesterday afternoon he was looking around that house and telling me how different things looked after being gone 4 days. Then he look out back was shocked!
"Look how many leaves have fallen off the trees! It's FALL! Mom, I have a great idea.
Let's get rakes, make a big pile and jump in!"
So we did. : )

I guess you can tell that he's feeling well. : ) He said he wants to go to school today too. What can I say... He's our super hero.

Home For Dinner

Still no fever, feeling good, and Logan should be home for dinner tonight! : ) He'll be going home on antibiotics and his blood counts are starting to come back up. Still no neutrophils but the antibiotics should help him keep infections away.

Logan was able to attend school Monday and Wednesday via Skype. He enjoyed seeing his classmates and answering questions from his hospital bed. Hopefully this winter during cold and flu season when he's missing so much school this method will help him keep in touch. If any of you have Skype too feel free to give him a call sometime. (Like our friend Garrett! : )

I thought it would NEVER happen but Logan has officially decided he's played too many Nintendo games and says no more! Will wonders never cease? Not to worry, Backyardigans, Curious George, Max and Ruby, and the Berenstain Bears are keeping him company. After his noon dose of antibiotics we are cleared to go to the playroom too so hopefully this afternoon should pass quickly for us all. (Amanda is just hanging in the room with Logan and me since Eric had to run to Tulsa for the day)

Good and Bored

Hospitals are boring. Boring, boring, boring. I am glad, since excitement is usually not good in a hospital. We are all ready to go home, and we have a big weekend planned. I am sure that Logan will be a rockstar this weekend at the LLS "Light the Night". If his fever stays down and it is indeed impossible to overdose on popsicles, we should be headed home tomorrow. I hope his one popsicle per hour habit subsides when we leave here. The hospital stocks the brand name kind, and I don't think that pop-ice will do the trick anymore.

We May Be Home Tomorrow

Logan hasn't spiked a fever since 1:00 last night and no other complications have come up so if all goes well, he should be dismissed tomorrow and sent home on antibiotics.

Letting The Cultures Grow

After getting some IV antibiotics Logan is looking much better. His fever is still up and down but he doesn't seem as fatigued as yesterday. He had some blood in his urine and some bruising and petechiae (broken blood vessels in the skin) so he will be getting a platelet transfusion today. His right ear is red and inflamed so that may be the source of this infection but we'll be here at least through Wednesday to let the cultures grow out to check for other infection. His urine also had some early growth for the culture they did on that but it could just be a contaminant. We'll know more once they identify it.

Back In The Hospital

Logan woke up with an ear ache and a low grade fever this morning. After talking to his doctor (thinking he had an ear infection), Eric took him to urgent care. They discovered an elevated heart rate and Logan's lungs didn't sound right so he was admitted to Wesley Hospital. It could be pneumonia, a bacterial infection, sinus infection, or just neutropenic fever (as the last two times). We won't have any answers until probably tomorrow (at the earliest).

(Update by Eric) His new blood work shows that his neutrophil count is zero, which might explain why his fever is a little over 101. The standard protocol, however, is to check for any source of infection with various cultures and a chest x-ray. His lungs sound clear, except for a bit of phlegm, but the chest x-ray will be more definitive tomorrow. His ears are a good possibility as an infection source, but they are also checking his blood, central line, and sinuses with cultures. Turns out that a sinus culture is a little more invasive than handing over a dirty tissue. Logan was a bit surprised by this test, but he took it like a champ. He was very brave for the blood sample from his arm as well.

So far, nothing to be alarmed about. He feels pretty good when he is on tylenol, so his fever and earache are very manageable.

Topped off

Everything went as hoped this evening and we were not detained at the hospital, so we are going to continue with our plans for a relaxing weekend at home. We will probably be homebound since Logan's counts are getting pretty low (now mildly neutropenic, thrombocytopenic, and anemic). None of his counts are of great concern, and he is doing better than either of his first two rounds of chemo. Both round 1 and round 2 had us at the hospital by now. We are hopeful that we can stay home this time.

Diane and I also gave blood at the hospital; we were planning on going to the blood drive before we found out that Logan needed a refill. We ended up saving ourselves a trip, which was a bonus. Logan and Amanda both got a kick out of taking care of us while we were donating. The staff all thought that they were both very cute and of course perfect angels. Amazing what happens when there is an unlimited supply of cookies...

Need Blood

Logan's doctor just called with his blood count results and Logan needs a blood transfusion so we're off to Wesley Hospital for the afternoon.

The New Blood Counts Are In

So far so good with this latest round of chemo. Logan's blood counts are doing great with White Blood Cells = 2.5, hemoglobin = 8.1, Platelets = 227,000, Neutrophils = 1600

He's feeling great, no fever or bleeding problems, and he's still eating like a horse. My only complaint is that he keeps pulling out his eye lashes and they aren’t growing back!!!!

He's back at school this week (after being in the doctor's office all last week instead) and loving it. He comes home every afternoon and teaches us what he's learned in school. I now know all about the flaming ball of gas we call the sun! : ) He's make lots of new friends too but has decided that riding the bus is not for him. He say's it too loud but I suspect there are some older kids giving him a hard time about his lack of hair. So I'm now taking him to school and picking him up. School is a requirement but bus rides are optional and he likes having the choice.

We’ll have another blood test to post on Friday. No news until then is good news! : )

p.s. - We still haven't heard back about the tissue typing. It's probably my sample that's giving them problems... I've always been a trouble maker!

We Have Lift-off

It was a tough choice for him, but after our adventure on Saturday, Logan has officially decided to become a pilot! A friend of ours, who works at Flight Safety, offered Logan (and family) a ride in their VERY cool, VERY realistic flight simulator. With a little help from our experienced host, Logan took off and landed 4 times from the airport and only crashed once! Here is one of our landings... just in case you were wondering, the runway is just a suggestion on where to drive the plane ; )



As you can tell by the smile on his handsome face, he had a BALL!

We would like to send a BIG thank you to our friend Dustin for setting up this adventure for our boy. It's not everyday that you make a memory that lasts a lifetime. Thank you so much.

Fireman Logan

On Friday, the Derby Fire Department hosted Logan on a tour of Fire Station #2. He got to check out all the fire engines and talk to the firefighters. At the end of the tour, he was deputized as a Junior Firefighter and got to take a ride on the truck. He was very excited.

Logan also had his last chemo treatments for this round on Friday. We are hopeful that the shorter regimen will keep his counts from getting so low and (fingers crossed) also avoid neutropenic fever. We have a busy weekend planned, and we will have more photos to post tomorrow.

HOORAY!!!!

Logan is now in remission!!! We are all very excited and we will be having a celebration dinner tonight. Pizza, punch, brownies, and cabernet will be flowing freely.

Looks Like We'll Know Tomorrow

It looks like the lab won't have Logan's test results back until tomorrow. : (

He did great today in sedation. He didn't care for the dizziness or double vision when he woke up but all is well now. Dr. Rosen also ordered an EKG to check for heart damage. Apparently it's common for high doses of certain medicines to cause permanent damage. So far so good in the heart department. : )

Blood Times Four

We all gave blood today and let me say that Logan has been taking great pleasure in telling his sister how much it was going to hurt, ALL MORNING LONG! He didn't need a needle poke because of his catheter but Mommy, Daddy and Amanda had to endure the pain (in that order). Logan was the Band-aid helper for each of us. Amanda did a GREAT job with the traumatic experience. WHAT A TROOPER! Depending on how hard we are to type, we'll get the results in 5 to 14 days.

Tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. is check in for us at Wesley Hospital for the bone marrow aspiration. We'll post as soon as we get the results.