#Loganstrong

Today Seattle Sounder Fan Favorite Roger Levesque stopped by our house and visited with Logan & family.  Logan was having a rough morning and the visit made him feel great!  Roger brought over some gifts as well as tickets to two upcoming games.  This month the MLS is doing it’s part to find a cure.  The scarf pictured above is for sale at many stadiums.  Roger gave this one to Logan.  Thank you to Logan’s fourth grade teacher Mrs. Cranston & family for arranging this!  Not sure who was more excited the kids or dad;).

#loganstrong

We met with Logan’s school counselor/administration on Wednesday and came up with a plan (driven by Logan).  He will be taught at home about 2 hours a week from a dedicated teacher (Mrs. Lane from Kalles was first in line to volunteer:)).  She will work with Logan’s teachers and gather his assignments weekly and then come to our home and teach Logan.  This was 1 of 2 options.  The other is Logan go to Kalles when he feels up to it.  We as parents left the decision 100% to Logan.  If everything goes as planned he will go back to school full time in January at the start of 2nd semester.  The Kalles Tyee family of course made sure to let Logan know he is still and always will be a Tyee and can come down anytime to events/school.

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Today is the first day of school.  Logan unfortunately will not be attending….yet.  Every year mom has taken the boys picture.  This morning there was not the normal excitement.  Peyton of course was up at 7am ready to go…but Logan prepared to go up to the hospital vs. go see his friends at school.  There has been HUGE support from the staff at Logan’s school (as you can see by the above picture on the right) to help/tutor him.  Kelly and I hope to meet with the team later this week to come up with a plan.  My feelings are I think Logan is a little afraid of the hair loss & tube and how kids will react.  As we always do we will take things one day at a time and when he is ready we will be right there along with him.  I’m of course a biased parent but I think he looks amazing.  The blue eyes and dimples;).

Logan and mom headed up this morning to check his counts and possibly get blood.  His counts were 3650!  Also no blood or platelets needed.  For the first time in over a week he was feeling sick today.  Kelly has been great with finding out the exact time/medications to stay ahead of the nausea and has slowly been weaning him off…..looks like we may continue with just small doses for now.

#loganstrong

Logan is doing amazing!  His counts are on the rise.  Yesterday they were at 765 and rising.  So with that he will gain his strength back as well as get out of the house to do things.  Currently as I plan this we are planning a possible day to the zoo (or something outside).  He is also began using his walker more vs. the wheelchair.  His leg is gaining strength so all good news to report.

School starts tomorrow…..Logan will not start school but as with everything this we are taking things one day at a time.  I told him I would take him down in the morning if he wanted to welcome his friends back.  He is still thinking about it.

Little brother Peyton and I had an amazing time in Arizona.  Peyton is now well rested and ready to tackle 2nd grade!

#loganstrong

As you can imagine our lives recently have revolved around Logan & his cancer battle.  His 8 year old brother Peyton (born just 4 days after Logan’s first diagnosis) has been a trooper through everything.  Everyday Mom/Logan go to hospital, Dad to work, and Peyton….to a family member or friend (people lining up to help out).  Peyton just takes it all in stride.  At home he also try’s to help out with Logan as much as possible.  When Logan is not using his wheelchair Peyton takes advantage of cruising around the house as well;)

That brings me to today.  About 9 months ago our family booked a trip down to Tucson, AZ to go see Grandma & Grandpa.  Cancer has of course altered those plans.  After discussion with my amazing wife she suggested Peyton and I still go.  Logan is at home with zero counts and Peyton and I are both battling a little cold as well so not being around Logan is probably a good idea.  Sooooo as I type this Peyton & I are sitting at gate N14 at SeaTac getting ready to board a plane to Tucson.  This trip he will be spoiled and it will be all about him.  I called ahead to the Westin we are staying at and they are preparing a special welcoming surprise for him among other things.  He will get lots of swimming, some golf, and most importantly Grandma/Grandpa hugs & kisses.

Logan has had a great week.  He continues to surprise Kelly & I with his strength.  They head up for a quick blood draw this morning as well as a bi-weekly scan of his hip.

When Logan wins his battle mom has requested a girls get-a-way to wine country in return:).

