Hello everyone! Don’t forget that September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. You can help by donating blood, time or money to the cause! CureSearch, the Austin Hatcher Foundation and the Candlelighter’s are a few organizations that have been particularly helpful to us.

Aidan has had a few post-treatment check-ups and so far his numbers look great. Aidan has been doing great at school. We’ve seen huge improvement in his writing, which is really exciting. We had a thorough neuro-psych evaluation completed a few weeks ago to help us determine what sorts of learning problems he is facing. The results were very helpful and provided us with a plan of action for Aidan’s schooling. The psychiatrist determined that he does not have any learning disabilities but does have brain damage from the chemo. The good news is that it is something that we can work with and hopefully overcome. He will be participating in some cognitive therapy later this year which should also help a lot.

I have to put in a plug for Hatch’s House of Hope here. This is an organization that is housed at Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga (TC Thompson Children’s Hospital is part of Erlanger). It is truly a blessing that we were here in this area when Aidan was diagnosed. Hatch’s provides all of their treatments at no cost. We’ve been utilizing them for Aidan and for Sean. They treat the whole family with all sorts of therapies. If you want to read up on the organization go to hatcherfoundation.org.

We took the kids out to the annual fundraising event for Hatch’s at Lee University—the ladies soccer team does a Kickin’ It For Kids Cancer event. They raised over $20,000 for the foundation last year. The boys had a great time!

Thank you all for keeping up with us. Things are blessedly normal these days!

Aidan has had a busy month! He finished his first swimming lessons--he couldn't swim in a pool for most of his treatment because of risk of infection, so we are catching him up on pool time! He really enjoys swimming and we have noticed a huge difference in his movement. He has always seemed very stiff and tight during treatment and now he has gained much more fluidity and strength. Aidan started 1st grade on August 4th (yes, you read that right--really early!). We made the difficult decision to hold him back this year. After a day or two he doesn't even seem to remember that he would have been in 2nd grade--he loves his teacher and is having a great time. We think it was a good decision and we are excited that he is doing so well. Aidan's checkup this month was fine. We are working on his eczema with an allergy doctor and also on some occupational therapy and cognitive issues with some other doctors.

On Saturday Aidan turned 7. He had a terrific time with a party at a place in town that has a bunch of bounce houses. He played hard and laughed the whole time. Every birthday is a blessing and we were so happy he had such a good time.

Sean is doing great and the boys are looking forward to moving to our new house later this year. It's supposed to be done around Thanksgiving. Thank you all for checking in on Aidan from time to time. There are many many kids still going through treatment, so please continue to pray for them and for a cure!

My apologies for not writing sooner! My only excuse is that we are staying busy this summer and no news is good news! Aidan took his last chemo doses on May 8th and has had two off-treatment check-ups since then. Both have been perfectly fine. He is dealing with some transitional emotions of going off-treatment—he was really upset the night of his last clinic visit. We kept telling him he didn’t have to go back to clinic all the time and that actually upset him rather than excited him. When you think about it from his point of view he has grown up at clinic and he was concerned he wouldn’t see his doctors, nurses and fellow clinic patients. We’ve been working on reassuring him in that area. Aidan and Sean are enjoying a fun-filled summer. They had a great time visiting with their cousins last week and are looking forward to visit from Nana and Papaw Sustek next week.

Aidan still gets his numbers checked once a month. He has been doing well except for an outbreak of eczema. He’ll be seeing an allergist soon to deal with that (it’s common after chemo because the steroids actually suppressed the skin problems and now they flare up when all the steroids get out of his system).

Now, we are focused on helping Aidan transition to off-treatment life and helping him with school. When he started Kindergarten he was young and we always said we would hold him back if need be. At the end of 1st grade this year we had a consultation with his teacher and after a lot of thought we have decided to hold him back for 1st grade again. We don’t know if any of his issues are related to the chemo, but research shows that a common late-effect of chemotherapy for ALL is learning difficulties. So, we are working with a counselor to line up some tutoring and we’ve been spending some time this summer working on various skills. While he is disappointed not to move on with his class to 2nd grade, we think this will be a good choice for him in the long run.

Otherwise, everything is going well. We are enjoying NOT waking Aidan up around 12 each night to give him his chemo pill. We are enjoying NO steroids in our house (the consumption of milk in our home has gone down dramatically!). We are enjoying lazy Monday afternoons at HOME rather than clinic!

