It Has Been A While!

Hello Everyone,

I am sorry it has been so long since the last post. Jackson is doing great. I am just trying now to get geared up for our trip to UCSF next week. Jackson will be there on the 15th, 16th, and the 17th for MRI, spinal tap, hearing test, and if all is well, then they will remove his medaport.

This last month has flown by, although it seems like already the last 10 months are a distant, bad memory. It sounds weird, but I think it is because the last 2-3 weeks we have lived a normal, non-chemo lifestyle. That is the longest period of time in the last 6-7 months that we didn't have to do something treatment related. I am dreading the SF trip next week because it will interrupt our non-treatment lives, but hopefully, it will be the last interruption for a while.

Jackson is doing great! It took him a while to re coop from this last chemo treatment. His blood counts dropped pretty low shortly after his outpatient clinic appointment in May, so he needed to go for a blood and platelet transfusion. He had that done on May 19th, and since then he has slowly re cooperated. He is now pretty much in full force. Jackson's appetite has been incredible lately, and he seems to be putting on some chub in the belly area! Ha Ha! He keeps himself busy everyday in the yard. He makes himself oatmeal every morning with my help. He has been running, playing, and in the last week we have been swimming. Jack doesn't swim well, but he putts around our neighbors pool in a floatie. We just put up our pool this weekend. He and Hayden can stand in it and reach the bottom so they just do alot of splashing. We have just been having a great time lately going to the park, doing yard work, coloring, and lots of other things. Jackson has been taking so much initiative lately by dressing himself, getting himself in and out of the shower, getting his own snacks, and doing chores and stuff with his dad. This is my before BT( brain tumor) Jack. It was amazing because after his last dose of chemo and when all of his blood draws and pokes were over, he just became his old self again. He still has some meltdowns and mood swings, but they seem to be getting better. I'm sure all of this has to do with just not being so run down from the drugs and getting over the effects of the chemo. His eyelashes started to grow back recently, but now they have fallen out again. I am hoping that by the end of August, his hair will be starting to come back for school. I registered him for Kindergarten this month. He will start around the third week in August at Alice Shaw Elementary here in Orcutt.

Jackson made his wish for Make-A-Wish in May also. His wish is to go to the Nickelodeon Hotel in Orlando and get slimed! They have been in contact with us a couple of times since then, so it sounds like they are doing their best to make it happen for him. We chose some dates late this summer and in September and October.

We are hoping to do a couple of fun things when we go to SF next week in between appointments. We heard from another family at Family House that the have some passes to do some fun things down at Pier 39, so we will probably go down there and of course there is also the mandatory zoo trip. Well anyways, thanks for following Jackson's Journey with us and please everyone pray for a great MRI next week and a clean spinal tap. I will post next week with the results of tests and hopefully some great excursions!

Jenise