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Love & Prayers 4 Nathen
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Home | About Nathen | Neuroblastoma & Other Links | Guestbook, Slideshow & Photos | Flyers / Blood Drive / Donations | Contact Amanda, Chris or Nathen | Happy Thoughts Only
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PLEASE VISIT NATHEN'S NEW SITE AT
Thanks!
L O V E & P R A Y E R S 4 N A T H E N
"Nathen" October 2007
Our little man has already been through 4 chemo's.
Heart Wishes for Nathen!
"This is my wish for you: Comfort on difficult days, smiles when sadness intrudes,
rainbows to follow the clouds, laughter to kiss your lips, sunsets to warm your heart, hugs when spirits sag, beauty
for your eyes to see, friendships to brighten your being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage
to know yourself, patience to accept the truth, Love to complete your life."
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| L o v e & P r a y e r s 4 N a t h e n |
This weblog is our online journal of our little boy Nathen, that you can call "Nathen's
Journey". You'll find personal information that is being logged as often as possible since finding out about our son's
illness, neuroblastoma. There will be links to articles and items of interest on the web that you
may find interesting on the subject.
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Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Still in the hospital 8-29-07
Well we are still here in the hospital. Nathen got his last dose of chemo for this round this morning. He is still running
high fevers and his counts have not come up yet. The doc says that maybe by the end of the week he will do a turn around and we
can go home. Nathen has begun to throw up again and wont eat a thing so I am sure he has yucky sores in his throat again.
Daddy even made his favorite (steak) last night and brought it up to him but he had no interest in eating. We now
have a button added to this site for anyone who wants to donate online to Nathens account. The button is under the flyers/
donations tab. Thanks to everyone...
Amanda
Friday, August 24, 2007
August 24th 2007
Well, we got to go home on Friday the 17th of August and were home til Monday the 20th(Naters birthday) We came home
on Friday and everything was going good except Nathen would nto swallow any of his oral medicine. On Saturday night I called
the doctor to let her know he would not take them and when I would try to make him his mouth sores would bleed. She said it
would be fine just to give him a couple more days then try again. He was also fussy all weekend. I figure just the fact that
he was so weak and feeling so miserable was the cause for him fussing all weekend. Come Monday he was just feeling real bad
and he looked real pale to me so I called the doctor back because I know that him being pale and having pastey colored lips
may mean his platelettes were low. She told us that he had an appointment in the morning and we would do blood work to check
all that then, but in the mean time have the home health care nurse come out , take a look at him and do vital signs and see
if she thought we needed to have him seen right away. The nurse came out and said she thought he would be ok til the morning
since his appointment was at 930am. We were all set to wait til morning and went to bed about 1030 that night. About 15 mins
after we got in bed Nathen was asleep and I was facing him and had to roll over because my back was hurting laying that way.
About 2 minutes after I turned over Nathen made the gagging sound you make right before you puke. I jumpped up and right then
he started throwing up and up came the french fries and chicken nuggets he had for dinner and then nothing but blood. So immediately,
as a matter of fact while I was still holding Nathen throwing up I called the on call doc to see if we needed to come in.
And as I thought the answer was yes and we thought we would just be coming in for blood work and maybe some blood and platelettes.
The next morning the doc came in and said we may get to go home tomorrow(Wed) if he does NOT start running a fever and of
course like an hour or two later he started running a fever so here we are.. His counts are back to ZERO and he has been running
a fever for the past couple of days and the doc says we cant go home til 24 hours after he stops running his last fever and
also his counts have to go up. I have to say though through all of this Nathen has been a real patient and calm TWO YEAR OLD.
He of course wants to go home but does not scream and cry to leave like alot of other kids I hear down the hall at night time.
Nathen is tough and he shows me that every day. I look at him with amazement how such a little boy can deal with all he has
and is dealing with and still have as much fight in him to beat this cancer. Thanks to everyone who has been there for
us thorugh his we really appreciate all of you for everything you have done and will do for us....
Amanda
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Nathens eating... YAY
Hey everyone... a quick update on Naters... He has been trying his best to eat. Over the past couple
of days he has been eating some cheeze itz and some crackers with peanut butter in the middle, however about an hour later
he would throw it back up. On Monday he had two test done. He had a Kidney scan to check the functions of both his kidneys
and also a cat scan to see if the tumor has shrunk any. I insisted on the cat scan, I told the doctors that I did not want
to wait to see because if the chemo is not doing what it needs to do then it could be spreading and may spread beyond treatment
capabilities so the docs sent us for one today, they agreed that the cancer he has is very aggressive and if I felt better
that we should have one done. I dont know the results yet but should by the end of Tuesday. Tonight about 1 am Nathen was
wanting to eat so I went to the cafeteria to see what they had for him and they had either some teryaki chicken or beef fajitas.
