Thursday, May 21, 2009

Spinal Tap

Ben had another spinal tap this morning and all went well. Ben had some very interesting hallucinations and was cracking everyone up with his sense of humor. Ben said that I should share his hallucination, specifically that he thought he saw Mario and Luigi racing their cars on the cupboards in the room and he thought the cupboards were sand. I guess maybe he shouldn't play MarioKart right before a spinal ;)
He also thought my hair looked like water - I guess that probably went well with my 4 eyes, 2 noses and 2 mouths!

Ben's wonderful and amazing nurse called with the results of his bloodwork and all was great and right where we want them to be. Unfortunately, I did not have a pen when she called so didn't write them down but it was in the ballpark of white blood count 2.9, hemoglobin 12.9, ANC 1850.

Scott met us at the hospital and we all went for a delicious lunch.

Woo hoo. Another one down!

Friday, May 8, 2009

Two years down

Ben was diagnosed two years ago today.

Needless to say, it's a bit of a strange anniversary. On the one hand, we're celebrating the amazing work of Dr. Hurvitz and her team at Cedars. If Nicole or I got what Ben has when we were kids, we wouldn't have survived, yet Ben is in remission and has a very good prognosis. We're also celebrating the silver linings of this whole thing -- we've all been forced to re-evaluate what's important in life, and we've been amazed by the incredible support we've received from friends, family, co-workers, and even total strangers. We've also been blown away by the strength Ben displays every day, not to mention David's ability to deal with the difficulties of having a rock-star brother.

At the same time we want to celebrate, I must say that it's a sad day too. It's not easy thinking about all the things we've gone through -- the fear, the stress, the challenge of helping a young child understand and cope with a deadly illness and the intensive treatment it requires. And we still have a long way to go -- 478 more days of chemo after today. Then we'll be hoping that the cancer doesn't come back for the rest of Ben's life, and also dealing with the long-term effects of chemotherapy.

Once again Nicole and I want to thank all of you for your interest, your support, your prayers and your love. This hasn't been easy, and you've helped us more than you could ever understand.