Bennett is doing good.  He says he’s not tired but I don’t see how he can’t be. He got up at 5:30 a.m. and went to bed at 10:00 p.m. and didn’t stop all day.  He had driving this morning with the instructor at 6:00 a.m. at school.  He had two basketballs games tonight and than went to the rest of Lindy’s game after that.  We pray he can keep up with this early morning driving and he can still get enough rest to help keep him healthy.      His team won both A and B games tonight against Hamilton County.  Bennett got to play and did good defensively.  He really kicked in and played great the 2nd half of the B game.  I think he had several steals, rebounds, and made 5 to 7 points.

Hamilton’s travel team had a game tonight too against Mt Vernon.   We lost by about 5 points, they came from behind though and almost had it.  Hamilton played good and enjoys playing.  I think he made 4 points and had several rebounds.  Lindy’s had a game too and was the last home regular season game so it was Senior night for her. They won and she made 28 points! The 2nd highest scoring game she has had.  I wished we could be at 3 places at one time because it’s hard to pick and choose which game to watch because they all are important to us.   

Bennett took his weekly chemo methotrexate today and took 6 pills which is a lower dose than normal.  We hope his liver levels are good when we check counts this weekend and that his ANC is holding in safe range.  The Dr. did say last week that she really liked his last ANC at 1,600 rather than the 500.  I think she gets nervous of what’s next with him too.  When talking to his nurse last week and discussing that  Bennett only has a few more months left of treatment and this will be a day to celebrate;  His nurse agreed  And said Dr. Shenoy will be celebrating with you too because you have really stumped her several times.

May God continue to bless Bennett, keeping him healthy and in remission forever.  

We hope you too go to God in prayer when you have a burden on your heart because he is the only one to get you through.

Bennett is doing good. He enjoyed a day off from school today.  He was able to sleep in a little and than had basketball practice for a couple hours.  He has a busy week. Tomorrow he starts driving with an instructor for driver’s ed at 6:00 a.m. in the morning before school.  He will do this every other day for several weeks.  This makes for a loong day especially tomorrow night when he has two games.    We play at home against Hamilton County.  We pray that these early mornings don’t wear him out.  He went to bed tonight before 9:00 p.m. so hopefully this helps.

We’re thankful that he is feeling well and pray this continues.  At times, I feel like it’s always something. We’re lucky if a couple weeks go by and he still feels well and no problems.   I’m wondering if the side effects from the chemo are getting worse just because he has had soo much and his body can’t take it like it used too. We’re glad he can endure treatment.    We ask God to lay his hands on Bennett and keep him cured for the rest of his life.

Bennett is doing good.  His cough has gone away too except for every once in awhile but when he does, it is that deep congested type.  We’re so thankful his horrible headaches are gone, what a blessing.

He finished another dose of steroids yesterday finishing up his 5 days of 35 prednisone pills for the month.  We’re always glad when were done with those.  He continues to take his daily and weekly chemo pills.  

He played yesterday in the A and B freshman games in Harrisburg.  He didn’t really get a chance to shoot but played well defensively.  We won by one point in the A game with a buzzer shot, it was a pretty close game all the way through.  We went to Hamilton’s game afterwards and his team was playing West Frankfort and won by 15 to 20 points both games they played.

Today, Bennett and Hamilton have been practicing with their bows.  They have blown up balloons and shooting at them.  They also got out a ladder and climbed up it like they were in a tree practicing deer hunting shooting their arrows at the deer decoy.

On our way home from church, I looked over at the hospital and was glad that we were driving right on by. We get a break this week and don’t have to check counts until next weekend.  We pray that they are good and holding strong.

“Bless the Lord, you his angels, who excel in strength, who do his word, heeding the voice of his word.” Psalm 103:20 

Bennett didn’t feel good when he woke up this morning.  He still had his headache and just didn’t feel well.  He stayed home from school and tried to sleep off his headache or feel better. I gave him more tylenol and pain medicine.    He might of felt just a tad better right before lunch time.  I took him to school and he made it the last two periods.  He also stayed for basketball practice.   