I picked out about 5 big pieces of the meat from the beef fajitas and chopped it up. It covered almost the whole plate and
I was shocked when Nathen ate almost the whole plate of it.. SO FAR SO GOOD.. It has not come back up yet. He had an NG tube
which is a tube that goes from his nose to his belly to put food, liquids and meds into his belly without him having to try
to swallow them. They had to do that because Nathen had to have 8oz of contrast in his belly for the cat scan today and I
told the nurse there is no way he is going to drink 8 oz of anything let alone that nasty stuff. We had decided to leave it
in so we could put some pediasure in the tube to his belly to try to get his belly used to digesting stuff again, and it was
doing great until about 1230am Nathen was acting like he was going to rub his nose, like he has been doing all day then out
of no where he grabbed the tube and pulled it out half way. I went ahead and pulled it all the way out instead of pushing
it back in. So ... so much for that idea
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Much better day then yesterday!
Today was a much better day for us! Nathen has not ran
a fever since last night and tonight he
has eaten a
little, anything is better than nothing. He started
out by wanting some soda so we gave him a sprite but
of
course it burned his throat so we gave him some
juice and it burned too so I put some milk in his
sippy cup and he took
one drink of that. I made him
some popcorn and he ate about 7 pieces of popcorn, he
almost choked so I made him some
oatmeal and traded
him the oatmeal for the popcorn and he ate about 4
bites of it. I am so happy. He has been awake
all
evening and alert. Then Nicole(sissy) was watching
scooby doo two with him and had him belly laughing. It
is
so good to see this side of him again. He has been
feeling so bad lately that he just has wanted to sleep
and when he
is awake he moans in pain so this was a
GREAT night for us.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Sorry for the delay on Nathens status.. We have been
having it rough the past couple days. Nathen
has been
running high fevers and also vomiting and pooping all
over the place. Yesterday his doctors came in and told
us
that we may get to take him home Friday depending
on how quickly he gets better and how quickly his
counts come up.
Yesterday his White Blood Cells were
up to 1.2 and this morning they are back to 1.0 BUT...
the good news is.. Nathen
has not had a fever at
all... not even a 100 point something... since early
this morning. This is a first in quite some
time. The
doctors said this must mean his body is starting to
recover. They have upped his dose of morphine back to
1g
because he was awake all night moaning and whining
like something was hurting and I told them I would
rather him sleep
and us be here extra days then him
suffer like last night. Their goal was to get him off
the morphine all together so
we can go home( cant go
home with morphine for is pain) But in my eyes if he
hurts that bad then maybe he needs to be
here and have
an eye on him til he is nto hurting so bad. I am very
excited though about him not having a fever today
and
I asked the nurses if we can hold off on his scheduled
dose of morphine so we can see if he feels better now
that
he does NOT have this yucky fever he has had for
so long.. SHe of course said yes that will be fine but
if he seemed
in pain just let her know and she will
bring it in for him. Hopefully when he wakes up he
will be feeling alot better
now that he wont be
chilling and aching from the fever. I will keep you
guys posted as I know more.. Keep praying...
its
working....
Amanda
Friday, August 3, 2007
Update Naters Thurs Aug 2nd
Well everyone.. still here at the hospital, but we
were able to talk the doctors into taking Nathen off
of some of the nausea meds so he can try to stay awake
and be a little more lively.. They have him on oxygen
but the docs are thinking that if we get Nathen awake
and maybe eating something that he will be able to get
rid of the mucous he has been coughing up and then we
will be able to take him off the oxygen and him not
have difficulty breathing. When he coughs up the
mucous he wont swallow it nor will he spit it out so
it just sits in the back of his throat and obstructs
his airway. Later tonight after he wakes up a little
more I am going to try to get him to drink some of the
juices daddy went and got for him and then maybe off
him some soup or something. He has pooped... YAY... a
whole diaper full.. it was like water and went
everywhere.. at this point I was just glad to see
poop... It has been a very long time since he has
pooped so I am sure his belly feels alot better. He
got some more plateletts today and probably get more
blood tomorrow. But the good news is that his white
blood cells have gone up a tenth of a point, gotta
start somewhere.. he has been going down so I am happy
to see a tenth in the up direction.
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I'll make changes to this site on a regular basis, sharing news, views, experiences, photos...whatever occurs
to me. Check back often!
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Nathen's Movie/Slide Show is Ready. It may
require that you download a photodex plugin.
Just follow directions, and be sure to turn up
your speakers!
Nathen's Slide Show Click Here!
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