On January 10, 2008, James took Aidan to the pediatrician for a case of what we thought was croup. By that evening, Aidan was inpatient at TC Thompson Children’s Hospital in Chattanooga. He would have surgery the next day to insert a port in his chest and receive his first dose of chemotherapy. I remember, quite vividly, standing at the door of Aidan’s room at home that night staring at the empty bed fearing what would come. The next day I have memories of James and I watching Aidan being wheeled into surgery. James and I went up to his then vacant hospital room, curled on the bed together, shell-shocked. Sean has literally grown up with Aidan’s cancer—he was just 11 months old when Aidan was diagnosed. There have been some truly miserable moments in this journey, but we have also experienced amazing moments of kindness. Today, Aidan will go to the Oncology Clinic of TC Thompson Children’s Hospital for the last time for chemo. He will finish out this week with chemotherapy in the form of pills and then he will return to the Oncology clinic in four weeks as an off-treatment patient. It is hard to believe that this chapter in our lives is about to finish. However, the fact is we will forever be changed by this illness. Aidan has taken more than 4200 pills, had almost 20 lumbar punctures, several bone marrow aspirations, countless chemo infusions, some blood transfusions, and some platelet transfusions. His oncologist warned us he would “blimp up like the Michelin man” due to the heavy steroid doses in the early days of treatment—and she was right. He lost his hair during the worst phase of chemo in the summer of 2008. He spent several months wearing a mask when out and about—and had people staring at him thinking he was contagious rather than the other way around. James and I held him down for various pokes and prods more times than we would like to remember—he still asks (3 years later—he had them only 2 times in the summer of 08) if he has to get more “leg shots.” We’ve rushed him 45 minutes to the hospital several times for inpatient visits due to fevers, always frightened it would be more than a fever, and thankfully never was. And we’ve taken Aidan to the Oncology Clinic at TC Thompson’s at least once a week for the past 3 and a half years. But with all of that, we have been very blessed. Aidan’s treatment has gone very smoothly, and we are thankful for that. We are very thankful for the amazing team of Oncology doctors, nurses and staff at TC Thompson’s. We are so blessed to have received help from various organizations like the Ronald McDonald House, Candlelighters, National Childhood Cancer Foundation, Make a Wish, Give Kids the World, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, to name a few. But as we transition to going off-treatment, there are many children who are still in the thick of things. Pediatric cancer is not something we like to talk about. I know. Just a week before Aidan was diagnosed, I threw away a magazine highlighting the very clinic Aidan would be treated in because I didn’t want to read about the bald children featured on the cover. Please do not ignore the children who are fighting this fight this very day. Aidan’s type of cancer has a very high survivor rate, but other pediatric cancers are not as hopeful. For example, Neuroblastoma has a 30% survival rate—30%--imagine hearing that as a parent. And I have unfortunately known several parents who lost their children to leukemia, despite the higher survival rate. So, I ask you today, that if you have been touched by Aidan’s story—a 6 year old survivor of Leukemia—please support organizations such as CureSearch or the American Childhood Cancer Organization. Locally two great organizations are Hatch’s House of Hope or Emily’s Power for a Cure. No family should hold the scars we hold and certainly no parent should bury their child because of this disease. Even as we end this phase of our lives, James and I realize that we will never stop worrying. The clock starts now for the next five years—at that point Aidan will be 11 and deemed cancer-free, Lord willing. Every illness will bring worry of a relapse. Statistically, he should be safe. Unfortunately, once you’ve been a statistic, it’s hard to put much stock in them. But we will heal and move on, as best we can. We are looking forward to a summer of no chemo and celebrating the amazing gifts the Lord has given us. Thank you all for your prayers and help over these years!

It's been a long time--we've been very busy the past few months and life has been pretty normal. We are down to only one week left of Oncology Clinic and just two weeks of chemo pills left. May 2nd will be his last procedure and clinic visit before going off-treatment. We'll give him pills at home all this week and next week and then....that's it! Can't wait! We'll update next week!

Boy, life has been busy! Sean turned 4 on Valentine's Day and we spent the day at the aquarium and around Chattanooga to celebrate. Aidan has been doing well and thankfully didn't catch my flu bug. However, his doctor did decide to test him for an antibody deficiency that might mean some extra treatment for the remaining months of treatment. We'll hear the results on Monday.

We are excited to report that Aidan's last lumbar puncture with chemo is March 7th. And his very last lumbar puncture (no chemo, with a bone marrow biopsy) will be May 2nd!!!!!

Almost there!!!!!

It's been a while since I updated, which may seem like I am forgetting about all of you who still look at this site, but take it as a good thing. It means that our lives aren't centered on cancer anymore! Let me start back in December...The boys were so blessed this Christmas! They received gifts from a volunteer family from the Blanket Fairy (a terrific charity on Facebook--if you are interested in helping families like ours check it out-I know she always needs new volunteers). They received a big box of goodies and got a whole host of presents for Christmas from our volunteer family. They were sooooo excited! We went to Texas for a week and saw all of our families. The boys had a terrific time with their cousins, aunts, uncles and especially their Nanas and Papaws. They received a LOT of love and of course gifts! We came home to snow on the ground after Cleveland had a white Christmas (so sad we missed it!!). We spent a week just hanging out, having fun, before the semester begins and life gets crazy again. Aidan's numbers have been lower than normal, but not terrible. Otherwise, he's doing pretty well. We are excited that we are in the last few months of treatment.

