Listen Up!

Okay, we are in crunch time.

Baldapalooza is this Saturday

(get your tickets now they go up at the gate:

 www.baldapalooza.org).

This week has been a whirlwind

trying to keep up with life and do our media blitz.

Last night our local NBC station did

a beautiful story on our Hall of Heroes

(what our first Baldapalooza raised money for).

Trust me, it is worth watching-- you'll totally understand

why we kill ourselves off for this event.

http://www.ktvb.com/story/news/local/outreach/sevens-hero/2015/08/26/wall--heroes-gives-hope--families-fighting-cancer/32365161/

And then this morning, I should say, well before 

the sun came up, I went on our local ABC station

to talk about Balda.

 This time, I got to be on with the Runaway Hamsters.

Triplets and an older sister who had a hit with a song 

they wrote for a classmate fighting cancer.

These cuties will be our very first act after the gates open.

Thankfully, my mom came over to get the girls off to school

and love on Kean.

Somehow, she even got him to eat a little bit.

Good thing, since I failed to get him to eat much the rest of today.

I wish he could understand that this is the last week (we hope)

he will feel this ultra lousy.

18 days left, 18 days.

Momentous

Yep.  

That's what today was.

Momentous.

Today marked our last Chemo in the clinic day.

We still have one big hospital sedation Chemo to go next month

and then home Chemo until September 13th--

but today was the final through his port.

Crazy.

I can barely get my head around it.

I all too clearly remember the day he was inducted and they told

us it would be a 3 year 2 month Chemotherapy protocol.

I couldn't even imagine surviving that long, let alone getting to the end.

Yet, here we are.

And surprisingly, we somehow made it to quite near the finish line.

 And as if today wasn't special enough, everything at the hospital clinic

went about as perfect as we could ask for.

Kean's port gave us only a few minutes of trouble (we almost always

have problems getting his blood to flow).

Since we were just in less than two weeks ago, there wasn't a long

list of things to talk over with the doctor-- so that was quick

not easy, but quick.

I thought you'd enjoy getting a glimpse of what it is like for the

Doc to try and check him.

 Yep, I death grip his hands, the doc checks him, while

the nurse holds his kickers, I mean, his legs.

Trust me, he is way stronger than you can imagine.

 My friend Sally Giles works double time to keep 

him entertained while the doctor goes over stuff with me.

It is a huge team effort!

 We didn't even have to wait long for the pharmacy to "cook' his Chemo.

I tell ya, it was a banner day.

We finished up and got home about 1 1/2  to 2 hours earlier

than normal.

 But we couldn't leave before getting to play with

the hospital therapy dog, Lucy Mae.

Another biggie down.

Now to just get through this next week of the side effects and

those lovely Steroids.

Can you imagine what his life will be like when he feels good everyday?

Bi-Polar

Boy have we had a busy few days-- fun but busy.

Byron's best friend, Mitch and his family are still here.

Several nights all the kids have slept out on the trampoline

(oh, does that bring back the memories)!

 Our big plans to go to Roaring Springs Water Park the other night

were foiled when we got there and found every other family in Idaho

decided to do the same thing.  The line to just get in was at least an hour.

So we punted and headed up the canyon to play on the Payette River.

 First Holland, then Greer jumped off the rocks

into the cold water.

 All the kids were braver than this mom-- getting into the water

and playing in the sand.

 I think the highlight for everyone was covering up

Byron's legs with sand.

 I guess it was so much fun, several of the kids needed

to be sand mermaids. We all decided it 

was much, much better than the water park.

 Poor Kean had to stay home with Grammy.

I guess he was quite bi-polar:  happy one moment, 

miserable the next.

And no surprise here, he's been the same way this weekend.

Between the Steroids and the Chemo he was

quite uncomfortable. 

 Thankfully, he turned a corner today.  I think it helped

immensely that all that Miralax I've been giving him finally

kicked in-- and kicked in BIG TIME.

Let's just say he hasn't had a stinky diaper since last Monday

and now that he's had four in an hour-- he HAS to be feeling better!

Oh the joys of cancer.

September can't come soon enough.

A Close Call

Reese is our shyest.

While Holland and Greer seem to have no issues with getting up

in front of anyone who will listen and singing-- this one

surprised us and decided to try out for the school's talent show.

She said she had to keep the tradition alive (both her sisters have sung).

 Well she made it-- and little Miss Brave

got up and sang in front of her school and a bunch of parents.

 She told me she was scared to death, shaking like a leaf

and not sure she ever wants to do it again!

But she did it and I'm so proud of her.

Then last night, after the big performance, we celebrated

Greer's birthday.

That's a platter of donuts-- no birthday cake for this girl.

 I think she had fun with her darling friends.

Kean was off all day, woke up from his nap sobbing

and then added to the festive atmosphere by throwing

up while everyone ate pizza.

