4 Words This Time

Dr. Kushner is amazing with his email responses...this time only 4 words when I asked him the status of the test results:

All Negative for NB!!

That is what we wanted to hear!!

So, the NED party and fundraiser is on for February 21st at the Granite Bay Golf Club. Stay tuned here and via email for details.

SCANS CLEAN!

Just heard that the MRI, CT, CAT Scan, and MIBG are all clean!!!

Waiting on the blood, urine, & bone marrows.

Late Update

Sorry for the delay in updating this blog. We eventually did get out of NY on Wednesday afternoon. We gave Nick the option to stay and catch a flight on Thursday but he snapped out of his anesthesia from the bone marrow surgery and said he wanted to go home. So, we rushed out to JFK and then waited for over an hour on a delayed flight....imagine that. Fortunately, we were on Virgin America to SFO and that flight missed the birds and flew safely all the way home. We got to Granite Bay around 11:30.

Nick was the first one up and went off to school and then went to tennis lessons afterwards. He just snaps back into his "normal" life as soon as he gets home. Later today, we are taking him skiing.

As for results...we don't have any yet. We are in that annoying waiting stage. Hopefully, I will hear about the scans later today and the blood, urine and bone marrows sometime next week.

Wait Wait Wait

Waiting has been the name of the game yesterday and today. We are still in the PDH as of noon on Wednesday waiting for the final test which is the bone marrow surgery. Once they actually begin the procedure it only takes about 30 minutes total but they are all backed up.

So, that is our story for now. Still hoping to get out tonight on the 4:00pm to SFO. We still have enough time to make it so we are staying positive.

We think the scans are clean as no news is good news but we haven't heard anything official yet.

Late Effects

In addition to the normal prep things, we met with the MSKCC Late Effects team on Monday. The good news is that they have a comprehensive program to test for and treat the many things that can need treating because of what Nick has been through. None of it surprised us but it wasn't that great to sit and listen to all of it for over an hour. They ordered a bunch of blood tests and an EKG to set a "baseline" that they can evaluate every six months. So, we will meet with them twice a year for many years to come. We feel fortunate to be a part of this late effects program as there are not a lot of them that specialize in NB treatments.

Today is Scan day. CT in the morning, MIBG Injection in the afternoon, meet with the team and then a CAT Scan in the evening.

Hopefully, all that will be followed up with a short little walk to Primola. Yesterday, I walked up to check out Bernie Madoffs apartment. We are at 64th and 3rd and he is at 64th and Lexington which is just one avenue over. There were lots of news crews and trucks everywhere but it was about 20 degrees so I didn't hang around very long.

Happy New Year!

We are back in New York for testing this week. Nick is now 11 years old and is doing great. We arrived in town last night and he was excited to see a little bit of snow on the ground.

The last 90 days have been uneventful as far as his health goes. Everything has been normal and he never mentions anything about cancer. We had a great time over the holidays and Nick has been skiing, biking, and to the beach. And of course, he loves to play video games.

I know I have said it before but these testing trips are very nerve wracking. We don't know if our lives are upside down again fighting this beast of if we get another 90 days. As usual, we should know on Wednesday if anything is in the scans as they know right away if something lights up but we won't have the final results until sometime next week.

I'll update this each day while we are here.