"A Nice Break"

Good evening,

I just realized it's been nearly three weeks since I posted an entry, so without planning it, I gave myself quite the break from writing. More importantly though, Dane is experiencing a wonderful break from the Cancer Clinic. For the first time since he started treatment last January, he gets a ... wait for it ... four week reprieve in between appointments. His last hospital visit was March 3 (at PDU for a spinal tap and IV chemo) and he does not have to go back until March 30. Dane's neutrophils have rebounded tremendously in the past few weeks, in fact they were 4.2 on March 2. This is a number we could only dream about before. We are hopeful that now that he has "kicked" the cold virus he's had for pretty much the entire winter his counts will remain in this range so we can stay on the once-a-month visit schedule. The downside to fewer appts is we miss our Cancer Clinic friends, but we are making sure we stay up-to-date with emails and visits.

We can tell Dane's hemoglobin is in the normal range as he's pretty fired up about life in general these days. He's still in the midst of hockey playoffs and tomorrow night his team plays in the B-side quarter final. They are one of the last six teams standing and he had a really good weekend. All of the games are "sudden death" now so it's pretty intense. You need earplugs to watch these games. Yep, it's partly my yelling but we've also got some fans who have whipped up some pretty amazing noise makers. The past couple of weeks have been great fun. Ashley's season came to an end on a very positive note two weekends ago. Her team won the Consolation final in a nail biter - a 2-1 victory. She played like a wall on defence and now has a two month break before her spring league starts.

We are all gearing up for a trip to Vancouver soon to watch a couple more NHL games. As I reported a while back, the Believe in the Goal organization is sending Dane to watch the Sharks play the Canucks. He is PUMPED and ready to meet Joe again. We've had to explain the meaning of the word stalker to him though as we're getting a tad worried Joe is going to think we are following him. He will be armed with lots more "stuff" for him to sign, particularly now that he's a gold-medal winner. I'll report on the trip's happenings in my next entry.

Clare continues to "wow" us on a daily basis. She is full of energy and personality and is getting into everything! She discovered the stairs yesterday ... I am NOT ready for that phase yet. She now tips the scale at 22.5 lbs and is 30 inches tall. She remains a bit of a "monster" but she has definitely slowed down - thank goodness. She already weighs as much Ashley & Dane did at 16 months!

Until next time, take care everyone - Janie & Dirk