He felt better tonight and hasn’t complained of a headache!  I’m not sure what the cause is but I hope it doesn’t return.  He has a basketball game tomorrow morning at Harrisburg that he is looking forward to.  We pray he is up to it and gets to play.

Hope is all well with you and your family.  May God bless all the children and adults fighting this awful disease.

Bennett is not doing well.  I’m not sure why or what’s going on but he doesn’t feel good and so far I don’t have answer.  That drives me crazy.  He went to the nurse today at school because he had a terrible headache.  He tried laying his head down and it didn’t help.  I took him home and he went straight to bed.  After taking his temperature and it was normal, I gave him some tylenol.  He also felt nauseated. We’re not sure if that was from the headache or something else.  He took some anti-nausea medicine too.  His pain from a scale of 1 to 10, was a 10 so I gave him a pain pill too.

He said before school, he felt bad but was just going to try to make it.  He found after about an hour and a half that it was just too imbearable. He tried to go back to school but he just didn’t feel up to it.  His head still hurt after a couple hours, down to a pain of an 8.  He really wanted to go back so he could play in his game tonight at Carbondale but that didn’t happen.  I had a bank meeting tonight so I didn’t get to comfort him which was nerve racking but he said his head felt a little better when I got home.

We pray that his pain will go away and he will wake up in the morning feeling better.

“So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Mark 11:22-24    

Bennett is doing pretty good.  His cough is getting better!  He still continues to do Netti pot twice daily and clear slime comes out. ooh gross.  It seems to really be helping.  He finishes the antibiotic cyproflaxin tomorrow so we hope the improvements continue.

His Dr. wanted to review the side effects of the spinal tap and our trip to E.R.  She really felt like he was dehydrated and that is what caused shortness of breath and low blood pressure.  She indicated the next spinal tap which is in March that she is going to double the iv fluid bolus to help prevent that. She said that his body just doesn’t like the chemo methotrexate and gives him alot of complications but be thankful you’ve been able to do every treatment.  And she is right, we know other patients that have to stop chemo treatment because the side effects are life threatening to them.

Something kinda weird happened yesterday. One of the nurse practitioners at the clinic came up to us yesterday and said she had a patient that was newly diagnosed that she wanted Bennett to meet.  He plays basketball and was asking about playing with a port a cath.   She immediately thought of Bennett and said she would introduce him later because he comes on the same days as us. We didn’t get any more details other than he is age 15.     Later that afternoon, we saw a teenage boy sitting in one of the recliners receiving chemo and had on the colors of Murphysboro.  Bennett said I bet their from Murphysboro but we never got a chance to really talk with them.

Last night at the last minute, Lindy decided to play her game even with a hurt ankle so we weren’t sure we were going.  We got there and the girls were playing Murphysboro.  Bennett asked me, why do you think the Murphysboro team is wearing lime green tennis shoes strings?  After looking closer, they had a lime green cancer ribbon on the front of their warm up shirts.  We both looked at each other and knew it was someone with cancer. Bennett knew lime green was a symbol of lymphoma.  He said I bet it is for that kid we saw today from their town, Murphysboro.  And  I added, you were asked to meet a basketball player that was just diagnosed?

At the end of the game, I went and asked the Murphysboro coach, and yes the shirts was for a classmate just diagnosed and is being treated in St. Louis.  It was the boy we saw yesterday and the patient the Dr. wants Bennett to meet.  The Murphysboro boys team is also wearing lime green for him and their picture is in tonight’s Southern Illinoisan newspaper.   I ask for a special prayer for this young man named Kyle just diagnosed 3 weeks ago with non-hopkins lymphoma that lives in a town 45 minutes from us.  I pray that Bennett is willing and can offer a testimony that is valuable to him.   God has a way of putting people at the right place at the right time and he sure impacted Bennett and I yesterday with the day’s events.

“Whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” 1 John 3:22

Bennett’s appt went well today just a long day, we left at 7:30 a.m. and got back to Benton around 4:00 with no stops before or after the hospital.  His Dr. said he sounded clear and looked good.  She said the globulin that was low on his last counts would improve with his infusion of immune globulin today. She said the chemo is lowering it and he is more suspectable to infection with it low. The infusion went good without any side effects, the nurse checks his blood pressure, pulse, and temperature throughout the infusion.     We confirmed with Dr. that he is still taking vitamin C and calcium supplements daily and she said that was okay and good. 

