Tuesday, Sept 14

Once again, I apologize for the lack of updates but we have been extremely busy with Brody's treatment and Geordi and Jaden's homeschooling.

Brody is doing relatively well, he was admitted last Tuesday overnight for his 3 drug combo chemo and did pretty good however his Nausea seemed worse then the last few rounds so he had problems with his oral meds. He is also having a bit of persistent diarhea from his radiation therapy. It seems to come and go. His Nausea has also been generally bugging him lately too so he has been getting his zofran (anti nausea medicine) often.

Right now, Brody and I (Bill) are at the hospital getting his 1 drug chemo (Vincristine) and his labs done. They just told us he needs blood again so we will be here for the afternoon again. It is 11;15 now and they just ordered it so it will take about an hour for it to get up here and then about 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours to infuse it.

Our other bit of news is that Geordi learned how to ride his bike without training wheels a few weeks ago. We have been behind in teaching him this year but he picked it up pretty fast.... however he took a spill last Sunday and broke his left arm. So gets a bike break (nice pun Bill :) ) for about 6 weeks or so... it was pretty painful but is feeling better now. Luckily it was his left arm and he can still write for school.

Geordi has been doing pretty well at school... his reading and math skills are pretty good. They placed him in a pretty high reading level (reading lessons are seperate from his general school lessons)-- however the reading lessons involve a fair amount of writing lessons too and his writing skills are not as good as his reading... so it takes us a long time to get through each of his reading lessons and I think he is starting to not like reading now because of this... the math lessons he has had so far are well below his math skills so we have been working with him a bit outside his school lessons.

Jaden is doing well in his Kindergarten lessons. Our Neighbor Barbie has been working with him on these while we work with Geordi-- this has helped alot. Brody and her Daughter Lucy do some of the lessons with him (They are both 4).

Not to be outdone, Jaden is now riding his bike with out training wheels now too-- It seems like Jaden has always been right behind Geordi in doing things physical things like this-- he walked and talked early and developed other skills early so he can do them with Geordi... other then his school skills, he can do almost everything as well as if not better then Geordi.

One of the difficulties of homeschooling is the boys behavior-- they don't feel like they are at school so have acted out or lose interest in things fast-- Trish came up with a reward system that so far is working well... Each of the boys and Lucy get 4 playing cards each day... they lose 1 of them for bad behavior. Trish bought some prizes that they can trade the cards in for... the more expensive ones cost more cards (the cards are worth about 33 cents each)... they are displayed in a glass front cabinet in our kitchen so they can see them all the time.

We have expanded the reward system some what in that they can earn extra cards for doing extra work (picking up basement playroom) etc... we have also been rewarding Brody with cards for taking his meds or getting a needle poke.... this has eliminated alot of the stress for Mom and Dad in giving him his meds... he will get the meds no matter what (we don't give up) but he won't get the card if he argues or is extra difficult... so far so good... and is well worth the cost... we tried paying him a while back but he doesn't understand the money concept very well yet.. the cards and prizes are tangible.

Really thats about it... we have been very busy.... and will continue to be for the forseeable future... this is Brody's 22nd week of his treatment and his last chemo is delivered on week 39.... if he stays on schedule that puts us at Jan 10th and then a few weeks to recover from that....

Once again, thanks for everyones words and assistance we have gotten since Brody's diagnosis.... every bit helps...

Bill