Les Fountain's Cancer Experience

Wednesday, 12/10/03 Yesterday Les had a clinic visit that was supposed to be just a blood test and his outpatient chemo dose of vincristine, however, his hemoglobin counts were down, so we stayed for a blood transfusion. There were no complications and today he’s up and around just like normal. The last couple days I could tell his counts were dropping because his energy level was low and his “crankiness factor” was high. I’m learning to read the signs. I’m sorry I haven’t updated in a few weeks. Our Thanksgiving weekend was great! Les had energy and was playing with the cousins at grandma’s house – oh, and he had high blood counts, so I wasn’t as worried about germs that day. The rest of the weekend was spent catching up on household projects and chores. The last couple weeks have been pretty good also. Last week Les and I were inpatient at the hospital to start his next round of chemo. Except for not getting much sleep, everything went fairly well. He did much better at home this

Sunday, 11/23/03 (From Jason’s perspective) Les’ energy level has been much higher this week. He has been laughing, playing, telling jokes, and keeping Cillia and I on our toes. We think a lot of it has to do with his return to ‘regularity’, (see last entry) plus he seems to have kicked the cough that had lingered for about 10 weeks so he’s keeping his food down really well right now. Cillia and I are getting into a pretty good groove on the medications now. Every 4 hours starting at 6am we have anywhere from 1 to 5 medications to administer depending on the hour and the day of the week. Cillia loves to organize, so she took the basic spreadsheet that I created and added color codes and some nice formatting touches that help us to read it at 6 am. Les and Cillia went to clinic on Tuesday for a blood test, doctor check, and a dose of Vincristine. His blood counts were measurable this week and he was feeling much better, so they administered the chemo, which he seems to have tolera

Saturday, 11/15/03 Les had a platelet and hemoglobin transfusion yesterday. The doctor also gave him some powerful laxative meds. Les’ G-tube site is also infected again, so he’s on antibiotic for that along with a prescription antibiotic ointment. Good news – Les went poopy in the middle of the night! The great news is that daddy was the one to get up with him and I was able to sleep :). It must have done the trick because it’s 7:00am right now and I just woke up and Les and Jason are still sleeping – we haven’t slept this late for almost two weeks. Hopefully we will be able to control Les’ future bouts with chemo induced constipation a little better now that we know what to look for and now that we have the right medicines. We now have so many different medicines to give Les at different times a day that I had to make up a chart. It’s pretty overwhelming, but if we just take it 4 hours at a time, it’s not that bad. Since Les did not receive his chemo last Tuesday based on his

Wednesday, 11/12/03 Well, we’ve been on a roller coaster. Seems like Les hasn’t tolerated the latest chemo treatments very well after all. We had a clinic visit yesterday that should NOT have included a doctor exam, but I called on Monday and changed that based on our difficulties last weekend. We did see the doctor and she was able to enlighten me a little bit on what is going on. Seems the cyclophosphamide (or cytoxin) attacks the bone marrow, which is what creates the blood. His blood counts yesterday were the lowest they have ever been. His hemoglobin (red cells) count was close to transfusion levels as was his platelet count (he’s never had platelet problems before). Also, his white count was only 0.2. They couldn’t even determine an ANC for him because they could only find 13 white cells in the blood sample. Needless to say, Les has absolutely no ability to fight off any infections right now. We go back on Friday (11/14) for another blood test and doctor check. If his hemogl

Wednesday, 11/5/03 No Tumors! No Tumors! No Tumors! Talked to the doctors and found that there will be no change in the treatment schedule based on the clear MRI results. So, we’re still going to be on schedule for chemo treatments until summer of next year (2004). Les has received his chemo and hasn’t had a problem with anything. He’s currently down at the playroom keeping the volunteers busy. They have cabinets full of games and toys as well as many craft projects available. Three times a day they are open for a couple hours for the kids to come and play. Depending on the number of kids in there and the number of volunteers available, I am sometimes able to leave and have some “mom time”. That’s what I’m doing right now. I have found that I need to be creative about finding time to get on the laptop computer. Les has also discovered the schoolroom and they have literally hundreds of CD-ROM computer games. They have let him bring some back to the room each day. Needless to say,

Tuesday, 11/4/03 PRAISE GOD!!!! PRAISE GOD!!! THERE ARE NO TUMORS IN LES’ BODY!!! We just received the MRI results late this morning and they didn’t see any tumors in his brain or spine. I was hoping for a reduction in the number of tumors, but this news was better than I expected. I really don’t know too much more than this right now. We will continue with the chemo treatments and I’ll ask more questions about what the future holds when I can. We were given the news while Les was playing computer in the schoolroom and I didn’t think that was the appropriate location to pepper the doctor with questions. Thanks for the prayers. Keep them coming!!!