I asked his Dr. about trying milk thistle natural supplement that I heard on the news that a luekemia patient took it to improve her liver levels.  She said she didn’t know enough about it and was afraid it would interact with his chemo.  She said after he stops treatment than we could try it.

I confirmed with her that Bennett will stop treatment around July 3, 2010!!!!!!!  She indicated that we would just stop all chemo treatment.  Oh my, unbelievable and scary not to have something fighting the disease from coming back.  Next month will be our 3 year anniversary.  His monthly appts in St. Louis are actually every 4 weeks so he will have two appts in June so Not that we are counting down but he has six chemo appts left and two spinal tap procedures!

I asked her about coming back for a check up every 4 weeks for six months and she said maybe a year since he had such intense treatment.  That’s okay, as long as their visits!  He had the breathing treatment to prevent pneumonia and she said we will continue that for six months after treatment so were looking at another year of that.  This medicine in the breathing treatment tastes awful and is not fun to do but he uses peppermints to try to disguise the taste.

As soon as we got back into town, Bennett went to basketball practice and finished the last hour.  He was pretty tired today sleeping all the way there and back besides taking a few naps while we were at the clinic in-between his math homework.

Today, Bennett started taking 7 prednisone pills daily for the next five days.  We pray these don’t cause any side effects and his bones stay strong.  Today also was his day to take the chemo methotrexate too and the Dr. changed it from 4 pills to 6 pills today.  She said to check counts in 2 weeks and she may increase the dosage back up to the 9 pills.

Bennett’s needs to go on a diet!  Ha ha, He weighs the most he ever has, he weighs 147.3!  I teased him that he had his wallet, phone and calculator in his pocket and probably is what weighed so much. He took all of it out and weighed again and he was at 146.3!!  So happy his weight is good. It seems when he is sick  he quickly loses several pounds.  He really looks good and healthy!!    YeAh!  Another blessing from God!

We went Lindy’s game tonight and she did good.  They won and also the boys Varsity team won too.

“As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.”  Psalm 18:30

Bennett is doing a little better.  He seemed not to cough as much at tonight’s game.  We won against West Frankfort 42 to 26. Bennett played every quarter and had a really good game.  He had 4 points, a few rebounds and steals.  He made a basket right as the half time buzzer went off and it counted.  He made a good lay up too while being fouled and falling to the floor.  He had a couple errors but all and all played an aggressive game.

Hamilton’s in house team had their first game tonight.  I hate having to choose which game to go too. Actually I don’t get to choose, Sid is Hamilton’s coach so he goes to Ham’s game and I go to Bennett’s.  Hamilton’s team won by one point. 

After church yesterday, Bennett went goose hunting for about 3 1/2 hours.  He saw a few flying over when he was putting out his decoys but never saw anymore.  I can’t believe he likes sitting in a ground blind in this zero degree weather but there is not just a few more weekends before goose season is over already.

Bennett’s monthly chemo appt is tomorrow morning.  We have a few questions to ask the Dr.  about his cough and blood work.   We expect it to all go good.  

#5 Bennett Page

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1

Hooray!  Bennett’s ANC today is 1,625 from 583 one week ago!  Praising and Thanking the Lord!!  His WBC are 2.5 from 1.1 and neutrophils are 65 from 53.  Hemoglobin is 12.1 from 12.2 and platelets are 175 from 177 which are great.  Liver levels are still high at 87 and 195 from 161 and 199. Bilirubin total is up to 1.20 from .80.  His protein was a little low so we will try to work on protein foods this weekend.  His globulin was low at 1.7 and normal range is 2.3 to 3.5. We’ll check with the Dr. on Tuesday about that, it’s possible low from liver levels being high.

He still has his cough but not as frequent!  It still sounds pretty congested.  He still is doing the Netti Pot 2 to 3 times daily and the stuff in his nose, is now clear instead of yellow!!  Good news!  We pray with all the things we are doing, the antibiotic he’s on and the higher ANC that this will all go away soon!

