#Loganstrong

Logan had a great day today. He went to school for the first time in a long while and did great. There was not even a shy period. It was like he was there all along. After school he rode the bus home w/ cousin Sydney and played over there for a couple hours. He is feeling great and doing fine. Starting later this week and into next week we start back w/ appointments almost every day. Since the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance will be overseeing Logan’s stem cell transplant and they are technically a different organization than Children’s hospital Logan needs to go in and meet a whole bunch of new doctors. They will all want to do exams on him as well. We still will be staying at Children’s for the transplant and the SCCA doctors come there daily and check-up on Logan.
Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers!

We’ll take any good news and make the most of it. Today Kelly, Logan, & Peyton had a short meeting at the University of Washington Medical Center with the head Doctor overseeing Logan’s radiation therapy (to begin 6 weeks after stem cell is complete). He said that compared with what Logan has gone through (pain & sickness) up until now, this part of his treatment will be a lot less eventful. The treatment will be focused on Logan’s spine, and could effect his growth (height) later in life by up to 1″ (there goes his NBA career). They don’t anticipate damage to his kidneys. They did say however the organs that could see radiation are around the liver, and fortunately this is the organ that tolerates it best. The radiation treatment will take four weeks (20 sessions), Monday through Friday, up at UW in Seattle.

Logan’s weekdays will consist of school in the morning, and then an hour plus drive, approximately ten minutes of treatment, then drive the hour plus trip home.

All said, Logan is doing awesome! He stopped in to see his friends at Puyallup Playcare Center after his appointment. He was so excited to see all of them, and still talking about it tonight.

This is Logan’s mom, my 2nd post ever, as Jason is so good at informing all of you. Since you guys don’t here from me often and Jason and Logan are at the Seahawks game I thought I would take this time to say how grateful I am for my husband. There is not a second in the day that Jason is not positive about Logan’s recovery, without Jason I might cry my days away and forget how wonderful my life is right now to have Logan and my family. The simple tasks of informing Logan about what is going on…. well not so simple for me. Again, Jason has that wonderful way of letting Logan know exactly what he can expect without it being scary to him. We have had so much support that I am so grateful for… thank you all so much…. it is my husband that talks to me at night when I can’t sleep. So thank you Jason for being a wonderful husband, father and support.

We had a bit of a set back today. The results of Logan’s bone marrow test showed evidence of cancerous tumors still in the marrow. They were expecting no sign of it. All the team of doctors were surprised. What was said is “This is concerning at this time.” They were anticipating going into stem cell transplant w/ zero signs.
I just look at it as Logan has just a little bit of a steeper hill to climb but he will get there. The next chemo medicine he gets for the stem cell will be the strongest and that could wipe out the remaining little bit….keep praying.

Logan is doing awesome. His cousin Sydney stayed overnight last night and they had a blast. Kelly walked into Logan’s room last night about 10pm because she heard noise and Logan was up on the top bunk of his bunk beds and they were smelling each others feet. Whatever works….. Logan has been a ball of energy. He is eating really well also.

Today is just a small hurdle in a long race. LOGAN WILL BEAT THIS!

Happy New Year! We went over to Uncle Pat & Aunt Traci’s for New Years Eve. Logan had a blast. They had the Wii there and Logan showed everyone his expertise in bowling.

Wow what a year! 2007 is finally coming to an end. What will 2008 bring? Everyone that reads this can help bring more awareness to Neuroblastoma research. 10 years ago kids diagnosed with stage 4 Neuroblastoma like Logan only had a 10% chance to survive. With research/technology it is now 40% survival rate….still way to low.
What will 2008 bring? Well 5 weeks in January/February Logan will be getting his stem cell transplant. We then get a short break in which Make A Wish is sending Logan & family to Disneyland. Upon our return he will go through intense radiation treatment that can permanently damage his kidney and surrounding organs. We also have to make a decision early this year on whether we want to put Logan through a trial after radiation. This trail would mean he would go into the hospital once a week for 5 months and receive a experimental medicine that would put him in extreme pain (affects nerves). Studies are still going on and as we find out more we will convey it on our blog. My gut feeling so far is Logan is not a lab rat…if you can’t tell me that it will definitely increase his survival rate than NO we are not interested. It we decide not to do trial Logan will take some medicine at home and be watched closely for any tumors/cancer cell returning.

In the mean time we will be enjoying each other one day at a time during this short break from the hospital. Logan is doing amazing. Last night Grandma, Grandpa David, Dad, and Logan had a bowling competition on the Wii….Logan kicked our butts! He bowled 8 strikes and scores a 170! He is awesome!

Everyone have a safe & Happy New Year!

Happy Saturday to all. Logan is doing great! He is busy beating up on Mom & Dad on the Wii. Tennis is his favorite game. He also is real good at bowling. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Another great day for Logan. Dad & Logan headed up around 6:30am for his Kidney tests. They put some medicine in him and then had to prick his finger 3 times at 11:45am, 12:45pm, & 1:45pm. We will get results back next week. Logan did awesome. Not much else to report which is a good thing. Not to jinx things but right now our next appointment is not scheduled until January 10th!!!

Happy Wednesday to all! I hope everyone had a great Christmas. For our family it was amazing and one we will never forget. The amount of people that reached out to make sure Logan’s Christmas was awesome was amazing. He even told us that it was the best Christmas ever. Santa came through w/ plenty of gifts but most importantly Logan got the one dream gift he asked for….a Wii Nintendo Game System. My arm is actually a little sore today from our intense bowling tournament yesterday.

Today Logan & Mom went up to the hospital for two tests and a platelet transfusion. The first test was a hearing test. Logan had one when all of this started back in early August. One of the side effects of the chemo medicine is hearing loss. Logan’s test today showed he has had slight hearing loss and it is permanent. The good thing is that what was lost is only sound at very high decibels that does not hinder how he hears in a normal conversation. He also had the bone aspiration where they put him to sleep shortly and stick a long needle into both his hip bones through his back and draw out bone marrow to be tested for cancer cells. We will get those results back later in the week. Logan did great during both tests. He is a real trooper.

Tomorrow Logan & I will go up for an all day Kidney test to check function of both Kidney’s. They will have him drink something then we can leave for two hours and then test & start all over all day. Hopefully the 1-4″ of snow that is anticipated will not interfere with our day.