3 days left!

Bennett is doing good.  He weighed 142 pounds yesterday.  He will continue the pentamidine breathing treatment for six months. This is to prevent pneumonia and this will give his counts a chance to re-cover from the chemotherapy.  His Dr. wants him to have one more infusion of immune globulin and than they will check his levels. If they are in normal range than he can discontinue.  This is  a 2 to 2 1/2 hours infusion so he will be glad to stop this.  He will continue to have monthly Dr. visits for one (1) year.  Than his visits will go farther apart for up to 5 years .  We pray all Dr.’s visits show complete remission!  And that some day we can say, he is “cured”.

Hamilton’s rash is gone!  The steroids worked.  He has one more day of taking the steroids.  He went to physical therapy today and she said he had really improved.  It’s amazing of all the different exercises you can do to limber and move the muscles in your ankle and foot. 

Lindy finally had her appt today with the gall bladder specialist.  He wants her to have her gall bladder removed and that appt is next Tuesday.  He indicated she had all of the symptoms of it not working and they have waited long enough so it’s time to have surgery.    We pray the surgery goes well and she can start eating/feeling better.  She also passed her CNA testing!  yeah!

We went our great nieces bday party tonight.  Happy 5th Birthday Sarah!  We can’t believe she is going to start Kindergarten this year.  It’s really amazing what/who can change in a couple  years.  That’s why it’s so important to enjoy each day with the special people in our lives. 

May God bless each of us.

Hallelujah!     Praising and Thanking God for all his blessings!

“Praise the Lord!     Praise, O servants of the Lord, Praise the name of the Lord!    Blessed by the name of the Lord  From this time forth and forevermore!    From the rising of the sun to it’s going down, The Lord’s name is to be praised.” Psalm 113:1-3 

Today was one of our best days of Bennett’s life! We ended a part of our 3 1/2 year journey today. He had his last iv push of vincristine chemo today! He is very excited and thankful to accomplish this feat.

He started taking prednisone today for the next five days. He will be glad to not have to take the steroids anymore. It really bothered him that the steroids could be weakening his bones. He also had his last methotrexate chemo pills today that he has been taking weekly. He will continue to take his nightly chemo pills of 6mp until Saturday. July 3rd is his last day of taking any chemo or steroid pills!

We pray that God continue to blesses Bennett keeping him in remission forever. We pray that his leukemia will never return and that his body will not ever need any chemo again!

We thank and praise the Lord! We thank all of the nurses and Dr.’s at St Louis Children’s Hospital for taking such good care of him. His Dr. today was celebrating today too. She frequently admits that Bennett’s side effects and issues were challenging at times. Again, we would do any of it all over it again to have Bennett in our life!

Hamilton laying with Bennett at the clinic.

Kari, Bennett's clinic nurse since his first clinic appt.

Bennett ringing the "no more chemo" bell

Dr. Shenoy standing proud with her "miracle" patient.

 Bennett is the first patient to ring the “no more chemo” or “I’ve graduated”bell.  It’s a new thing that they want to start and hadn’t placed on the wall yet.  They asked Bennett to do the honors and before it’s an official fixture to be the first to “ring” the bell.  He received alot of nice items from child life.  His nurse got him a chocolate chip cookie cake.  He received a certificate of completion of treatment from his Dr.  What a day!  It’s almost sooo overwhelming that you’re afraid to get too excited or celebrate too much.

Thank you for your prayers, support and your love through this long  journey.

“Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for You are my praise.” Jeremiah 17:14

The boys and I had a great time in St. Louis the last two days!  The weather was cool and everything went good.  We went to the Cardinal game, did some shopping, glow in dark mini golf, and ate “on the hill”.   They boys loved the pizza at Rigazzi’s.   We had fun and were thankful to enjoy this time together celebrating his last chemo appt!   Absolutely Incredible!

