Thursday, 11/25/04HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
I pray you all find many reasons to be thankful this year. We sure have.
I don’t know how many have given up on me. You were all probably wondering if I would ever update the website again. Well, you can assume that no news is good news. We have been busy trying to live a “normal” life around here.
Here are the latest happenings since the end of September:
Les’ appetite has improved and he has gained weight. Praise God!!! However, there is some concern about his growth velocity. I guess the thyroid hormone is one of the factors that affect growth and his tests came back slightly abnormal. We don’t know if it is because of the radiation possibly getting to the glands, or what. We have started him on a low dose of a thyroid medicine in hopes that his growth (height) will speed up a bit. This leads me back to the weight issue. We saw the nutritionist the other day and she was impressed as to how well Les seemed to be doing. However, after I mentioned the thyroid/growth velocity issue, she was hesitant to take Les off his last can of tube feeding a day. If we reduce his calories, it could have a negative effect on his growth. So here’s the compromise we came to; Les could come off the tube feeding until his next check-up in December and at that time if his weight drops, we go back to the tube feeding. If his weight increases, then we’re done with the tube feedings. Please pray that his weight goes up!!!
Our week is still busy with appointments. Les goes to PT and OT once a week here in Murrieta (on different days). How wonderful that it is so close to home. Once a month we go up to Corona for a different PT and OT session. We’ve tried some PT on horseback and Les really loved it. I tried to figure out ways of getting more horse sessions funded by outside sources, but so far have failed in that quest. It’s the only thing that hasn’t gone our way, so I guess it’s not God’s timing right now. We are still attending gymnastics once a week and enjoying that a lot. He’s improving and getting stronger all the time.
On a non-cancer note, Les lost his first tooth!!! It was a wonderful experience for him and now he feels more like a “big kid”.
Les is doing great in school. We’ve finished the first quarter now and I finally think I’m getting the hang of how this whole home school thing works.
Les got to play in the snow for the first time in his life last Sunday (11/21/04). It actually snowed in Murrieta for a couple hours on Sunday morning. We didn’t get snow directly on our house, but we drove up on the hill behind us and found a street that had some snow still on it in the afternoon. Les ate it, threw it, made it into a snowman, and slipped on it. What fun! This was truly a miraculous day, as we don’t get snow at our house (last time it snowed was in the 80’s).