On the bright side, he hasn't been eating much of anything,

so pretty much only threw up pedialyte.

Also, to keep things interesting (and keep Mama stressed)

he had a fever that was running just under 101 (he was 100.9).

We earn a trip to the E.R. at 101.

Alas, he seemed to feel better after throwing up-- and only

wanted to be around the ladies.

 His fever came down a bit (finally broke at 10:45 p.m.)

and he was much happier.

Go figure what that was all about.

 He woke up-- acting fine.  No fever this morning.

But he still won't eat hardly anything.

I've luckily gotten him to down some Pediasure

mixed with cornstarch to keep his blood sugar levels

from plummeting with the Chemo.

I'm actually looking forward to taking him in on 

Tuesday for his big Chemo appointment so the 

doctor can check him out and see what is going on!

Chemo Schemo

We lucked out today and Kean felt good for much of the day.

He actually even ate decent (until dinner).

He was doing well enough, we went to horse therapy with Romeo

and had a great time.

He giggled and smiled all the way through the session.

 Unfortunately, that blasted Chemo had to hit eventually.

And it hit right about the time he woke up from his nap.

Oh, it is hard to watch your child so miserable.

Daddy took him for a brisk ride on the motorcycle.

It is cool and breezy here-- but I don't think that made one iota of difference to the boy.

It bought me a break and him some relief.

If you haven't heard, we announced our big shot headliner

for Baldapalooza:  Andy Grammer.

If you can't place him, trust me, you know his music.

He will be fabulous.

He's performing on August 29th-- just two weeks before Kean

finishes up his Chemo.  Bet you can't think of a better reason

to come to Idaho to help us celebrate.

Tickets and info at www.baldapalooza.org. 

Food, Glorious Food

Kean has officially turned the corner, is feeling better,

finally going (the Miralax has kicked in) and is after days

of hardly eating--- now eating like there is no tomorrow.

Have I mentioned he has also learned how to open the refrigerator?
This was at Grandpa Bodily's the other day.
He heads in on mornings after getting the girls off on the bus and
helps himself to Grandpa's yogurt.

And nearly every morning for the past few days-- the only thing I could

get him to eat-- if that, was sausage.

So much for the "breakfast of champions"-- this is the

"breakfast of Steroids".

Tonight, though, he has entered into that power eating phase.

He ate, four, count 'em, four - adult sized bowls of homemade

chicken noodle soup, four large rolls, a plate of fruit salad and a brownie.

He then left the table, headed over to the cupboard and started

pulling out chips, popcorn and pretzels.

After grazing on those items for a while,

he moved onto an orange and a cup of chocolate milk.

The problem I'm running into here, is he has to fast for

at least an hour (preferably two) before taking his

nightly Chemo.

Heaven help us all.

Sickie update.

Byron is still down and totally out.

He did get a shower today-- so looks a bit better

but still feels rather rotten.

He's tired of his exile.

I won't humiliate him with a picture while he is feeling like

death warmed over.

You'll have to settle for me and my anti-germ mask as I helped

Sickie feed the cows.

Tomorrow Kean and I head back to the hospital for 

tests to see if his counts have risen-- and to hear their final verdict

if they want to put him on another dose of Tamiflu.

Fun times I tell you.

This all will end someday.....

Crackle, Pop and Counts

I swear, there is never a dull moment when we trek down

to the hospital for Chemo.

First things first though--

We got through the day.

We had a bit of trouble getting blood out of Kean's port

but our moving, dancing and contortions did the trick, thank goodness.

Julie Kingsbury was our "Chemo date" for the day.

 She was especially helpful wrangling the boy while I talked with his doctor.

Kean's counts are horrible.

The counts we watch the most-- his ability to fight off germs--

is scary low.  He's at 540 (if you remember, we could never leave

the hospital unless he was at least 500).  So we earned a trip back to the hospital

in one week to check his counts and have him checked over.

Other than that, he did great-- his Chemo went off without a hitch.

 But get this, after we finished at clinic, we headed over to the pharmacy

in the main hospital to get, you guessed it, more drugs.

As we were leaving the hospital, this pregnant lady fell down the flight of stairs 

right next to us and I'm pretty sure she broke her leg.

She was crying and saying how she heard a loud pop and couldn't move.

She was surrounded by hospital folks as we left-- and the last thing

I heard was her saying she was having some hard contractions.

Cray-zee.  Poor lady.

 

Kean couldn't even make it home before passing out.

Old Baldy

Clearly I messed up by not having Byron stay home from work

to start Kean's day off with an "indoor" motorcycle ride.

Where are his priorities?

Anyway, the boy is not only feeling awful, he's got some

anger issues thanks to those blasted Steroids.

It's already been a long, long day.

Meanwhile, my cell phone is dying a slow death and I've

been clearing off pictures and videos.

This one of "Baldy" sure makes me smile!