Happy Birthday Mattie

Mattie celebrated her seventh birthday yesterday. It was very uneventful, school, homework, and hanging out with her boring parents. We took her to Wendy's drive-through and called it a day! We actually celebrated her birthday on Sunday with family. The power was out for about an hour and a half that night so they all got a taste of life without tv. What a terrible thing!!! We had a good time visiting with Denny and Merr and Dan and Court while it was out.

Monday I took Kael to clinic. He woke up with a temp so we went as quickly as we could. I was upset about the length of time it took to get anyone to see him. We were there for 2 1/2 hours before they even took his temp. It was gone by then so we proceeded with his backpoke and chemo. He had another temp while we were there but the ARA-C (chemo) gives him a fever anyway so they don't know what to blame it on. They don't think it is an infection because his counts were to good on Sunday for there to be any problems. He has a cough and runny nose but they aren't very concerned. They kept saying he looked to good to be coming down with something but I felt different. That night he ran another temp of 104. Keep in mind they don't like him to have a temp of 100.3. I called the oncologist on call but he wasn't concerned either. I gave him some Tylenol and 1 1/2 later he still had a temp of 103. He fevered all night and was still 102 at 6:00 a.m. It finally broke about 7:30. His cough and nose is getting worse and he threw-up last night while we were out-and-about. We give him ansemet before the chemo so he won't get sick to his stomach. I just never know what to expect. We have done two different liquid chemo's here at home the last two day. We will finish with one of them tomorow and the other one lasts for a week. He will have the same treatments next week and then we wait two weeks for his counts to rebound. If they are back up on February 25th we will have his line removed and the port put in.

We were going to bless Kayson on Sunday but feel it is in Kael's best interest to cancel. Hopefully we will get around to it before he is walking:)

Jed, Matt's co-worker and good friend, spent a few nights with us this week. Kael loved having another bald guy in the house! (P.S. Jed, we do have internet again!!)

UPDATE

Counts were to low to go to clinic this week. I am welcoming this, although it means prolonging treatments, it means one full week we do not have to mix and administer meds. Kael has been off steroids one full week now and we have seen a decrease in appetite, thank heavens:) His energy has increased tremendously but he has been taking long naps at about 4:00 so he doesn't want to go to bed. Sunday his hair started falling out. Sure enough, as soon as I make a public statement about how sure I am his hair won't fall out, it does. He doesn't seem to be bothered by it other than it itches him. Last night when he wasn't sleeping (and I was up with Kayse) I went in and we had a chat. He told me he doesn't care that it is falling out and he wants to know when he can get his line out. I told him when we get his line out that he can have a real bath or even a shower if he wanted. His concern is that people will see him naked so I assured him dad would teach him how to wrap his towel around him so he could run from the bathroom to his bedroom without being seen. He was so excited!!!! Sometimes we take the littlest things for granted!!

Trey is starting to talk a lot better, okay maybe not, maybe we are just understanding what he wants a little more. He is very interested in the kitchen and food. The other day I walked into the kitchen to find the salt dumped all over the counter and floor. Last night while I was fixing dinner he wanted to be right by me and ended up grabbing the "HOT" frying pan. Luckily it didn't get him to bad and I think he learned what "HOT" really means.

Matt spent Tuesday stuck on the freeway between Tremonton and Burley (sorry dad, I don't know the exact mile marker). The wind was blowing snow so hard that you couldn't see a thing. After about 5 hours he was able to get turned back around so he could get home. Weather is a crazy thing. Matt's sister Rikki and her family live in Mississippi and experienced a tornado this past week. We are so glad that they are all safe!!! After hearing of their experience it makes our snowstorms seem like a tropical paradise.

We spent Family Night at the movie theater watching "Game Plan". It was a great show!! Our little Lewiston Theatre is the best because you can all get in for $8.00 and then still afford a bag of popcorn and a drink for everyone. It was very humbling for me though when we went to sit down and we took up all but two seats on the long row. AHHHHHHHH!!! Does this mean we get the long pew at church too!!!

Happy New Year!!

So far, so good. I didn't make any resolutions for this year, therefore, I haven't broken any!!

New Years Eve night, Kael started in with leg pain again. We were at Leak's celebrating so we brought him home early. Matt fell asleep and Mattie and I brought in the New Year playing Clue Jr. (the game that takes a rocket scientist to figure out!). We ended up giving Kael some pain medicine so he could sleep fine. When we took him to clinic on the 2nd they told us to keep an eye on him and give him pain reliever as needed. We will just watch him until he is off his steroids to see if it goes away. He complains off and on about it but is such a TOUGH squirt!! Tonight is the last dose of steroids. YES!!! Maybe by next Tuesday his eating habits will return to normal.
His weight gain is substantial so he is not able to get around very well. He still hasn't lost any hair and we credit Grandpa Cundick (Matt's maternal grandpa) for that. He is in his 80's and still has a thick head of hair. Perhaps Kael inherited this trait from him!!

Mattie, Trey, Kayson, and I went to church for the first time in months. (Mattie usually goes every week with her dad but the rest of us stay home). I was nervous to take Trey but decided he needs reminded of what church is. The boys got new clothes for Christmas. Trey looks so handsome in his and Kael refuses to try his on. He laughed at me when I asked him if he wanted to come with us. I think we will spend quite a bit of time in the hall when we are all able to go back.

The snow is coming down good tonight. Check out this cool picture Matt snapped when he came in from chores the other morning. Does anyone know what it is???