New 'doo

Logan wants to show off his new hair, so here you go!

For those of you still checking the blog, it will probably slow down to a post every week or two. Doctor visits are now a once-monthly affair, so we will not have much to report. We are all adjusting well to "normal" life. Swim lessons and gymnastics are probably in the near future for Logan and Amanda. School is apparently not a good place to get the "wiggles" out.

CANCER FREE!

Logan is officially

CANCER FREE!


HIP HIP HOORAY!

All Went Well

Logan's biopsy went well today. He asked for the Ketamine first (the sleepy medicine) because he remembered that the Versed (can't remember medicine) makes him feel dizzy. The doctors were more than happy to accommodate his wishes. While he was sedated, they did the bone marrow aspiration and spinal tap. Then an echocardiogram and and EKG to make sure the chemo drugs he's had over the past 6 months have not damaged his heart. They also removed his PICC line before we left. We'll get the results tomorrow, but today he is doing well and enjoying life with out tubes in his body. He is still a little unsteady from the medicine so we decided to keep him home from school for the rest of the day. The doctor's say he can have a full immersion bath tomorrow and he is SOOOOO looking forward to that! (Fast showers are just no fun!)

Tubies All GONE!

I love this shirt! It say's it all.

Bone Marrow Biopsy Tomorrow

Logan will be fasting after midnight tonight to prepare for his bone marrow biopsy tomorrow. He is scheduled to be at the hospital at 7:30 a.m. and I would expect him to have his procedure done around 8:30 a.m. We're not sure if he'll feel up to going to school afterwards so we'll just play it by ear. The results should be back by Wednesday.

First Full Week of School

Logan really enjoyed his first full week of school... ever! He came home from school each day ravenous but very happy. This morning he was a little dismayed to discover that it wasn't Saturday yet. He can now empathize with the rest of the world about how long a work week really is! : )


At Logan's school this week they started a fundraiser called Pennies for Patients with the proceeds going to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. His teacher, Mrs. Nicholson, put together a wonderful slide show about Logan's battle with cancer to make the cause real for the kids and asked me to stop by and speak about his journey. It was such a moving slide show that I wanted to share it with the rest of you.

Unfortunately, I've had some problems figuring out how to get this big, 4 minute long slide show on the blog for you all to view so I had to end up just doing a small part. Mrs. Nicholson graciously made me a copy of the whole slide show so I can make copies and send it to those of you interested. However, here is a sneak peak of the master piece... try not to cry, grandma. : )(Even Eric couldn't make it through with dry eyes).

Tuesday, January 12th

Logan is scheduled for his last bone marrow biopsy for next Tuesday, January 12th.

Biopsy Next Week

We're waiting for Peds. Sedation to call the doctor's office back for an appointment, but Logan's counts are high enough that he'll be getting his bone marrow biopsy next week. We should know tomorrow his exact date and time.

In other news, Amanda got to make her debut at school today and LOVE IT! She had a wonderful time and I enjoyed 5 hours of Mommy Time. I just LOVE Tuesdays! : )

Logan also decided that he wants to start riding the bus again so I drove him to school today and he rode the bus home. He wants to ride it TO school now too... I told him that he would have to stand on the corner on the coldest morning on record for Kansas and he said "No problem!" We're still in negotiations.

Great Day!

Logan had a GREAT day at school today. He was very happy to be back and even told us a LITTLE about what went on (usually he's just "I don't know." and "Nothing." when we ask about his day). We did have to pick him up an hour early for his doctor's appointment, but he seemed okay with that. At the doctor we got a few questions answered... here are the cliff notes.

- After today's CBC results (we'll get those in the morning) we'll have a better idea of when his last bone marrow biopsy will be. If his body has recovered, it will be soon... if not, test again next week and evaluate.

- After his bone marrow biopsy, his PICC line will come out and he'll be resigned to a CBC and check up every month for a year.

Back To School

Well, we've enjoyed a wonderful Christmas break visiting with friends and family but I'm SO looking forward to Logan and Amanda going back to school! Tomorrow is Logan's first day back in over 3 months. OH, HAPPY DAY! It's a little ironic that we've been keeping him out of school to keep him healthy, then we're sending him back with a head cold : ). Looks like he picked a little something up on our trip to KC... no big deal though. He's body is fully capable of healing itself now. He also has a CBC scheduled for tomorrow. Right now he's scheduled for 10:30 a.m., but I'm going to call in the morning to see if we can push it back to late afternoon so he won't miss the start of his special school day. I'll be sure to let you all know how his day went.

CBC from Yesterday

We got Logan's test results from yesterday... Hemoglobin is still a little low. White Blood Cells are good as are Platelets. He now only needs to go in once a week for routine CBC's.

Enjoying transition to "Normal"

We had a wonderful visit with family back in Kansas City, although the weather cut our last visit a bit short. We had a spectacular Christmas Day.

Logan continues to do well and we are adjusting back to normal while enjoying our vacation. There is a long list of things that we have not been doing lately, and we will start checking them off our list this week. Tomorrow, we are going to go bowling. It will be a blast!

Bye, Bye Wesley...

We hope to never see you again... nothing personal!

Logan's body has been working over time making white blood cells like CRAZY. His counts jumped from .8 yesterday to 6.2 this morning. When I saw the print out I couldn't believe it. I even double checked that this was from my son!

He is officially no longer neutropenic, his fever is gone, and he's feeling GREAT! It looks like that Neulasta drug helped us out after all. They are working on our walking papers as I type so we may even be home for lunch!

Merry Christmas to all, and to us, a good night sleep! : )

Cross Your Fingers

Logan is feeling good this morning. His counts took a nice big jump from yesterday with white blood cells up to .8 (quadrupled!) and hemoglobin up to 9.5. No fevers since last night so if he can stay fever free until tomorrow, be will be going home! Keep those fingers crossed for us!

Yesterday, Eric brought the fixing for a graham cracker "gingerbread" house. I brought my camera to the hospital today to share our creation with you. This is the before shot of our beautiful house.

Then Logan wanted to eat the house...

Then he destroyed the cute little creation! See, I told you he's feeling better! : )

Occasional clinical febrility

... or in other words, Logan is still spiking fevers. He still generally feels well and has just begun to produce neutrophils. His WBC remains very low at 0.2, so 8% neutrophils still rounds to 0.0. His fever is better today than yesterday, but 100.5 is a pretty low bar to limbo. With a bit of luck, his counts will start to climb in the next couple of days. Historically, once he has a measurable neutrophil count, the fever breaks. We then usually sit around the hospital for 48 hours waiting for release.