A new season....

School has officially begun. Tom and I both had to be at school yesterday for opening devotions and meetings start today. Yes, I am still a staff member at BVCS - apparently there is a category of special ed funding for seriously ill kids, and Noah qualifies, so the school has hired me to be his EA. And I deserve it. Seriously. The amount of effort that goes into getting that kid to do school work is crazy. I don't know what he was like before, but his attention span is significantly diminished. Unless, of course there is some sort of screen involved, but I think that is fairly typical. ; )
It is really quiet around here today. We went to Terrace on the weekend to visit my parents and my brothers and their families were there as well, which was super awesome, because I see my brothers so rarely and our kids never get a chance to get together. We had a lot of fun together. In fact, three of our kids enjoyed their time in Terrace so much they decided not to come home! Noah, Miranda and Alyson wanted to stay and Emily thought she would love some alone time.

My mom was a little nervous about Noah's meds; he is still on antibiotics for the c. Difficile, and he had one oral chemo med he had to take until last night. The antibiotics are tricky - well, not really, but he needs them every 4 hrs and it is hard to remember that for some reason, lol- and the chemo med has to be taken two hours after eating and then he can't eat for one hour after that. That one is a real pain. He often ends up having to stay up until around 10:30 or 11 to take it, because we always forget that he can't have a bedtime snack or, more often, because he has taken so $#@&%%$* long to eat his supper that by the time 2 hrs are up it is is 11:00! I am happy to report that they are handling it fine. (Thanks Mom, I never doubted you for a second!)

Yesterday Tom and I worked all day to get his classroom ready. It is not quite there, but by the end of today he should be good to go. Our school has undergone some big changes in the last while; the Elementary Campus has closed and everyone has moved over to the High School campus. At the end of last year, the kids helped pack up Tom's classroom and move it over there and it was a disaster. So many boxes....until yesterday. We were gone all summer, of course, so he didn't go to school at all and truthfully, I think he was a bit scared to, lol! Now it looks way better!

Noah's next treatment begins Sept 9, which means he can go to the first few days of school. He was supposed to go back for the 6th, which would mean he would miss the first few days, but I think that with everything going on, he needs to be part of that shared experience with his classmates. The excitement and nervousness the elementary kids will feel at going to school with the big kids, figuring out where everything is, etc. He will be going back to school in the spring, and if he isn't there for the beginning I think it will feel even stranger than it would have. So, I asked his doctors if they could delay his treatments a few days and they gave me 3. Which will be just fine. He will have time to meet his new music teacher and possibly have a trumpet lesson or two before he goes back to Vancouver! It will also be nice for the girls because I can be there for their first day and take all the usual photos, etc. (and nice for me because I hate to miss that stuff....)
The next round is supposed to be pretty nasty. He will definitely lose his hair, and he will be quite sick, from what I've heard. He will also be starting the leg injections again. Poor guy. He isn't complaining, but I know he is a bit worried about that. Please pray for strength for him the next while and that he doesn't get toooooo sick.... Please pray for our family, too; we are also going back to the 25 days away, 7 days at home cycle, so that will be hard on us. We are so thankful that we were able to be together all summer, but it will be hard to go back to being apart.
Thanks everyone for your prayers and support. We really appreciate you and everything you have done. In fact, we have been overwhelmed by your generosity and kindness! It is so wonderful to know we have such an amazing community of people (and not just in Smithers) walking this road with us.

Bye for now....

long time no see....

Hi everyone, sorry about the long time between posts- you all probably thought I had abandoned this blog, but as you can see, that is not true!

We have had an eventful few weeks! We went home and enjoyed our time there, so much so that we decided not to go to Family Camp. Noah and I arrived home on the Thursday that week and we would have had to go back on Sunday to make it in time for camp. We decided it was better to be at home, and it was. The kids slept over at friends' houses (Noah had sleepovers at two different places two nights in a row!!) and play dates and just plain fun. Tom had the opportunity to catch a lot of fish and he did, so that was very rejuvenating for him.

On August 8, we drove up to Loon Lake, about 1/2 an hour north of Maple Ridge, at the UBC research forest camp, where Camp Goodtimes is, to drop off the kids. That place is unbelievable! It was so beautiful. The "cabins" are more like lodges, they are huge log buildings that look out on this pristine, still lake. The camp even has a gym donated by Trevor Linden. There were 60 kids there, all of whom have either had cancer or have a sibling with a history of cancer. Our kids were all excited to go, even Alyson, who had never been to camp before. Quite honestly, we were concerned that she wouldn't make it the whole week, but we were wrong. They all had so much fun that it was quite literally 6 hours before they stopped talking and singing and telling stories.

Now we have a problem, however. Next year. The kids want to go back to Kid's Camp and we want to go to Family Camp, but Tom doesn't want to spend any more time here than we have to. (He is such a party-pooper...) No, he just really likes being at home, relaxing and fishing, and being at home. It is a good thing we have a whole year to decide!