Saturday, 11/1/03  Well, we have been at this for 6 months now. Everything seems to be going as per plan and even better than expected when you factor in all the side effects that Les has NOT had to deal with. Les had his hearing test last Tuesday. Great news – his hearing in his left ear is all within normal levels and his right ear has improved. Praise God!!! Les is scheduled for his next MRI on Monday (11/3/03) while he is in the hospital awaiting his next round of chemo. It’s my understanding that they will wait for the preliminary results of the MRI before giving him his chemo. I’m not sure how long this process will take, so I don’t know how long we will be in the hospital next week. A normal stay for this new chemo is three days/two nights. We may be delayed a day because of the MRI this time, I don’t know. The new chemos that Les will get are cyclophosphamide and vincristine. The cyclophosphamide is the one he needs to be in the hospital for; it is given over two days. T

Friday, 10/31/03 “On Halloween we went to Gammie’s house and carved pumpkins. It was such a great time because we made a Buzz Lightyear Pumpkin. And also, we made a Bob the Builder Pumpkin. We tried some new bread at dinner – it was good. Grandpa Martin, Aunt Joanna, Uncle Billy and Jazmine were there too. That’s pretty much all of it.” - quote from Les.

Monday, 10/27/03 Les had x-rays of his chest and sinuses last week and has finally been diagnosed with sinusitis. He’s on antibiotics now and I hope we will see some improvement soon. His blood counts are outstanding. His ANC was just above 2000 last week. His weight is also slowly increasing. He was up to 16.5 kg (36 ¼ lb) last week. YEAH!!! We have another clinic visit tomorrow (Tuesday). Les will also have another hearing test tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if his hearing has changed anymore since the last chemo treatment. Next week Les is scheduled for his next inpatient chemo treatment with a whole new batch of chemo medicines. They are planning on doing an MRI at that time too. The MRI will tell us if the treatments are still working. The last MRI, back in July was very good in that one of the tumor nodules in his spine had disappeared since beginning treatment. We pray that this next MRI will show similar improvements. Overall, Les has been doing great. We are

Friday, 10/10/03 Les’ ANC was up about 1000 points higher than last week, so we stayed overnight at the hospital for his next chemo treatment last Monday (10/6/03). YEAH! It’s amazing how quickly they can go up, and down. Les had his hearing test on Monday morning (10/6/03). They can detect a slight hearing loss mainly in the higher frequencies. His right ear seems to be a bit worse than his left ear. Because of the amount of hearing loss, they reduced the strength of the dose of Cisplatin by 50%. Hopefully by reducing the dose, they can minimize any further loss. This is the last time Les will need this particular chemo medicine. Note: the hearing loss is fairly minimal right now, and we don’t even notice it. He does seem to be a little extra sensitive to loud noises though. Please continue to keep Les in prayer. God is able to heal his ears – I believe it! We also started giving Les his last round of Etoposide at home. After 21 days are over, we won’t have to administer anymore

Wednesday, 10/1/03 Les was able to avoid a hemoglobin transfusion this last round. Yeah!!! His ANC is still really low though – even lower than before. We think it’s because he’s still battling this cold/cough thing. His next round of chemo was originally scheduled for tomorrow (10/2) but we are delaying it until next week. His ANC needs to be above 500 and right now it is around 300. Check out the Blood Counts for Kids website link under Favorite Websites/ Les’ Favorites/page 2 for more information about what the different parts of the blood do and what normal counts are. The ANC is the Absolute Neutrophil Count (Neut and Benny on the website). Well, Les is still a bit sick, but Jason and I are healthy again – for the most part. We have been able to adjust Les’ feedings back to a little more reasonable timing at night, which is giving us a bit more sleep. Les is still vomiting occasionally, but not usually first thing in the morning like he had been. This last week was a bit top

Saturday, 9/27/03 Just wanted to show a cute father son moment. Les (or is it Jason?) got a new slot car set today. Here they are enjoying the first race.

