Bennett is doing good. He had a busy day. After Sunday school and church, we went to Walmart. He has been eating a lot of grain/protein bars and bananas lately. He drinks mostly propel, he hasn’t drank a soda in awhile. He has always ate pretty healthy but recently he has started having more healthy snacks too.

He went out to the park and practiced hitting with the highschool baseball team. Bennett did a really good job. He could hit it pretty far. He dove once for a ball and landed straight on his belly, he said after wards that it did hurt. When he got home, he went golfing and walked 5 holes with his Grandma P.

He doesn’t have a blood test tomorrow, it will be next Monday.

Hamilton had to make a volcano for science class for school this afternoon. He had fun making it and it turned out not too bad. Below is a pic or two.

Thanks for checking in, hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather!

It’s Friday! Bennett is doing good. His cough and runny nose is almost gone! yeah! It’s been a long ordeal and sure hope that it doesn’t come back. Hopefully the inhalers and allergy pills are working.

He had a good day at school. He is enjoying being the librarian worker during 5th hour. I really thinks it is great experience for him. He checks in and out books from the library plus also has to take in late fees and update this all on the computer. Sounds like a real job. He really likes it.

He finishes taking his last steroids pills tomorrow which he takes 3 1/2 pills twice a day for five days. He used to get heartburn but that seems to be better. He takes two pepcid pills twice a day to prevent that.

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4

Bennett is doing good. He started taking his allergy pill today and also his inhaler. We pray this helps with his cold and/or sinuses.

He has been working on homework trying to make up what he missed yesterday. Also, he is working on a few projects for extra credit.

Tonight, Him and Hamilton went to the Hitting Zone for instructional baseball class. Baseball will be starting soon. I don’t think Bennett’s team will start until school is out. Hamilton’s team will start practicing in a month or so.

In Jr. high, Bennett could of gone out for track but he decided not too. He doesn’t run as fast as he used to which is a side effect on the monthly vincristine chemo he gets and he says he really doesn’t really like it. So he is going to concentrate on practicing for baseball and golf.

He still left weights each night. He does arm curls and he is up to doing 200 an arm each night. He is starting to get pretty nice “guns” now especially compared to several months ago when he was so skinny and lost his muscle all over his body.

We are so thankful that he is doing so well! God is Great!

“The works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them. His work is honorable and glorious, and his righteousness endures forever. He has made his wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.” Psalm 111:2-4

Bennett’s Dr. appt went well today! He finally is now officially 5’8”! We have been waiting for him to grow a few centimeters to finally hit the mark and today he was over 5’8” by 2 centimeters! His Dr. even commented that he looked taller today. He weighed 132 so he is maintaining the same weight.

He had his port accessed and had an iv push of vincristine. He also had his monthly breathing treatment for pneumonia. He also begins taking 7 steroids pills for the next five days. The Dr. increased his weekly chemo methotrexate to 12 pills instead of 10. She wanted to increase each chemo pill separately and last time she increased his daily 6mp chemo pills.

We talked about his higher kidney and liver levels but she was okay with them for now just will continue to keep an eye on them.

She felt like that his counts were probably elevated because of an infection or a cold but this week’s was still higher than where she wants his ANC. She wants it closer to 1,500 and it was 2,325.

I asked her if we could do anything differently for him since he has been sick off and on since September with the same cold. She said with his immune system low, it’s very possible, he never really gets rid of it or picks it back up easily. She prescribed him two inhalers! One flovent inhaler to use twice a day every day. Second an albuterol inhaler to use when he starts to cough more. She also prescribed him claritin to take daily. Boy, do we hope and pray that this helps. We are tired of dealing with it and talking about it, we will be so thankful if this helps! Plus the weather has to be staying warmer soon!

We got to see several 9west friends and nurses today. Bennett said on the way home, that he misses staying there. And we reminisced of some of the fun times we have had at the hospital together with the special people we have met.

His next blood test is in two weeks.

We continue to pray for Bennett’s recovery and all of the kids!

For those of you that recall us asking for prayers for Ethan that we met at SLCH and have grown to love him and his family. His treatments in Philadelphia are finished and he just had updated scans and a bone marrow biopsy. We are saddened that the results are not what we all hoped and prayed for. The cancer has spread with several new lesions throughout his body and a lot of involvement in his bone marrow. The one good thing is that you would never know it by looking at him. We got to see him at our last appt in St. Louis and he was running around happy as can be.

