gavin gets to go outside!!!

Gavin's numbers are up!!! we headed to the park!!! 11/16/2008

Gavin update!! (sorry it's been a bit!)

Hello everyone! here is an update on my Angel Baby!

Gavin is doing AMAZING. last week we had to be at the hospital every morning at 8:00am to have labs done for his Stem Cell collection (for his bone marrow transplant) and on Saturday they found his numbers to be right where they needed them so yesterday (Mon the 1st) we headed to the hospital at 7:00am to get the procedure started. They had to do a minor surgery to have a tube implanted in his leg for the collection then once that was done they started! they said it could take 1 to 5 days for collection but Gavin's number seriously shot up over night so they were able to collect everything they needed in one day! It was about a 4 1/2 hour ordeal and we had to keep him in bed lying flat with his legs straight (those of you with 3 year olds know how impossible that must be :} ) so the tube wouldn't break... The Dr. said he actually did alot better than any other 3 year old she's done this procedure on! once that was done they had to give him a platlette transfusion, pull the tube, and i mean just yank it outta his leg. No meds or anything. I couldn't watch, that was just too much for me! but they took the tube out and had to hold the hole for 15 minutes to be sure it closed up then we were able to go home. we got home at about 8:00pm last night! If you could see him today you would NEVER know he went through all that today! He is the most amazing child i have ever met, and i'm not just saying that!

Our Thanksgiving was quiet but nice. Gavin didn't have an ANC (an immune system) so we couldn't go to the family dinner so Brian made us a nice Thanksgiving dinner! Just me, Brian and Gavin!!!

We will be headed back up to the hospital on the 8th (next monday) for his 3rd round of Chemo. we will be there for 4 days! on the 9th & 10th they will do scans to see how much the damn thing has shrunk (sorry for the language!!!)

Thanks again so much for all your love and prayers!!!

please enjoy the pics! HE IS THE BEST!!!

2nd round of Chemo!

Gavin & I are home from the hospital!!! he is so happy to be back in his own environment! We were released from the hospital at 11:30 this morning. He was so excited to spend time with Jordan so we went right to Jordan's school to pick him up. they have been playing together and just "chatting" since we got home (none stop!)

For those of you that would like to know how we came to find out our precious angel has this horrible cancer... here is the story!

On October 4th, 2008 we were driving back to Riverton from my brother Jed's house and Gavin starting screaming in pain, holding his stomach and just could not gain control of himself. I, unfortunatly had to work that morning at 11:00am so I asked Adam to take him to the insta-care since it was a Saturday to see if it was his appendix. They did X-rays and found that he was constipated. his bowls and tummy were completley backed up. They sent him home telling Adam to give him miralax and it should break things up. well... it didn't. i ended up having to give him 2 enima's along with prune juice and the miralax and still he only went a tiny bit 3 differant times in about a week and a half. On October 15th i took the boys to play at the park. we were there for about 2 hours. That night Gavin started complaining about his leg hurting his. I rubbed it for him, gave him some motrin and wrapped it with an ace bandage. That seemed to do the trick but by Friday the 17th he was limping pretty bad, asked me to rub it again & when I got up to his hip he lost it. I immediatly took him back to the insta-care as his pediatrition does not have X-ray machines. they did an X-ray and did see something in one of them in his left hip. They took it from another angle and saw nothing so they sent us home. Told me to take him to Primary Childrens if it got worse or if it stayed the same to call the sports medicine doctor on Monday. By Monday it seemed a bit better. He was still limping but was pretty much back to his old self, playing Star Wars (the way he does) and running around. By Tuesday the 21st he seemed OK. I took him to Brad (Adam's dad) as I had a meeting i had to go to for work. Brad called me and said that Gavin was buckled over in pain, clutching his stomach and screaming. I went right to Brad's once the meeting was over, picked Gavin up and again, took him back to the insta-care. They finally did a blood test this time and found that he was Anemic. The Dr. told me there are 7 differant reasons to have "this type of Anemia". when i asked him what they were he told me i could look it up online but that he wanted me to get him into his pediatrition as soon as possible. Right when i got into my car i called her and made an appointment for 9:30am the next morning. We got to the pediatrition at 9:25am, got back to see the Dr. at 9:45am and by 9:55 she was sending us out the door. told us to take him straight to Primary Childrens, don't stop if we don't have to, that something was seriously wrong with him...