Saturday, 9/20/03 The past couple weeks have been trying. We’ve all had a congested cough that won’t go away. It is causing Les to vomit his feedings at least once a day, which is sad for him to go through, not to mention the calorie loss that happens with each episode. The first week he lost a bit of weight, but we have played around with his feeding schedule so that hopefully we can minimize the loss of calories if he vomits. It has worked fairly well and Les gained a bit of weight this last week. The downside of it is that we have to go into his room and stop his feeding at 3am in order to give his body time to digest before he wakes up. The doctors assure me that the cough is most likely a virus that we will just have to wait out. It hasn’t gone to his lungs, Praise God!!! Please pray that the congestion and cough disappear immediately!!! Les’ last blood counts were low (9/18/03). His white blood cell count and ANC is low enough that his immune system is threatened and we have

Saturday, 9/6/03 Les received his chemotherapy on Thursday (9/4) as scheduled. He did great. I on the other hand am exhausted from being sick for so long. Because of my not feeling too great, our friend, Tammy, drove Les and I down on Thursday morning and Jason picked us up Friday night after work. Les is improving greatly when having his port accessed and de-accessed. He didn’t even cry last night when they de-accessed him. Yeah! Les spent a lot of time in the playroom this trip. They have volunteers who come in to play with the kids and I was able to go back to the room to rest by myself. Les painted a crocodile and played lots of games while he was there.

Tuesday, 9/2/03 Well, I’ve been sick for a week now with a cold and Jason just started his cold this last weekend. We’re both taking antibiotics and washing our hands like crazy so Les won’t get any of our “sickness germs”. I think I’m going to be better within the next couple days, and Jason doesn’t seem to be stricken too hard right now. Our cars are also a little “sick” again too. I don’t want to bore you with details, but please pray that they are fixed successfully. Les is doing great! He’s watching way too much TV lately because his parents are not up to the challenge of entertaining him. He doesn’t seem to mind too much though, since TV watching is one of his favorite activities. The other activity that is keeping him busy is Tinker Toys. He received a plastic set at Christmas and hasn't played with them much until this last week. He is getting good at making things and it's great practice for using and strengthening his right hand. Definitely an activity I encourag

Tuesday, 8/26/03 Yesterday’s blood transfusion went well. Daddy was able to go with us this time. We got to show Daddy all the different rooms in the clinic. Now he has a better idea of where we are when we go to clinic. Les and I go back on Thursday for another blood test and also PT. I took a couple pictures of the event, so I’ll let them tell the rest of the story.

Thursday, 8/21/03 Clinic Day today. Les had another finger poke blood draw and he decided that some people do it better than others. Today we had one of the “others”. They did succeed in getting a sample though, so all was not lost. (It really wasn’t that bad, and it looked like he cried more to keep up appearances than because of pain) Anyway the results were a low hemoglobin count. We will go back on Monday (8/25/03) prepared for a transfusion if his counts dropped any more. He’s currently just above the cut-off value for a transfusion. I know many have asked about donating blood directly to Les, and I asked about that today. Here’s the deal. If someone was a match for his blood type, they could direct donate – for a fee – through the blood bank. The blood would take at least two days to process before Les could get it and then if he didn’t need it, the blood only has a limited shelf life and could well be wasted. Also, it wouldn’t be available if Les needed it sooner than the two

Friday, 8/15/03 Well, we’ve been home for a week now. Les was discharged on Friday afternoon (8/8/03) after receiving his first dose of Cisplatin on Thursday (8/7/03). He did great with it. They are concerned about nausea and vomiting with Cisplatin, but Les didn’t have any of it (they also premedicated him with three different meds to prevent it). Anyway, the only “side effect” that I noticed was tiredness. He slept for 3-4 hours at a time during the day and all night long. Side note: the “official” report is in on the MRI and it confirms that there is no recurrence in the brain and also one of the larger nodules on the spine is no longer there. Praise God! There are still some smaller nodules in the spine. Please pray that the chemo is effective at removing those. The g-tube feedings are going great. Since we have been home from the hospital, Les has gained about one pound. He hasn’t eaten much by mouth, but that should kick in as soon as his body is used to receiving consistent

Thursday, 8/7/03 Chemo will start today as scheduled. They started the Cisplatin at 2:00pm via an IV and it will last for 6 hours. Prior to giving Les the Cisplatin, they gave him a combination of medications that are supposed to help eliminate the nausea feelings that are common with Cisplatin, though they say that the nausea often doesn’t kick in until 3-5 days later. We will stay at least one more night in the hospital and if Les is doing well, we’ll go home on Friday 8/8/03. Les has done great with his g-tube. It’s going to be nice to be able to supplement his calorie intake and make sure he stays as healthy as possible. He’s happy with it too, now that it’s not as tender. The night before last (Tuesday 8/5), daddy came down after work to spend the evening with us. That was a nice treat. Les went to in the wagon for a little while and we went to the activity center and played Hungry Hungry Hippos (noisy, but fun). Daddy tucked Les into bed and then had to go back home. Yeste

