"The corner" has been turned....!

YAY!! The Oncologist was just here and she said Noah has definitely "turned the corner", he is in recovery mode now. I am so happy, I can't even tell you! And -  Noah is peeing!!!!  He peed 550 mL last night at 1:30, then 200 more at 5, then again at 8!  He is being allowed to drink 500 mL this morning, so he is very happy.  Thank you Lord!  His weight is now down to 35.9 kg, and his girth is down a bit too, to 75.5 cm.  I am impatient for those numbers to start going faster, but the doctor said yesterday that it will take a good two weeks for his belly to go down.  This is worrying, because he is still on so much oxygen, and actually right now he is hovering around the 90-92% mark, meaning they may decide to put him up to 5L at some point today.  They are measuring around his belly button and that part is going down, but it seems like the fluid is sitting higher up, around his ribs.  You would think that gravity would push it down, like it was before, when he had a big pot belly. His biggest problem is now all the fluid in his lungs.  
He is actually doing so well, Tom and I felt comfortable enough to go out for lunch and leave him alone. (well, in the care of his nurse...)

He has some exercising to do, too. He has lost a lot of his muscle while lying in bed here, so the physio was here and brought an exercise program for him to do with a resistance band. 

Halloween here was ok.  In the afternoon all the kids who were in the hospital who could get out of bed (and who wanted to participate) dressed up and paraded around all of the wards. It was pretty cool.  Noah wanted to see so we got him out of bed and put his costume on and pushed him in a wheelchair out in the hall to watch.  There were some really good Storm Troopers and an Awesome Darth Vader, so we got a picture with them.  They were also handing out candy and some other things for kids who aren't eating, so he got a cool waterbottle and some books as well as the candy. 

That completely wiped him out, so we got him back in bed and he fell asleep almost right away! 

He was sad, though, because Tom decided to go home last night.  Noah and I were both hoping he would decide to stay- even for one or two more days- but he felt that since Noah was doing so much better, he could safely go home.  That is true, but we have no idea when we will be able to go home and we both really missed him....and are already missing him.... sigh. 

We had quite a few visitors yesterday; we had a great visit with my cousin Meagan and her boyfriend Darren last night, Thanks for coming, guys, it was awesome to see you!

We also saw our friend Melanie and her baby who were medi-vaced down here yesterday.  Her baby, Kalum had surgery and is doing really well, thankfully.  We will all be here for the same amount of time- about 7- 10 days, so we will see a lot of each other, I'm sure.  They are in the next ward over. 

The scariest visitor we had though, was Noah's friend Aidan, they are the same age, they were diagnosed within days of each other and until this month have had exactly the same protocol at the same time, so we see quite a bit of each other.  He and his mom, Tina have been coming in to visit Noah, and Aidan had a fabulous costume he wanted to show Noah, so they came last night. 





Aidan dressed up as Darth Maul, from Star Wars. He lost his hair, too, so it was easier to paint his head and glue on the horns.  Pretty cool, eh?  Noah found his mask at a Halloween store in Richmond, he also had a plaid shirt and suspenders.  He wasn't quite sure what to call himself, someone at RMH said he looked like a New York City Cabbie.  I think the mask looks like Mario (without the cigar) Anyway, he looked pretty awesome too.

Well, this morning Noah is allowed to drink 500mL and I want him to try and drink an entire Boost, so I better get on that....  Have a great day, hope your kids are not suffering from a sugar crash, and THANK YOU for your prayers and your support.  We love reading all of your comments!