Celebration of a milestone birthday

Good evening,

Before we prepare to start another month of Dane's treatment, we celebrate a special birthday today - Dirk's 40th. Thank you for the many birthday wishes that have been passed along during the past week - they have lifted his spirits. I am personally hopeful the start of this new decade will mark a return to more positive news and outcomes for our family.

As I indicated in last Saturday's entry, Dane was scheduled to have a fairly light hospital schedule this week. He attended the Cancer Clinic on Tuesday for his regular exam and blood work and his progress continued to be "on track". His various blood levels dropped from the previous Thursday, however that was to be expected given the chemo affects the good cells and levels while it's hard at work destroying the leukemia cells. His hemoglobin (helps carry the oxygen to the rest of his body) was getting close to the number at which he was tranfused early in January so we are keeping a close eye on his energy level. He stayed home from school this afternoon because he was very tired and had a major nap for two hours. One minute he was immersed in watching women's curling (ok, so he had no choice) and the next minute he's sawing logs on the couch. He's been much more lively this evening so we will wait and see what tomorrow brings. Although we don't have a scheduled appointment, we can take him to the clinic for a finger poke blood test if we are concerned.

Dane had his third of four spinal taps for this round yesterday. He was a tad more stressed about the IV this week, largely due to not yet fully recovering from the abrupt finger poke he received last Thursday. However, once the IV was in, the rest of the visit to the Pediatric Day Unit at Children's Hospital went off without a hitch. He received three chemotherapy drugs at this appointment, one in his spine, another in his IV and the third via two injections in his upper leg muscles. Very fortunately for all three of us, the injections were done while he was sedated so he felt absolutely no pain. He has received all three of these drugs before without much adverse reaction so we are hopeful that will be the case again this month.

The Oncology Nurse and Hospital Teacher visited Oakenwald School today for a meeting with the staff and then presentations to both Dane and Ashley's classes. I attended the meeting and class visits and was very relieved at how both of our children reacted. The nurse brought "Ringo" the puppet - a green creature that has leukemia. The kids learned about cancer, the side effects of medications (eg: hair loss), and what an IV is for and how it's inserted into a vein. Dane's class had many questions, so many that we ran out of time and they wrote them down for Dane to bring to the Clinic next week. The kids have studied Terry Fox quite a bit the past couple of years and the highlight question was whether the nurse personally knew Terry Fox. Only from the mouth of a young child ...

My older brother Scott arrives from New Brunswick later tonight and we are all looking very forward to seeing him. He will be kept busy with visits, ringette games and birthday celebrations between tomorrow and Tuesday morning.

We are on day 16 of the first round of the Intensive Consolidation regimen and given it's a 28 day treatment cycle, we are over half way done. It is a HUGE relief to both Dirk and I that Dane has responded so well thus far. He continues to go to school most days, even if it's only for half of the day, and the social time with his friends seems to have lifted his spirits.

The baby check-up this week went well - the little and growing Hantscher is up to nearly 2.5 pounds. My doctor continues to keep a close eye on me, however I don't have to go back for a check-up until mid-March so that's a good sign. I will be 31 weeks by then and pretty much out of the pre-mature labour "danger" zone. Although I am anxious to not be pregnant any longer, I am finding the time is going by quite quickly. Seven weeks has passed since Dane's diagnosis and before we know it, March and hopefully some warmer weather, will be upon us. I am looking forward to some short little walks in the spring sunshine to lift my spirits.

As I close for tonight, I'd like to say thank you to Jessie's family for introducing themselves at the Clinic and for watching our blog (Jessie is Dane's age and was diagnosed almost two years ago). I'd also like to pass along our best thoughts to Hayden and his family for a speedy recovery and release from the hospital (Hayden is also Dane's age and was diagnosed in mid-November).

Take care everyone ... Janie and Dirk