Monday, 8/4/03 We’re still in the hospital and it looks like we’ll be here more days (I’m not sure yet how many more). They didn’t tell me that the process at the beginning of using a feeding tube takes such a long time. We didn’t start using the g-tube until 6pm on Saturday night (8/2). The first order was to give Pedialyte at 5cc’s (1 teaspoon) per hour for 24 hours. Then we moved to Kindercal (formula for big kids). We started at 5cc’s and hour for 6 hours and then we increase it by 5cc’s every 6 hours until he gets to 45cc’s and hour. By our calculations, that will bring us to Tuesday evening (8/5) at 6pm. There are some different ideas of what to do at that time regarding the start of chemo, etc. But, since it’s not set yet, I’ll refrain from publishing it on the web. Our weekend was pretty uneventful. Jason came down Friday night and was here all day on Saturday. He went back home to be at church for Sunday morning (he runs the sound board) and then came back down here for the

Saturday, 8/2/03 Les’ g-tube placement surgery yesterday went well – very fast. I happened to be in the wrong spot when he was in recovery because I couldn’t hear the intercom when they called for me, so Les ended waking up on his own. He was perfectly fine when I finally tracked him down. What was I worried about? After he woke up they transferred him over to a room (I caught up with them in the hallway on their way over). He got settled in and started his videos. His tummy started being “uncomfortable” a little later and they gave him some morphine. That seemed to do the trick. He slept fine last night with another morphine dose at 4:00am. Today has been real low-key. We’ve just hung out and read, watched videos and napped. We still haven’t seen the doctor for his follow-up prior to using the g-tube, but that’s what happens on weekends. It sounds like we will be here until Monday at least. I’ll update when I know for sure. We talked to one of the nurse practitioners assisting

Tuesday, 7/29/03 Les had a MRI yesterday along with a hearing test and a clinic visit. We will hear the results of the MRI in the next couple days. His hearing is great and hasn’t changed at all. Please pray that this next round of chemo does not affect it. The Cisplatin drug is known for affecting the hearing. Les has continued to lose weight and has a poor appetite. We are going to get a g-tube for him to supplement his nutrition. There will be a surgical procedure to place it and a couple nights in the hospital to recover and learn how to use it. Though I’m not happy about having Les go through another surgery, I’m excited to know that I will be able to “feed” him and help him stay strong enough to fight the cancer and withstand the treatments. Les will still be able to eat normally. He is also excited that he won’t have to take the oral chemo through his mouth anymore, I can put it in his g-tube and he won’t have to taste it. The surgery is scheduled for Friday, August 1st. De

Wednesday, 7/17/03 Well, it’s been a couple weeks since I last updated. I apologize for keeping you in suspense. Les did go to camp the week of 7/7/03 – 7/12/03. Les also finished his radiation treatments on Friday July 11, 2003. YEAH!!! No more 7am appointments and being away from home so much! There were a few “big” things that have happened. The first “big” medical thing that happened, and it wasn’t a huge deal, was that Les needed a blood transfusion on July 8th. His blood test after the first day of camp showed very low hemoglobin counts, so he had to skip the second day of camp and go to the hospital instead. He had a great time that day because I let him watch television all day long. The transfusion went smoothly with no complications. He looked a little “pinker” after he received all those new red blood cells. The neat part was the next day the camp went on a field trip to the Rueben H. Fleet Science Center and Les was shown an exhibit that let him “fly through a heart”.

Wednesday, 7/2/03 Yesterday was “Free Tuesday” at Balboa Park. This week we went to the Natural History Museum, the Model Railroad Museum and Les’ favorite, the Rueben H. Fleet Science Center. We enjoyed our outing and stayed a little longer this week since the museums held more interest for Les. Today we went over to Dr. Meltzer’s office for a quick “social call”. We wanted to make sure the “zipper” was healing as well as we thought it was. He gave it two thumbs up!! Miracles of miracles, we actually pulled out of the parking lot before the 20 minutes were up and didn’t have to pay anything!! YEAH!! Now that was a quick visit. The afternoon/evening was spent at Ocean Beach. This is an area adjacent to Point Loma, but faces the open ocean (Point Loma faces the harbor). Les and I walked a little way down the pier, but didn’t have time to go all the way to the end. It’s the longest pier on the West Coast. We were meeting great-grandma for lunch and needed to get back. We lunched in

