Happy Halloween

It was last year at this time when Nick was just coming out of his most difficult treatments. This year is much better! He is off at school and totally fired up for tonight!

As you all know, I have never asked for money or endorsed a cause until the Loneliest Road Campaign started a few months ago. Thanks to all of you who contributed to that cause. It is an excellent campaign because:

• Dr. Cheung and MSKCC have a proven track record
• $3m is a reachable number
• Kids lives will be saved

I would like to ask everyone to please visit a new website at www.bandofparents.org I am heading up a fundraising sub-committee in this organization. Band of Parents has taken over the efforts started by Alec Oughton and the Loneliest Road Campaign. Sadly, Grace Oughton lost her battle with this miserable beast on Monday.

A separate account has been set up to track donations from friends of Nick Lynch. If you want to contribute now, just send a check made out to Band of Parents and note Nick Lynch in the memo line and either mail it to me at 5006 Tiffany Point, Granite Bay, CA 95746 or the address on the Band of Parents website.

I understand that about $450k has already been raised by the Loneliest Road and I have some ideas on how to raise the rest of the $3m necessary to create HU3f8 and save lives. I will be sharing them here soon. Thanks!

NED!!! HAMA Positive---OFF TREATMENT!!

Wow! What a day.

Today we learned that Nick is HAMA Positive which means he is finished with the 3f8 Antibody!! He is officially off treatment! Next trip to NY is January, 2008.

The bone marrow test is back and it is clear as expected....so NED!!

No Evidence of Disease!

School & Tests

We got in late last night but Nick got up bright and early this morning and headed off to school. Everything went smooth on this trip. The flights were on time and MSKCC kept the tests on schedule.

To make it even better, Dr. Kushner emailed me first thing this morning that the CT and MIBG are NED!!!! This is huge news as those are the main tests. We should have the bone marrow results by Wednesday or so.

As I have said before, we expect clean results but it is still very nerve wracking to go through this testing process and wait and wonder. Looking forward to clean bone marrows and another 90 days.

Testing Day 1

Everything worked out well today and MSKCC was like a finely tuned machine. All tests were on-time and they went smoothly. They started with a series of blood draws and for the first time Nick's blood panel report came back with every reading in the 'normal' range. Usually, several of these readings have an * and an H or L next them but not this time. That is great news!!

Thursday is MIBG and Bone Marrow surgery. During the surgery they will start the re-immunization process by giving him about 4 shots. This is necessary because the high dose chemo that he had back in May-September of 2006 that wiped out his childhood immunizations.

If all goes as planned, we will be on a plane and headed home Thursday night.

Testing Tomorrow

Nick and I are leaving for NY later today for the 90 day testing process. This is always a nerve wracking time for us as we either learn that we get another 90 day lease on life or that we have to start some other type of treatment.

We think Nick is clean since he is doing absolutely great and shows no signs of anything other than happiness.

Here he is at "Whacky Hair Day" a few weeks ago. I'll update daily from New York City.

School Bake Sale

Nick's 4th grade class is having a bake sale today to help raise funds for the http://www.loneliestroad.org/ campaign. THANKS to all the teachers and parents who helped organize the bake sale!!

It appears that the bike ride was a success in generating awareness but that it has fallen short in the fund raising area. This is a real shame because 3f8 is a proven cure for certain types of Neuroblastoma and not just some black hole of cancer research. The HU3f8 is as close to a "sure thing" as research gets. I would never wish this disease on anyone but sometimes I wish a huge celebrity's kid would get it. The $3m that is needed for HU3f8 is pocket change for some people and it is a shame that the bike ride could not get someone to step up.

On a much more positive note, Nick continues to do great!! He loves to ride his bike to school and play all day long. He is full of energy and everything else that little boys are full of. We have another week and a half at home and then we head back to NY for quarterly testing.

While in NY I will get more details from the 5 dads as to where everything stands. The Nick Lynch fans have already been huge supporters of the Loneliest Road campaign and I really appreciate all the people who helped arrange the Sacramento send off, attended the send off, sent donations, and are planning other events to raise money for this cause.