Family photos

Isaiah turns 3

My sweet boy has turned three.  Time has gone by so quickly.

My first smile

Love the chubby arms!

Look at that hair!  

Decorating Easter eggs the day before diagnosis

My bigger days

I look cute in all shapes and sizes!

My tired days

enough with the pictures mom!

Clowning around

gardening with mommy

Snow!!

Fun activities

We purchased our usual ikea tree last week.  It was so much fun seeing Isaiah point out all of the trees he thought would be suitable for our home.

Isaiah went to a birthday party today and got to hold a boa constrictor snake!  Whoa!  He was so brave.

Riding the Christmas train at the mall.  

Final dose for interim maintenance 2

Isaiah  received chemotherapy on Thursday; his final dose for phase 5 of treatment.  We are thrilled to finally be at the end of intense chemotherapy.  He officially starts maintenance on December 21st.  Maintenance will last two years and will include receiving chemo every four weeks, taking oral steroids 5 days every four weeks and taking an oral chemo pill every day (yes, every day for two years...let's hope he learns to swallow pills because that's a lot of pill crushing to do).  This means that Isaiah's immunity will be strong enough to be around germy people.  So, we will return to church, resume going to Strong Start and maybe even attempt swimming lessons in January.  I will not take doing all of these things for granted.  It's been a long 9 months of treatment.  We're excited to get back to normal.

Thursday's chemo - I love my sweet boys

General anaesthesia

Isaiah had three chemotherapy treatments on Monday: IV Vincristine, IV methotrexate and Intrathecal methotrexate (chemo in the spinal fluid).  Since diagnosis, they've been using the drug ketamine when doing the chemo in the spinal fluid.  It helps to keep him still during the procedure.  Unfortunately, it also makes him very frightened.  He screams out and cries.  It also prevents him from blinking and causes his eyeballs to shift back and forth rapidly.  He seems to get very bad nightmares following the procedure which is not uncommon with this drug.

They decided on Monday to start using general anaesthesia as an alternative.  Although I don't like the idea of him being put to sleep, the only other option was Fentanyl mixed with something else.  This works very well, however, the dose needs to be increased each time because the body becomes desensitized to it.  It's also highly addictive.  Most of the teenagers ask to bring some home.

After a whole hour, he finally woke up!  I think he transitioned from general anaesthesia to nap time. 

After a morning of chemo, he's ready for the day!

The general anaesthesia went very well.  He slept through the night with no nightmares and woke up with a big smile on his face!  Praise God!

Fire hall visit

Last weekend, Isaiah got to visit a fire hall and ride in a fire truck!  So cool!  He was pretty excited and has been talking about it ever since.  Thanks Jordan for having us!!!

Jordan, Isaiah and David

Sporting his cool fireman tattoo

Isaiah met Fin!!

Isaiah had chemo yesterday at BCCH.  It just so happened that the Vancouver Canucks coaching staff as well as Finn the mascot were there to visit.  Isaiah was very excited to meet Fin and was happy to discover that "Finn doesn't bite".  Unfortunately, I was too star-struck to capture the moment on camera.  I found these pictures however on the Canucks website.  http://canucks.nhl.com/club/gallery.htm

Alain Vigneault, Rick Bowness, Newell Brown, Darryl Williams, Roland Melanson, Stan Smyl, Lorne Henning, Laurence Gilman and Fin visited the BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver Thursday, spending time with kids and families in need of a boost.

Isaiah shared his trains with Darryl Williams, after the assistant coach asked nicely

  

Isaiah is seeming to respond very well to this round of chemotherapy.  You would never think he were going through cancer treatment.  At this very moment he is chasing Adam around the house and jumping on my couches.  I couldn't be more thankful for God's goodness.  

Happy Halloween!

Clown #1, Princess, Clown #2

Adam was so tired after Trick-or-Treating

Hospital sleepover

Roughly 20 minutes after writing my last post, Isaiah spiked a fever.  We immediately drove to BCCH.  His line needed to be accessed in order to do blood work, administer antibiotics, etc, however, after three attempts by three different nurses, his line seemed blocked.  They therefore did a peripheral poke in his hand.  Unfortunately, instead of getting antibiotics and going home, we were admitted for the night because of his VAD.  By 2am, Isaiah was still being examined.  He dosed off and was not too happy about waking up to water being put up his nose and a long sucker sucking up mucus in his nostrils.  He then had a chest x-ray to see if his VAD had been damaged.  Everything looked fine.  We were put on the oncology ward and settled in for the night, or so I thought.  At 3am, they wanted to try one last time to access his port.  If it was unsuccessful, they wanted to do another chest x-ray.  Fortunately, the nurse succeeded and Isaiah slept through the whole thing.

It was a long night but I'm thankful that he's doing well again.  We're home now but will have to get more antibiotics at BCCH tomorrow.  

In Emergency

Admitted

Play time in the morning as we wait to be discharged

Round 5 underway

Isaiah was finally able to start phase 5 on Thursday.  Because I was working, David joined Isaiah at BCCH.  For this round of treatment, Isaiah will receive chemo every ten days unless his counts are low and he is delayed.  If all goes according to schedule, he will receive his last dose of phase 5 on December 20th, the day after his third birthday.  He will then start maintenance on December 21st.  

Aren't they cute!

Isaiah's hair is starting to grow back.  Perfect timing for Halloween.

Pumpkin patch

We were thankful the sun made an appearance today after all the rain we've been getting.  It made for a wonderful day at the pumpkin patch.  Isaiah was in his glory.  He was thrilled with the wagon ride and enjoyed running through the pumpkin field.  

 

I want this one!

This was our fourth year to Richmond Country Farms.  I guess it's becoming our own family tradition.  

Adam also had a great time.  He spent most of his day in the backpack.  When we did let him out, he decided to eat a dried mud ball.  Yummy.  

I only look innocent.  When mom isn't looking, I'm going to eat another mud ball.  

Nana helping Isaiah pick a pumpkin.