Today is Aidan's 3 year diagnosis anniversary. It's amazing to say it's been three years. But we didn't focus on that today--we focused on the 7.5 inches of snow that fell overnight! We got up and got dressed in many layers and went out to play in the snow. Aidan loves it, Sean's not much of a fan. All four of us had a snow day today, so we get to spend one more day together before life gets busy. So, we are looking at about 3 months left of treatment and then Aidan will be off treatment! We can't wait!

Aidan had his next to last (hopefully!) lumbar puncture on Monday. As usual it wiped him out, but he's doing pretty well. His immune system was pretty low but they went forward with normal chemo anyhow. He's on steroids this week, so his numbers should jump back up. We are excited to be counting down some "lasts" as we move towards the end of chemo!

The boys are ready for Christmas. They were so excited to receive a box FULL of presents from a wonderful volunteer family. The Blanket Fairy on Facebook recruits volunteers to send cancer kids presents. We were blessed this summer with Christmas in July gifts and then this Christmas with a box full of gifts. The boys were very excited and loved their gifts.

We are off to Texas next week for a quick trip to visit both sides of the family. Then it's back to Tennessee to prep for another busy semester. James is excited to prepare for a semester of full-time teaching, but it also means a good deal more work, thus the short trip to TX.

We've had a bit of winter weather but could always do with more! I'll post new pictures soon.

This should be our last Christmas on chemo, our third. The time has gone much faster than we thought it would. We are looking forward to 2011 and a Christmas where all of this is a distant memory!! Merry Christmas!

Three years ago around this time, Aidan had signs of what was to come. He had a hurt shoulder, then a hurt ankle, bruises, was getting pretty skinny, was pale as could be….and we just assumed it was part of being a boisterous 3 year old. We celebrated Thanksgiving in 2007—Aidan was 3 and Sean was just 9 months old—in our new city, Cleveland, TN, completely unaware that life was about to take a radical turn in a little over a month. January 10, 2008 Aidan was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. We woke up that morning and thought he had croup, we went to bed that night fearing the worst as he was prepped for chemo the next day. As I stood in the doorway of his room, looking at his empty bed, I remember thinking that night how quickly your life can completely change in 24 hours. In the almost 3 years since that day we have experienced many things. Aidan is in remission, has taken hundreds of pills, had many chemo infusions, a bunch of shots, countless finger sticks, cried many tears and knows more about hospitals than any normal kid should. For the first few months as we left the house at 7 AM on Friday mornings to drive to Chattanooga, Aidan would cry, begging and pleading with me to turn around and not take him into the clinic. Now he and Sean are both excited when it is Monday and time to go to clinic. Cancer, frankly, brings a lot of crap along with it. However, while I would never wish this for my son, we have witnessed many blessings through this journey. So, I was thinking about this Thanksgiving—Lord willing, our last with Aidan on chemo—and what all I am thankful for. So, here goes:

I’m thankful that Aidan is almost done with chemo. I’m thankful for the clinic doctors, nurses and staff that have followed their calling into such a demanding, draining but important field. I’m thankful that being a cancer patient at 3 and cancer sibling at 11 months means it eventually becomes your version of normal (and therefore it isn't scary). I’m thankful for the many organizations that have worked so hard to provide Aidan and Sean with special events, gifts and opportunities to transform a scary and difficult time into a magical one. I am thankful for my best friend and husband who has been the greatest teammate on this journey I could ask for. I am thankful for the other cancer families who are the only ones who truly understand this experience. I’m thankful for family, friends and co-workers who have tirelessly prayed for and supported us through these past 3 years. I am thankful for the promise of Jeremiah 29:11. And most importantly, I am thankful for the new perspective this experience has granted me—nothing should be taken for granted and every moment is precious. Happy Thanksgiving!

Its been a while since I've updated, so I thought I'd get on here and give a quick update. Aidan is doing well. He's on steroids again this week (yipee!). He is feeling so-so, as usual on these steroid weeks. He's doing well in school and having a great time. We've been blessed with a fairly healthy fall. The boys had a little cold but that's about it. Sean is doing well also. He's having a great time in Kindermusik right now and likes to come home and sing all the songs he's learned. So, all in all, our Fall is going well. We are excited for the holidays and especially the new year--2011 brings the end of chemo so we are very excited about that!