Fireworks on the Hudson!

From Ken:

We took a train from Grand Central up the river, approx 45 minutes, to a friend's house and had a nice bbq, played catch and wiffle ball in his huge un-fenced back yard, caught fireflies and then watched fireworks along the Hudson. It was a nice time and a nice break from honking yellow cabs.

Nick completed both a bone marrow and a CT scan today at the hospital. The bone marrow required general anesthesia so it was no fun at all and it took from 7:00am until about 2:00pm to get everything handled.....

The best news of all is that Nick is responding to the chemo. The tumor has shrunk, as evidenced by the MIBG scan, but they need the results of the CT scan to know the exact size. In addition, the MIBG scan was totally clean. A dark area in his arm from before is now GONE! The Dr. expects the bone marrow to also be clean. My understanding of the next steps are:

* Continue round three of chemo(beginning July 5th)to keep shrinking the tumor.
* Remove the rest of it with surgery on August 3rd.
* Continue round four of chemo to get any remaining tumor that cannot be seen.
* Perform radiation on areas of the tumor and the arm where they think it may have been.
* Maybe do round five of chemo or skip it if deemed un-necessary.....fingers crossed. He is basically cancer free at this point....hair grows back and then....
* Start an antibody treatment that attaches to any remaining Neuroblastoma Cells and cause Nick's own immune system to attack them.
* After several weeks of the antibody, a vitamin regimen is started.
* Continue tests and hope & pray for no relapse!!!

Of course...all of the above can change at any time but that is what it looks like today. We are cautious not to get too excited about good news and not get too down about bad news. The key is to take this one day at a time.

We met a nice New Yorker and his wife at an Italian restaurant on Saturday evening. He took a genuine interest in Nick and has invited all of us to view the fireworks tomorrow from an apartment overlooking the East River. It should be an awesome display of lights. God Bless the USA! We miss our friends and family, but know that Nick is in good hands here in NY.