There are 4 whale in this picture - Really! Monday, 6/30/03 Well, last week I was still tired. I guess that comes with the territory. Last week Les and I went to Balboa Park on Tuesday (free day for some of the museums). We saw the Hall of Champions (sports) Aerospace (planes, space ships) and Automotive (cars, motorcycles) museums. At this age, Les thoroughly enjoyed all of museums and we were only gone about 2 hours. After a late nap, we decided to head over to Sea World and see the night shows over there. We also got to go up in the sky tower at night. It was one of the few clear nights in the past few weeks, so I thought we’d better take advantage of it. Also, the tower has a “tree” of lights coming from it’s point and the lights are colored to represent the American flag. Les loves “United States of America flags” so this was an extra special treat to be able to go up inside of this one. While we were at the top, we could look down into all the areas of Sea World and saw th

Monday 6/23/03 Mondays are turning into a long drawn out appointment day. We start with radiation at UCSD and then go over to Children’s for his weekly clinic visit and blood draw. Then we go across the street to Occupational Therapy. We finish at noon usually, but today we had to back over to Children’s to pick up Les’ MRI scans and take them back over to UCSD. We didn’t get home until 2:30pm – we left the house this morning at 6:30am. Needless to say I needed a nap. Les was fairly cooperative and rested quietly while I slept. I can’t understand how his little body can undergo all this treatment and still not need an afternoon nap. Les had his first official Occupational Therapy appointment today. He got to play in a ball pit, swing on a big green “pickle”, play with Mr. Potato Head. I guess the goal is to improve his fine motor skills and coordination. He seemed to enjoy it OK.

Thursday 6/19/03 This morning was another long radiation appointment. They are preparing for some different treatments for Les and we needed to stay an extra hour. There was a lot more hair loss today. Because we got out of radiation late, I cancelled Les’ Physical Therapy appointment. He still wasn’t awake enough to cooperate very much at 11:00am. Instead, we went to the activity center after his blood draw. Then there were errands to be run and yet another request for Point Loma Seafood. This time the selection was shrimp. Les ate 11 little boiled bay shrimp (the kind in shrimp cocktail) dipping some in the cocktail sauce. The rest of the day was spent at grandma’s resting and getting ready to go home the next day.

Wednesday 6/18/03 Les and I drove to San Juan Capistrano to visit with the Fowlers. They are the family that I working for from home prior to Les’ diagnosis. They are wonderful and were the ones responsible for arranging the website creation. I am eternally indebted to them for this wonderful gift. Les and their son, Sammy, played for hours and I had to drag Les away so I could get home in time for my spa manicure/pedicure. Les had me take a detour by Point Loma Seafood on our way to Grandma’s because he was hungry for seafood. At this point I would buy him anything he was willing to eat. He chose crab. We were able to buy one precooked crab leg and a sourdough bread roll. They cracked it for us and Les ate about half of it (I ate the other half) while sitting looking out over all the boats in the harbor. We made it home just in time for me to drop Les off and head over to my cousin’s house. My cousin gave me a coupon for my birthday good for one spa pedicure and we went togethe

Tuesday 6/17/03 This morning the radiation machine was down and our appointment was 1-1/2 hours late. Les did get an opportunity to actually meet Allison, the little girl who has her appointment after Les. Les noticed her daddy taking some of her hair out. I was able to talk with Les later that night about his hair. I explained that his brain is sort of like the earth (he learned about the different layers of the earth about 6 months ago in preschool). I told him that the radiation needed to get to the middle of his brain, which would be like the inner core of the earth. In order to do that, it needed to go through the other layers. His hair was like the crust of the earth and the radiation would affect each layer it touched. He understands now that his hair cells are being scared away by the radiation just like it is scaring away his cancer cells. When we finally got home, Grandpa Martin was waiting to take us to the San Diego Zoo. We had a great time together. Les sat in his strol

