Here is the update I promised...

Well, it was back to chemo today. And it really was a day early. When Jeff took Michael to chemo 2 weeks ago, they said they would call with our next appointment. As promised, they called and left a message on our answering machine that said Michael's next treatment would be April 17th at 11:30 am. So we showed up today - right on time. Imagine our surprise when the nurses were shocked to see us. It seems our appointment was actually tomorrow at 1:00 pm and the receptionist left the wrong message. We were wondering why they switched us to Thursday. Luckily they were nice enough to fit us in.

Chemo went well. We had to wait awhile for the official blood counts to come back from the lab because Michael's platelets (red blood cells) were borderline low. In the end though, they were high enough to receive his treatment. We had picked up the movie "Alvin and the Chipmunks" (which we hadn't seen yet) to watch at the hospital today. Michael had everyone in the unit smiling at his uncontrolled laughter while watching the movie. Unfortunately, once the medications kicked in, Michael zonked out and didn't get to watch the whole movie.

It is funny how easily we slipped back into a normal life the last 2 weeks. Michael felt great and had loads of energy. I think that is why I haven't posted much the last couple of weeks, we were busy doing all sorts of "normal" things. The picture to the right is the "secret project" I talked about a couple of weeks ago. We are refurbishing a desk that used to be my Dad's when I was a little girl. I will post more pictures in a couple of days when we are finally done. Our little guy also started eating all of his old favorite foods that had tasted funny to him the last 10 weeks. It was wonderful to see.

Unfortunately, Michael noticed the difference in the way he was feeling and made the connection that he had felt so bad the last couple of months because of his treatments. So, when I told him last night that he had to go back to getting treatments today, he cried and begged me not to take him - he didn't like being sick. In the end, he accepted it and was fine on the trip to the hospital today. By the way - the trip from our house to the hospital is exactly 25 Disney songs long. "How does she know that?" you ask. We found a couple of Disney Tunes CD's that used to be Jenny's and Michael plays them every chance he gets.


Michael finished the soccer program at the YMCA last week. He did very well the last night. They played a very informal game and Michael had a lot of fun. The instructors gave all of the kids a soccer medal on a neck ribbon. They were all so excited you would have thought they were made of solid gold! Michael also finished the first round of swimming lessons and received a certificate. The next swimming class starts this week and he can't wait.

It has been school spring break here all week. Michael has been asking everyday if he can go back to school "tomorrow". I haven't broke it to him yet that he won't be going back until next Wednesday. They added Monday to the vacation schedule since they had an unused snow day. Then on Tuesday, we have to go to Rochester to see Michael's neurologist for a routine checkup.

It's wonderful how much Michael loves school. He brought home his latest report card last Friday and it is another wonderful one. He improved in a lot of categories and his teacher wrote the following touching comment:

"I'm very impressed with Michael's progress. Not only does he recognize his letters, but he knows many (letter) sounds and can count to 59. He's great at predicting the next story event and his circle of friends is widening."

I wasn't surprised about the friends comment as Michael now talks about all of the kids in his class by name and even knows little details about their personalities and families. I am so excited that he is fitting in with the other kids. They went out on the playground at school for the first time this spring and Michael got to play with all the other kids. I was so happy for him. I will never forget the heartbreak I felt last fall when we picked him up that one day and he was sitting by himself and looking so forlorn.

Well, I think I will end with a picture I took tonight of Michael on our back deck. His asked his Dad to take his easel out there so he could "paint the sunset". He did a pretty good job, too. (The funky hairdo in the picture is because he fell asleep during chemo.) Please keep Michael in your thoughts and prayers, JoAnne