Bennett’s ANC is 1,224!  WBC are 1.8 and neutrophils were 68. Hemoglobin is 10.5 and platelets are 174!  Liver levels even were pretty good.  Bilirubin was high as always.  We’re thankful counts were good., Not too high and not too low.

Lindy came over and they went garring and played their favorite game, Mario.

We’re experiencing the week we have been waiting for!  2 days till Bennett’s last “chemo” appt in St Louis! 6 days left of chemo pills that he constantly has taken almost every daily for 1,245 days!  No more steroids, what a blessing!  We left after church today to spend a few days in St. Louis shopping & going to our favorite places to celebrate.   Tonight we went to see Grownups and it was funny.

Bennett’s elbow is still bothering him.  He mentioned it over the weekend that it still felt like he has hit his funny bone.  We pray his ulnar nerve heals.

Hamilton’s rash is a little better.  This morning it was fading some but tonight it looks the same.  He goes to taking his steroids daily from twice a day.  We pray it goes away and isn’t caused from something serious.   He has therapy on his ankle Wednesday, he has exercises to do three times a day.  His ankle and shin look swollen.  I would think it would start going away.

Thank you for checking in.  Praying you and your family our happy and healthy.

I’m sorry for the delay in updates, I had technical difficulties and thanks to JJ,  we’re back going again.

Bennett’s baseball team played Carmi.    Bennett played 3rd base and short stop.  The first two hits he had were pop ups that were caught.  The third hit, he got on base and scored a run.  The fourth time batting, he scored the winning run!  We were tied in the last inning and we had one runner on. The other team intentionally walked the next batter and than the next to load the bases which brought Bennett up to bat.   I was really nervous, there was only one out so we had two chances to win  the game.  The first throw by the pitcher was called a strike.  The next pitch,  Bennett swung and it went past the outfielders head, he brought in the winning run!

Hamilton’s all star team was chosen to sing “Take me out to the Ball game during the 7th inning stretch of the Miner’s game, Hamilton had a great time and was good to see his friends.

He woke up in the middle of the night having a night mare which he has never done before.  It was a horrible experience for Sid and I, it took him a while to calm down.

The boys went tubing with Sid on the lake, Bennett drove the boat a few times and Sid even tubed too.   They said the lake was really smooth and peaceful.  Hamilton took off his life jacket and had a rash all over his chest, stomach and back.  We took him to the Dr. Saturday and they didn’t know what it was from, figured he must be allergic to something? The rash has spread to his arm pits and his face.  She prescribed him steroids to take for 5 days.  He also had a low grade fever.     We pray it goes away and doesn’t cause any complications.

Bennett is doing good.  We’re so thankful.  We will check counts this weekend.  We expect them to be good.  He has been taking 2 pills weekly of the methotrexate chemo and 3 pills dailyof the chemo 6mp.   He has 9 more days of taking these!  It’s really unbelievable!  It’s unbelievable that this journey has been 3 1/2 years!  It’s unbelievable that we are nearing the end!  It’s unbelievable that he has survived all the side effects!   We praise all these things to God!

He went to weight lifting and open gym for basketball today.   Tomorrow and Friday, he has a baseball gamea at home.  I hope it cools off.

Hamilton is doing good.  He is doing his daily excerises three times a day.  He doesn’t wear the boot at all, I think it lasted a day which is fine because he can put weight on his leg.  He is learning to move his ankle and not have such a stiff/limp walk.  He hopes to play a couple baseball games before the all star season finishes.  We’ll just have to see how he progresses in the next week.

I ask for your continued prayers for the Harben family which had to bury their husband, father, and grandpa  yesterday.  We’re so thankful that God blesses us with everlasting life!       We pray God’s grace is touched by several souls.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6:23

Happy Father’s Day yesterday to all the Dad’s! A special father’s day wish to Sid, his Dad and my Dad!