Papa Barry shaved his head "to be like Les" Monday 6/16/03 Les had radiation first thing in the morning. I noticed that when I was rubbing Les’ head (before he woke from anesthesia) I was getting some hair on me. His hair had begun to fall out. After radiation at UCSD, we went over to Children’s Hospital for his weekly clinic visit. We hadn’t seen this doctor yet and she asked if Les had shown any weaknesses in walking or anything because of his tumor. Obviously Les has improved greatly in that area since she didn’t notice. His coordination and strength are improving rapidly. We also talked to the dietician because Les’ appetite had diminished greatly over the past week. Les had lost one full pound in one week. She had some good suggestions and gave us some samples of liquid meal replacements. She also touched on the fact that if he didn’t eat enough, they would have to surgically implant a “g-tube” into his stomach so that we could put food into him. That was the fir

Saturday 6/14/03 We came home yesterday for the first time in two weeks (last weekend Jason traveled to San Diego to visit us).  It’s good to be home.  Our garden has grown and is even showing signs of baby vegetables.  Our corn stalks are almost as tall as me (5’10”).  Amazing since we started with little seeds back in March. Jason’s dad traveled down from San Luis Obispo today for a short visit.  It was good to see him and Les enjoyed his company as always. Well, I’m starting to see the effects of the treatments a little bit more now.  Not much, mind you, but a little. Les’ appetite has diminished greatly. When offered a whole ice cream bar, he only takes a few bites and then is “full”.  Please pray that I can find enough “healthy” foods to feed him that he will actually eat.  He still likes his chicken nuggets, though he only eats about 2 now.  I’ll be talking to the dietician on Monday during our clinic visit and I hope to get some good information from her. Another item to

Tuesday 6/10/03 This was on the home page for a few days. Les is doing great.  He completed his 9th radiation treatment today; 21 more to go.  Radiation will last until mid July.  He is also taking an oral chemotherapy (liquid form) every day.  So far there have been no side effects from either radiation or chemo and we're about 2 weeks into the treatment.  God is answering my prayer in that regard.  Les seems to have enough energy to go through a day without taking a nap (much to my chagrin).  We (Cecillia and Les) are staying at my grandma’s house in Point Loma during the week and Jason is staying at home so he can continue to go to work.  The separation is not very fun for anyone.  The weekends go by all too fast.  I can’t wait until the radiation part of treatment is completed and we can spend more of our time at home.  Thanks again for all your prayers.  They are greatly appreciated during this interesting time in our lives.

Thursday 6/5/03 Today started “Week 2” of Les’ treatments. There are a total of 53 weeks, so 52 more to go or one more year depending on how you want to look at it. There could be delays along the way depending on overall health and blood counts, but we’re praying for good health and good results so that it will go as quickly as possible. Les had a physical therapy appointment today. He surprised the therapist and me by wanting to do 100 leg presses. We did leg presses last week, but I think he only did about 20. He lays on an inclined board that moves on a track and has a platform placed at 90 degrees to place his feet on. He starts with his legs bent and then straightens them and slides the board up the track. He actually did this 100 times today. He also climbed the stairs twice as far this week as last week and played basketball and kickball. He was doing such a great job that before we knew it, it was time to leave. As a reward for being such a good participant during therapy

Tuesday 6/3/03 Everything is going good so far. Les wasn’t excited about taking his chemotherapy medicine this afternoon, but we did get it down. I asked Les what we might be able to do to make it easier next time and he suggested having sugar with it. I called the nurse and she said I could do anything with it I want. I can put it in ice cream; I can put it in grape juice; I can put whipped cream on it; etc. I haven’t told Les all the suggestions yet, that way I can control the process a little better. So now the creativity starts. With Les’ cooperation, I’m positive we can figure something out. We went to Sea World today (Les and I have passes). We saw lots of shows including Shamu and thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon. Les even conned me into buying him an ice cream cone – with the understanding that we wouldn’t have ice cream at grandmas later. He must have remembered because he didn’t ask for anything after dinner. [Les took the photo of Shamu with his own camerz] Les played w

Thursday 5/29/03 I’m so sorry for not updating the “Latest News” for over a week. We went home last Thursday after an early PT appointment, made a quick sack lunch and arrived at preschool just in time for “circle” and then outside for sprinkler and wading-pool fun. Les’ outdoor activities will be limited this summer due to his treatments, so I’m glad he got at least one hour of "fun in the sun" (and water). The rest of the holiday weekend was spent resting, fixing cars, and catching up on the latest goings on. Long story, but please pray for our vehicles! We currently own three of them and for the past couple weeks we have had one or more out of commission for various reasons. Thank you to all of our friends who have offered the use of their “extra” cars during this time. It is greatly appreciated!! It looks like now we have two up and running, but the third may need some more attention. Pray that this is easily diagnosed and fixed in a timely manner. Tuesday, the 27th,