Bennett was overly tired this morning when he got up for basketball practice and I was afraid he was getting worse but he made it through practice and his energy level improved through out the day.  We went to my great nephews birthday party this afternoon.    Him and Lindy are going to watch movies tonight.

His next monthly Dr. appt is this Tuesday in St. Louis.  Boy, each month  just seems to come quicker and quicker.  I think he will only have 5 more chemotherapy appts after Tuesday’s.  It’s close enough now that I can start asking the day he will stop treatment.  Oh my, I’m getting nervous and anxious just talking about it.

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed,  for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

Bennett is about the same except his cough is more frequent and sounds deeper in his chest.  We pray that this doesn’t get him down and/or turn into something worse.

When we came out of Bennett’s game in Murphysboro last night, the snow had already covered the ground. We decided for us to go ahead and go to St.Louis tonight for Bennett’s ENT Dr appt. and try to beat the snow and traffic.  We left at 10:30 p.m. and made it to the hotel at 1:00 a.m.    I64 was horrible, traffic was down to one lane and no snow plows were out yet.  I was glad we went though because it would of been worse this morning.

Well, I have either good news or bad news about his ENT appt.  Good news is that we are doing everything we can already to treat Bennett’s sinuses.  Dr. only made two changes, to not take the claritin allergy pill because she is not really sure he has allergies (plus he has taken it for three months with no help).  And she added a nasal spray called Fluticasone Propionate.  She said  the spray wouldn’t help now since he is sick but as he improves, it should longer term.

The Dr. indicated that sinuses are tricky and not alot to do unless it’s a constant problem that an antibiotic won’t resolve currently for him.  She didn’t want to do any allergy testing on him at this point.  She basically said because of his low immune system that we could make things worse instead of better.  She indicated since were in the dead of winter that he is going to be susceptible to every bug that goes around.

I explained that I didn’t want this to turn to something severe and cause us to have to go to sinus surgery again or anything like he went through last year.  I am trying to be pro-active and prevent something worse coming along Plus we are tired of the constant cough and antibiotics and not feeling well.  Unfortunately I got the same feeling from her as I did with his oncology Dr. that until he finishes his chemotherapy treatment,  this is something we are going to have to deal with.

The ENT Dr. wants to see him in 2 months unless he gets worse.  She did say that she didn’t really see anything in his nostrils and throat!  Netti Pot again as worked!!  She said he could use it every 3 to 4 hours if he wanted. He is doing it at least 3 times daily.   The only problem is that the stuff has drained to his chest and possibly the cough is from there.  I was ready to do a chest xray today to check for pneumonia but she said to give the antibiotic a chance to work and if not better by Monday than to go to family Dr. to check out.  She says the cypro he is on should help cure pneumonia too.

I just hate it for Bennett because he has to be getting tired of not feeling good and constantly having some Dr. appt, x-ray or another pill added to his “buffet” of medicines.  I’m not complaining  just was hoping for a better result.

On too good news!  We played Herrin tonight and beat them by 5 points!  Bennett was very pleased/happy,  he played every quarter and did a good job defensively.  He had 2 assists, 3 rebounds, and a steal. I could hear him coughing and he was coughing on the court while playing.  He would go up for a rebound and cough.  Not bad for someone that has a very low white count, high liver levels, a nagging cough,  on chemotherapy and fatigue.

Last night, we lost against Murphysboro by several points in the first “A” game and in the second “B” game.  Bennett played a little of first game.  He played all of the B game and did really good.  I don’t recall his stats but he did make 11 points out of the total 18 that the team had.  He had several fouls that he got to shoot free throws.  He was called off on the free throw for stepping on the line and than the next time he was up to shoot free throws, he was called again for stepping on the line.  We couldn’t believe that he didn’t look at that but he said he was concentrating on making it.  I think sometimes the sinus junk and even chemo can get to your brain!      He was happy on how he played and that’s all that matters.

We pray Bennett’s counts improve, cough goes away and he feels better.  Hope everyone has safe travels in the snow and the frigged temperatures.  God Bless!