Les Fountain's Cancer Experience

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