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.