He will start another new drug in about a week but Dr.’s cant promise anything to his parents other than to give them more time with him. His website is www.caringbridge.org/visit/ethanweiman

It is so heartbreaking and frustrating of why so many children have to suffer and carry the burden of this horrible disease. It’s hard to be happy and assured when so many SLCH friends are sick.

We pray everyday for God to bless Ethan with a miracle! May God give his family strength.

Bennett’s ANC today was 2,325 from 3,157! It seems it could of been elevated some from his cold but also has increased even with more chemo pills from last month. His WBC were 3.1 and 75 neutrophils. His hemoglobin and platelets has been gradually going down but still safe from transfusion. His hemoglobin was 11.6 from 11.8 and platelets at 134 from 186 in one week.

His liver levels were good except for the billirubin total. We started really watching that a couple months ago and it was .20 and today it was 1.00, the highest it has been. As long as it stays below 2.00, he will continue the methotrexate pills.

His bun/creatinine (kidneys level) was also high today at 17.50 and normal is 0 to 15. His nurse said that it’s something to keep an eye on but not to be worried about. He needs to drink more fluids.

Last night, Bennett ended up walking about 14 holes at the golf course. He called me after nine and wanted to me to come over and watch/walk with him. He just kept on saying, “Mom, isn’t this beautiful!” The golf course is on a Lake and there was about hundred ducks swimming and flying around. There were 4 or 5 geese swimming and also walking on the greens. “Isn’t this just beautiful, Mom?,” he would say again, “it’s so cool!” He has a love for nature and the outdoors. He takes it all in. He also played golf and I thought he did pretty good considering he hasn’t played much. He played again tonight and Hamilton went with him.

Bennett has an appt in St. Louis tomorrow for monthly chemo through his port and Dr. visit. Everything should go well but we pray for safety and Bennett’s continued remission!

Thank you for checking in and all your prayers.

Line of Ducks by the golf course

“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” Job 12:7-10

Bennett is doing good. He has mentioned that he has been pretty tired. You wouldn’t know though, he has had a busy day. We went to Sunday School and church. He worked and kept the scoreboard/clock at the basketball tournament for two games this afternoon. And as soon as we got home, he went over to the golf course and walked nine holes of golf.

Bennett has a blood test in the morning. We pray for good counts; very curious if his ANC is still pretty high. We go Tuesday to St. Louis for monthly Dr. visit and chemo.

Hamilton’s team got 2nd place today in the 3rd grade tournament losing to Okawville by 4 points. Okawville was very good and had played like 50 games together this season. We were ahead at the end of every quarter and was tied with just a minute left of the game. The boys really played hard but just couldn’t pull it off at the end. Below is a few pics:

Hamilton’s basketball team beat Goreville today 33 to 16! The boys played really Great! They will play the championship game tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 against Okawville! There was a total of seven teams besides us in the tournament. This is the their last game for the season. It would be Awesome to finish it with a first place win! There was four games today for the tournament and Bennett worked all afternoon keeping the scoreboard and clock.

This morning Bennett walked over to the golf course and played a few holes. He said there was about a thousand ducks over there on the Lake. He said it was hard to play because he wanted to keep watching the ducks.

Don’t forget to move your clocks forward tonight by an hour!

Bennett is doing good and we are so thankful. We are so blessed that Bennett is doing so well.

Hamilton’s team started their 3rd grade tournament and we beat West Frankfort 34 to 14. Bennett kept the score board and clock for the tournament. We play tomorrow against Goreville.

We are very sad tonight. One of our friends from SLCH 9west earned his angel wings last night. Please say a prayer for Emilio’s family, he was 4 1/2 years old. It’s very heart breaking of all the children that have to fight cancer. Please say an extra prayer for all the kids still fighting!

“Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” Matthew 19:14

Bennett is doing good. It seems like each day his cold is improving which were very thankful.

Hamilton’s team had a game tonight in DuQuoin. We lost the first game 9 to 25, they got ahead of us by about 7 points and we never could make any of our shots. This was the same team that we beat by 2 points a couple weeks ago. We played them a 2nd game tonight for 2 quarters and we tied. Bennett kept the stats for the team. Below are a couple pics.

Hamilton’s teams starts the 3rd grade tournament at home. We play Friday night and Saturday and Sunday. Hope they do well!