Bennett is doing good. He is counting down the days till the last days of treatment. July 3rd is his last day of taking chemo pills and next Tuesday is his last day of having to receive chemo in the clinic in St. Louis. That won’t stop our Dr. visits though in St. Louis.  He will continue his breathing treatment and immune globulin infusion for about 6 months until his counts go up.  His Dr. indicated she still wanted to see him monthly for a year than his visits will get farther apart but she will follow him for 5 years. We pray that he doesn’t ever have to have chemo again and the leukemia will stay away forever.

Hamilton is doing good.  He doesn’t like the boot, it’s too heavy, hot, and big.  He went to his therapy session today and therapist evauated him.  He has a ways to go in using his ankle and him walking without a limp.  Considering all in all, he is doing great.  He has exercises to do at home three times a day.  He will go back to therapy on Friday, it’s twice a week.  He is hoping to be released and ready to play all star baseball before the season is over.  He sure has missed playing.  

Thank you for checking in.  Hope all is well with you and your family. 

“Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7

Please say a special prayer for my niece and her family that lost her Dad today, Mark Harben.  He was a high school football coach and used to be highschool soft ball coach.    This is a very sad time and it’s unbelievable of how things can change so quickly.  May God bless them in their time of sorrow.

Bennett is doing good. He had a game Friday and did really good. He was the only player that played all 9 innings. Instead of playing two 5 innings game because of the heat, they decided to play one 9 inning game.  He played short stop for 6 innings and center field for the other 3.  He had two walks, one out and and 2 good hits.  One hit he got a double and it went to the high school fence which is about 305 yards, pretty exciting!  He had some good plays defensively too.

Last night we went to see Toy Story 3. Bennett has been waiting for it to come out, he loves it.  Woody and Buzz is his favorite, he remembers playing with those toys from the first movie when he was little.  We enjoyed the movie and ran into my nephew and niece and watched it with them.   Tonight, we celebrated Father’s Day for Sid going out eat with the boys.

Hamilton is really happy!  He got his cast off Friday, his x-ray showed that his leg bones and grown new bones and healed.  They gave him a boot to wear.  He will do physical therapy for 2 to 4 weeks. Dr. wants to see him in 4 weeks, she thought he would be back at it in no time.  He has already started walking without the boot.  He can put his weight on it, the thing he has to work on, is his muscles around his ankle.  He has exercises to do to get those muscles loosened up.  He swam today which has to be good for moving everything.  We’re thankful all came back well.  it will be 6 weeks tomorrow and Hamilton said it really went by fast.

Bennett is doing good.  He went to weight lifting and open gym yesterday in the morning.  Last night he went with Lindy and her family to her banquet to receive a scholarship from the Elks.   He has been feeling pretty good.

Hamilton gets his cast over tomorrow we hope. They will take another x-ray and we pray everything is good.  He is sure looking forward to it.  He has come quite used to walking around on his cast and doing alot of things with it.  Him and Bennett went garring tonight but didn’t get anything.

We’re thankful all is well.  God Bless.

Bennett’sdoing good. He has had couple baseball games the last two days. Yesterday they won against Eldorado in both games.  Bennett played centerfield and short stop making some good plays.  He had a double and a hit, walked twice, hit by a pitch, and was out after hitting a pop up to left field.  Tonight, he played Elverado and we lost. Bennett played center field and pitched. He had a couple catches in the outfield and he pitched okay especially since he doesn’t pitch very much.

His elbow is bothering him a little but not too bad.   He is going to try to not go to the chiroractor and hoping it doesn’t get worse.  We’re thankful he is going strong during his last month of treatment.  Bennett took his weekly methotrexate pills added with his nightly 6mp chemo pills.  He is still taking calcium and vitamin C supplements twice daily.

Hamilton is doing good.   He is counting down the days till Friday when he gets his cast off.    I’m sure his leg will be sore and he will have to take it slow to re-gain his strength in his ankle and leg. We pray the healing process is going well and he is back to normal activity soon.

My Dad is doing fair.  he is taking it easy and not pushing himself to do much. This hot, muggy and humid weather is awful to work in.  Sid works outside all day in it too, so you have to be careful and take it slow at times.