"Mom, you need to write on the blog right now!"

Noah is starting to boss me around. :) (smiley provided by Noah...)
As long as he is taking ondansetron, the anti-nausea med, he has been feeling great this week. He has lots of energy and is goofing around a lot. It is good to see. Thanks for all your support and prayer in this area.
We had a fabulous time with my sisters, Denise and Julie, when they visited us last weekend- we went shopping at the mall, we ate a lot of sushi, we went to church, we went geo-caching (and even found two!!), we found my new favourite store (David's Tea),and we went to Toys "R" Us where Noah made a dent in a gift card he received. He bought a lot of Lego, we bought a lot of tea. Mmmmm.... Mint Chocolate Rooibos, anyone?
Noah bought Star Wars Lego and spent quite a bit of time building it the last couple of days, at the expense of homework, I'm afraid.... : ) (yet another smiley provided by Noah, lol)
We were out so often we had to be very creative with Noah's chemo meds. He takes one called 6MP that I have to give him on an empty stomach, eg, two hours after his last meal and then he must wait an hour before eating, so it is sometimes tricky to give it to him at the right time. Anyway, two days in a row he had "Mall chemo" and once he even had "Park chemo" while we were geo-caching with Denise and Julie at Queen Elizabeth Park. I thought those were pretty clever names, but he was unimpressed. Hmmph! What cheek!
I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who has not only supported us in prayer, but to those who have given us gifts, and who have supported us financially. I heard about the fundraiser at BV Wholesale last weekend and I was blown away - $2200!!! WOW! and John Mc Ewen shaving his head! I hope someone took photos of that! We have also received money from people who have donated through our church, and it has been SUCH a huge blessing, to not have to worry about that thru all of this. We are actually in the process of buying a newer van, having been told by our very honest mechanic that it is time to look for something more reliable, since we will be making a few trips back and forth this year, and the transmission in the other one is starting to act up. So some of that money will go toward a newer van. Thank you very much. You are a blessing to us and we thank God for you everyday. And Tom is especially thankful to all the people who are feeding him! It has been so great to not have to worry that all they are eating is KD and Campbell soup, lol! Not that he can't cook, he can, but now he doesn't have to worry about what to make for supper on top of everything else- you have taken such good care of them while I am away. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

So, today Noah had his first dose of the second set of ARAC, the one that made him so sick at Easter. He will have it tomorrow, Sunday and Monday as well. Please pray that this time it won't cause such a high fever and such nausea. So far he has been ok, but it didn't happen until the second set last time...

Remember a few blogs ago when Noah had a reaction to the l'asparaginase? In case you are new, he had an anaphylactic reaction to one of the chemo meds that was to be given by IV, but because he is allergic to that formulation, he must be given a different formulation by intramuscular injections into his quadricep. The one IV dose is replaced by six, (yes, six) injections over two weeks. That was where I mentioned it could impact the amount of time we can spend at home. If it were not for the l'asparaginase, we could have come home on Friday, but now he will need to stay an extra two weeks and have those injections. Poor guy. He is really not looking forward to that. Thankfully we have EMLA, the numbing cream, so he won't feel the pokes so much. I think it will still be fairly intimidating to have big needles poking into his leg.... sigh....
Seriously, though, we have been so impressed with how brave he is!! He doesn't cry when he gets poked, he just takes a deep breath while they count, "1-2-3" then put in the needle or take blood, or whatever. Our doctor paid him a huge compliment this afternoon when we met with him. The first thing he said was , "Well, Noah, you are a real trooper. What I'd like to do is get you up in front of our teen group so you can show them how a real man handles things." He was half joking of course, but he was seriously impressed with how Noah is brave through pokes and all of his reactions, etc and just takes it all in stride. Apparently there are teenagers who are not as brave, who need a lot of coaxing and convincing to get needles or whatever....(?) We met another 10 yr old boy who has to come in a day before his treatments just to be accessed (have the IV tube attached to a needle into his VAD) and it takes about an hour because he is crying and having a fit! After our meeting was over, he ushered us back into the waiting area where there was an 18 yr old boy who was also recently diagnosed with Leukemia, and Dr. Davis introduced Noah to him and said to him, "This kid is your role model." I was so surprised; I had never thought of Noah as being particularly brave (sorry hun, lol) but in that clinic, everytime we go in he is continually lauded for his courage and composure. Well done, Noah! We are so proud of you!