Oakland Athletics

We had a great day at the annual Lakeside Little League day with the Oakland A's. Thanks to a fellow board member and friend, Nick got the first class treatment. All new A's duds and a tour of the clubhouse.

Thanks Bill and Tooch!!!

We are off to NY on the red eye shortly and I will update from there.

Here are pictures of Nick with his new gear, Eric Chavez, Nick Swisher and Jason Kendall.

This Just In --- NED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I received an e-mail from Dr. Kushner at 8:20pm Eastern Time on Wednesday that Nick is NED. All tests show NO EVIDENCE OF DISEASE!!! Although we expected this information, we know what they are testing for and we know why they do it every three months. It is nerve wracking to say the least. If they find it our life is upside down again and if they don't....WHOO HOO!!!

Live for today, plan for tomorrow, and PARTY TONIGHT!

What we know now is this:

• Accutane is finished on Sunday! Done with that!!
• GMCSF Shots start on Wednesday, April 25th
• On Sunday, April 29th, Nick goes to the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum to watch the 4 Time World Champion Oakland Athletics at our annual Lakeside Little League day with the Oakland A's. He loves the tailgate more than the game but who cares.....that is fine with me....sort of.
• Then, we take the red-eye to NY and he starts the 3f8 mouse antibody on April 30th.
• When we return on either Friday the 4th or Saturday the Cinco de Mayo he gets 8 weeks of no treatments.
• After the 4th of July we go back to NY for more 3f8 and then testing to follow.

If I sound happy, it is because I am. I am also very relieved!!

Unless I can't help myself, the next update will be after we arrive in NY on the 30th.

Thanks again to everyone for all their help and support!

Fishing

Nick loves to fish.

Here is a picture of him and his buddy Riley catching a fish at a forbidden lake. A certain establishment in Granite Bay is closed on Monday's and we know how to sneak in and find the fishing hole. If you look closely, this fish has a knot in his head from one of my golf balls that plunked him.

PS. Riley caught the fish but Nick is just as excited as he is.

Testing Day 2

We started at 8:00am but everything went real smooth. The MIBG test lasted until about 10:00am and then they got us right in to do the bone marrow procedure and everything was completed by about noon. I tried to get us on an earlier flight but it didn't work so we arrived home about 2:00am on the Jet Blue non-stop. One great thing about Jet Blue is that they have a nonstop that goes from here to there and vice versa.

Nick's CT Scan is clean and we expect the others to be clean as well but won't know for sure for up to 10 days.

Testing Day 1

We made it in on the Red Eye and Nick said he likes it better than the regular flights. He said, you just get on the plane and then you are in NY. He did great with it and it maximizes our time at home so we will probably do it again next time.

Today goes something like this for Nick....drink two miserable contrasts, take accutane pills, put emla cream on arm, transfer contents of one piss bucket into another one that contains a special chemical and carry it to the pdh, hand it off to a nurse asap, get an IV inserted, go to the 4th floor and deal with the techs who don't come from around here but have learned to 'cop an attitude' to get the CT Scan, then go to another floor and get an MIBG injection.....this will take all day and will tax our patience. I think we get to walk back to the hotel in the rain because it is supposed to pour here today and there are absolutely no taxi's here when it rains.

On the good news front, I hear that Kenny smoked a double in his game last night which helped the mighty Rangers to a victory!!

Spring Break

We have all enjoyed some great time at home and cruising during Spring Break! Now, it is time to go back to NY for 3 month testing. We leave tonight and return on Friday if all goes as planned. We expect to learn that Nick continues to be NED but it is still very nerve wracking to do the tests and wait for the results.

Here are a few pictures from Spring Break.