#loganstrong

Today we turn our calendars to September.  Today starts a month focusing on creating awareness about the fight of Cancer in children.  As you can imagine millions of dollars are donated every year to fight cancer.  Did you realize only 3% of all dollars raised/donated go to research for Childhood cancer!  As a parent of a child who is battling this is ridiculous (other choice words but I will keep this post family friendly).

Many of you through Logan’s blog have been introduced to the  Ben Towne Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation.  Our family had the privilege/honor to go through treatment with the Townes.  Ben passed from Neuroblastoma December 2008.  His parents Jeff & Carin Towne soon after started the foundation.    PLEASE go to the link below and read their story and share with EVERYONE!  Forward to everyone you know on Facebook and have them forward/share with everyone they know.

As you will read they are doing amazing things and are saving Children’s lives!  Kelly and I contribute $25 a month to the foundation…not much but imagine if you contributed $25 and your friend, and…..

bentownefoundation.org

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Logan and family had an uneventful weekend.  In cancer-land that means it was a great weekend.  Logan’s counts will be dropping so he will be watched closely this week for fevers.  If he does spike a fever he will need to go to ER.  Last round he had spiked a 103.8 fever and was admitted for 6 days.  The difference between this time and last is that Kelly has been doing home hydration nightly.

His schedule for this week is today and Thursday he goes up for blood work to watch counts and get quick check-up.  Odds are Thursday he will also get a blood transfusion and/or platelets.

More gifts, cards well wishes continue to pour in.  It has been amazing to say the least.  Kelly is one to always send out Thank you cards first thing as she has a huge giving heart…..it is eating her/me up not to be able to send thank yous personally to everyone of you.  PLEASE know that your gift(s)…yes YOU are making a huge difference in our families daily routines.  THANK YOU!

Also on another great note Logan’s nephew and friends organized a late night 3 vs 3 soccer tournament that took place last night in a parking lot.  I attended for awhile it the support/turnout was awesome.  I estimate over 100 people showed up.  Thank you to all that attended!

#loganstrong

Logan is having a rather great week despite the circumstances.  Mom and Logan have been going up daily for chemo about 11am and are usually done about 2:30pm.  The nice part with that schedule is it gives Logan time to sleep in and play some video games in the morning.

This round vs. the last hes been much better controlling his sickness.  Dr. Kelly (a.k.a. mom) has found out the perfect mix of medicines to stay ahead his sickness.  She also went through some training and is giving him hydration fluids at home while he sleeps.

We thought he has been eating great but apparently the nutrition team at Children’s disagrees….So today while up getting treatment they will be placing a NG tube.  This will go from a small backpack w/ formula (food) through a tube into his nose and straight into stomach.  When I asked Logan about having the tube he shrugged and said “whatever”.  He continues to amaze us with his strength.

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Today Logan, Mom, & Aunt Traci met with Dr. Julie Park to go over progress on the experimental treatment Logan is doing.  Traci sent me a recap of the meeting…..

“Just finished meeting with Dr. Park.  Current plan is 2 more rounds of the same chemo.  With no scans until after 2nd round.  No surgery on leg for now.  Bone is too weak and it would delay chemo.  So they will meet with a physical therapist to learn how to move around better.  Still losing weight but going to meet with nutritionist again.  Going to start hydration through port at home to help too.  All in all positive appointment.  Bone marrow is less and no new spots on MIBG.  She said you can’t really tell on MIBG if there is improvement or not because it does not measure size just if Neuroblastoma is still there.  So no new spots which means chemo is stopping for now……”

Thoughts and prayers are working…..

#loganstrong

Logan had a great 3 days off of no hospital.  Tomorrow he goes back up to start round 2 of experimental chemo.   Round 2 is just like round 1…mom and Logan will go up daily through Saturday to get the chemo.  Good news is that they are continuing the experimental because early results show the growth of the cancer has slowed.  That is what the doctors were hoping is to “knock down” the cancer.

He still is pretty much immobile with the broken femur.  We hope to find out more information on the plan on when/if they will do surgery.  He is getting real good in his wheelchair….so is little brother Peyton who loves to cruise around in it as well;)

#loganstrong