While the kids were at Camp, Tom and I spent the week at a Bed and Breakfast which was interesting, to say the least. Now, we have never done this before, and so we were not prepared for the woman who is the proprietor of said B&B, and the amount of time she wanted to spend with us. Apparently she thought we were there to be her friends. We were quite taken aback when we arrived there on Sunday night and she was in a bathrobe, and started talking to us, leaning over the back of Tom's chair and making suggestive jokes, etc. She also made us breakfast and stood right beside us and talked to us about her cousin, who is really more of a sister to her, who was travelling on a motorcycle through the States when they had a huge accident and she spent weeks in an American hospital before she could be airlifted to Royal Columbian and they still didn't know if she was going to make it, but now it looks like she'll be ok, but she lives in this huge house with all these stairs and she is going to need a lot of care so it looks like she'll need to come and live with us in this house, because at least we have everything she will need all on one level and really, her own children are quite hopeless and they couldn't have her anyway, so it will be much better if she just comes here to live with us. It was a bit much and so we resolved to spend as little time there as possible. Luckily it was only 13km from Golden Ears Provincial park, which is a wonderful place. We spent a lot of time there, hiking, fishing, canoeing, reading on the beach, etc. It was so relaxing. We drove out to Chilliwack to hang out with our good friends, Greg and Lisa on two of the days. We also golfed at The Hills Resort, which was an adventure in itself; it was really hard! It is a very cool course, though, very interesting- you get a cart with your green fees because if you had to walk, "it would take you two days!" It is true. It is a huge place, and very hilly.

We also had the chance to have dinner with my Uncle Brian and Aunt Wendy and my Cousins at my Uncle Ken and Aunty Helene's house in Abbotsford, which was cool, because I haven't seen them in a while.

It was very weird, being without kids for 6 days, but it was very nice, too. We realized that through it all, we are still really good friends. We had fun, just hangin' out, drinking our fancy drinks in the comfy chairs at Starbucks, and reading our books.

Noah went back into the hospital on Tom's birthday, Aug 15. We had a little surprise party for him on the Sunday night, with some cheesecake and SpongeBob party hats that Noah picked out. : ) We'll have a proper celebration when we get home.

So, yeah, we spent the entire day at the clinic, and getting Noah settled in his room, which happens to be the same one he was in when he was diagnosed in March. It was good; it felt familiar. We decided that I would spend all the nights at the hospital, because every time Tom sleeps on the bed there, he ends up with back spasms. It has worked out well in that regard.

Noah is still in the hospital. Fairly early on in the week, he started being really sick, and after a few days they decided to do some tests and found out on Friday that he actually has C. Difficile, a bacterial infection that can actually be fatal, but usually in much older and more frail people. It is caused by being on antibiotics. The last time we were at the hospital, he spiked a fever just before we were to go home, and they gave him antibiotics, which caused his normal gut flora to be all out of whack and the c. Difficile to grow out of control, so it not a true "infection", per se. It can sure make a person sick, though, wow! Poor guy....

Anyway, his actual treatment has gone fine, he is feeling a lot better, and we are just waiting for the go ahead to go home, which will happen when he starts eating and drinking. Which feels like it might be never. He has no appetite, which is a side effect of both the bacteria and the antibiotic. I think that as long as he isn't in any danger of being dehydrated, they will let us go. Hopefully tomorrow. Please, Lord...?

Tom has been taking a course at UBC this weekend, so the kids have been super bored. Noah is in isolation, so he can't leave his room, and there isn't a lot to do there but watch TV, and that is what they ahve been doing. The Child Life people have been very good, keeping Allie and Miranda occupied with crafts and activities, but they are tired of being at the hospital. Yesterday we busted Noah out and went to the beach. At Jericho Beach there are kilometers of trails through blackberry thickets where bunnies hide. We bought a head of lettuce and tried to entice a few out to eat it. I think each of the kids got to feed a bunny, so it was very satisfying. After that, we sat at the beach for all of 10 minutes before Miranda cut her toes all up on some rocks while swimming and we had to leave. Rats. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. At least we got to go outside for a couple of hours.

I don't know why, maybe it was the month with no laptop, but I have only turned mine on a few times these last weeks. Granted, we have been busy, but I just haven't felt the need. I think I am bored of the internet. I feel like the person in the joke, "You know the internet? I finished it!" That is kind of the reason I haven't updated. Sorry. The other reason is that the Wi Fi is out at the hospital. It is very strange and frustrating. So, once again, I thank the Lord for Ronald Mc Donald House, for its food and computers. (We just finished eating 'make your own pizzas' and ice cream sundaes. mmm...)

I am feeling sad today; we met a family from Williams Lake who had been at RMH with us, and whose son has A.L.L. just like Noah, but who never responded to any treatments. He had a Bone Marrow Transplant in April and it looked like he was recovering very quickly - they let him out of isolation early and sent him home, only to discover this week that the Leukemia is back. The transplant failed. There is nothing they can do but keep him comfortable. He is 15. Please keep this family in your prayers. The boy's name is Nick, and his parents are Xena and James.

Well, I should go and check on my laundry. We are hoping to leave as early as possible tomorrow - as soon as the docs say we can go- so we need to do as much of the checking out stuff tonight as we can. Hopefully it happens in the morning, and he won't need a transfusion before we go. Then we may as well leave on Wed. We'll have to see... Please pray that we can go EARLY tomorrow.

Thank you for all of your support - it makes this road a lot less lonely!