At this point Gavin couldn't walk or bend at the hips at all so i had to hold him in the backseat. he was stiff as a bored and crying in pain. We got to Primary Childrens at 10:30 that morning. Gavin was in so much pain they immediatly hooked him up to Morphine. They ran test after test, Cat Scans, X-rays, Doctors coming in the touch his belly, watch him try to walk. i just KNEW that something was seriously wrong. At about 5:30 that night they came back into our room and told us that they got the results back from the Cat Scan, the Doctors then took a seat. i about lost it... i just KNEW that it was BAD news. They began to explain to me what they saw in the Scan, they said "looking over these scans we have found a Tumor in Gavin's abdomine, From the look of this we are pretty sure it's a rare childhood cancer called Neuroblastoma. We are having another Doctor look over this and he will be in in just a few minutes to explain this to you in more detail, I am so sorry" As i'm sure you can imagine I LOST IT!!! All i could do is say WHY over and over. I colapsed and Brian had to catch me. The room began to spin and it was like all the air was knocked out of me by a freight train. The Doctor that will be removing the tumor then came in and told us what he saw in the scan... "What we are seeing is for sure the signs of Neuroblastoma, we see that there is a Tumor across his abdomin, in his left hip and in the bone marrow, really bad in the bone marrow of his left leg. This cancer is like a tree, it tends to grow around things rather than through. We see that it is wrapped around his kidneys, liver, splein and is affecting his intestines, we need to do more scans to see how far this has spred, to see if it's in his lungs, spine, and how deep in the bones." For the next 5 days my little guy was having all sorts of tests done on him. Every kind of test you could imagine was being done, getting done or was scheduled to be done. After more scans they found that it was NOT wrapped through is intestines but it was pushing against them, it's not on his spine but there is a tumor in a part of his back bone, a tumor in his left him and throughout his bone marrow, His lungs and chest were clear, so basically it's from his abdomine down. On the 24th of October they took him in for surgery to do a Bone Marrow Biopsy and have a central line inserted into his chest. Then on the 27th the first of 6 rounds of Chemo begins. He did have to have a blood transfusion as all his blood counts were low and they had to bring them back up before starting the Chemo. Although he got really sick over the next 5 days he slept through the whole chemo process. he lost 3 pounds in 10 days, which on a little guy is ALOT, a total of 4 1/2lbs. from the 4th of October to the 1st of November. He was getting morphine every 2 HOURS while in the hospital. Knowing that we were headed home on the 1st i was so scared knowing he was getting the highest dose of Morphine EVERY 2 HOURS, I just didn't know how he would deal with the pain once we were home. We got home on the 1st and he was right back to himself. a little tired and irritable but himself! We have not had to give him ANYTHING for pain at home since the 7th of November. Gavin started losing his hair in hand fulls on the 9th and when he woke up on the morning of the 10th there was a complete bald spot on the back of his head the front of his hair was almost gone so we broke out the clippers and shaved it all off! i was worried he would hate it but when i took him in the bathroom to see it he got this look on his face that looked almost sad yet thoughtful and then yelled "my hair looks freakin awesome"

We headed back to the hospital on the 17th of this month for his second round of Chemo. you should have seen the differance. He was awake the whole time, playing and joking with all the nurses and doctors. saying "peace out" each time they left the room! we went for walks in the halls while the Chemo was being injected (it's all done through his central line) and made lots of art work. We have him on a complete healthy diet. We are giving him juices each moring and night that we juice for him, making his meals for him with organic ingredients and giving him Herbel medicines along with the doctors methods and it's keeping him strong!!! My baby is back! He is doing so amazingly well... no complaints from mom this go around :0) !!! 2 rounds down, 4 more to go!!!

I will keep my blog up to date on how he is doing. Please feel free to ask me any questions you would like and i will answer them for you! Thank you all so much for all your Love, Support, Faith and Prayers! He's an amazing little man and is kicking this damn tumor in the butt!!!