Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Thankful!

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

We have had a good month and a wonderful Thanksgiving with so much to be thankful for.  

Drew had his regular monthly neuro-onc exam and is doing great.  He still has some foot drop from chemo, but they say to give it a year after being done with treatment to see how much of that function he will regain.  Sometimes I forget that we've only been done for 3 months.  He continues physical therapy once a week and our neuro-onc appointments and labs have been moved to every other month instead of monthly!

He had another audiology appointment with a hearing test that is now showing some high frequency hearing loss.  The loss is not in a range where they are worried about it affecting his speech or needing any assistance with hearing at this point.  We continue to pray for protection of this precious sense with no further hearing loss and will recheck in 6 months.   

We had another cardiology appointment that went well and his echo continues to show improvement in heart function with everything being in the normal range.  He has recovered much more function than we were told to expect (without any heart meds) and we continue to pray things stay that way.  His one particular chemo can affect the heart for years down the road and cardiology will continue to follow him every 3 months for now.  

He is now taking his antibiotic for the pneumonia prevention by mouth which means no more monthly IV antibiotic!  They still had to poke him to draw labs, but it makes for a much shorter day when we don't have to get an IV and stay for an extra 2 hours for the medicine to run with blood pressures taken every 15 minutes.  

He still fought really hard for the blood draw and when we were done I turned around to get my bag and he took off running for the door.  He was so mad that he ran out of the room, navigated his way through the many different winding halls (which is no easy task, finding your way around the new hospital), through triage, into the waiting room and right for the elevators, screaming and crying the whole way!  The waiting room was packed and everyone was watching, wondering what in the world was going on.  Then, there I was chasing after him, upset of course that he was so upset and mad, but I couldn't help but smile.  So grateful for the fact that he was ABLE to run through those halls.  So thankful for his Strength and Courage and Confidence and FIGHT that has never faltered.  



Some pictures from this month

Rock climbing at the Y!


Dallin is always excited when he gets to sit up close in Drew's booster after we drop Drew off at school.
Dallin & Kelsey

Winter is finally here, but that didn't stop them from playing outside, snow and ice on the slides and all!
 

We ran into my Uncle Scott at the park out walking his dog.  


If we have to go anywhere after 3pm, most days end like this.

All 4 in a row!  Kelsey, Dallin, Drew & Brooke



Our friends at Advanced Healthcare Associates held an amazing fundraiser celebrating Drew's recovery and continued healing.  We THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts.  It was a great night!



The Glancer Magazine even showed up to take pics! 


We again want to take this opportunity of this wonderful Thanksgiving season and thank each and every one of you for continuing to follow our story and for your support and prayers.