Update

Hello everyone!

Well, the school year has started up here in Vermont and Zach started right along with them! He thought he didn't have to do school, even though I kept telling him he was. Boy, wasn't he surprised when the books showed up! He actually is very excited about it, especially the science. So, we will see how home schooling goes.

Grandma, my mom, left back to California on Wednesday. It was really nice to have her here.....there's nothing like having your mom with you. We took Zach out every day to play outside, which included basketball, break the twigs with the ball, chase the ball and 3 square. Her birthday was Tuesday, so we met outside and Zach presented her with various treasures from the hospital gift shop: Halloween earrings, truffles, a Webkinz, eyeglass holders and a piece of cherry pie. We then played basketball. Unfortunately, she came down with a cold the last few days that she was here.....seems like thats what happens when you fly in airplanes.



Zachary had a surprise visit from the University of Vermont hockey team on Tuesday!! One of the guys gave him his stick, signed by the players, and he received a framed team photo and a signed hat. After the visit, the coach emailed the social worked, Penny, who arranged this meeting, and told her he enjoyed the visit with Zach so much that he wants her to keep in touch with him about Zach and he wants to give him tickets to a game and wants him to come to a practice with the guys, come on the ice, see the locker room etc.....Zach just about fainted!! That visit just made his day!! So, then the next night, he most favorite night nurse in the whole world, Gradin (male), gave him a signed John LeClair hockey puck, one that he had in a box of things he had collected......Zach knows who he is and although he doesn't understand how special it is....he knows its special because a hockey player signed it, he played for the Flyers and Gradin gave it to him.

Lets see.....what else. Zach is on day 10 of the chemo treatment plan. His 8 days of chemo ended yesterday morning and now we are waiting for his counts to drop (the blood, immune system and platelets.) Unfortunately , the only way to get rid of and keep away the leukemia is to wipe out his bone marrow and then let it regenerate. So, once his counts go down, then we wait, stay in isolation and pray that he does not get any infections or have any complications. Like the dr said, the leukemia isn't a problem anymore, its the threat of infections or complications that the chemo brings on.....as necessary as it is. So.....keep the prayers coming that God protect him while he has no immune system.

Again, thank you to everyone!! All the support you show Zach and us is just wonderful and so appreciated. Thanks also for all the prayers!

More again later

Zach and mom

Day 4 of chemo

Hello everyone!

Zach is doing well so far. His counts will start to drop by Sunday and then 2 weeks of no immunity. He has had no side effects this far.....playing, eating and being just as silly as usual.

The social worker, Penny, has set Zach up with a remote control "fart" machine and don't you think that is a hit!! His big brother, Josh, thought it was fabulous as well. Zach walked the hall this afternoon trying to trick everyone. Most people didn't know what to think at first, especially the dr's and residents walking the hall. Zachs continuous belly laugh gave it away though.

So...for now.....we are just making the best of being here.

More later

new pictures

update

Hello everyone!

Zach is doing very well. His pneumonia is clearing up nicely. Nothing grew out in any of the tests/cultures and so they say it was aspiration of stomach, (when he coughed so hard he vomited and than inhaled) and/or partially treated pneumonia (being treated before we left and not quite healed all the way). Either way, its not a huge bacterial or fungal pneumonia, thank God, but one that is easily treated. He is doing well as I said, lungs are just about to normal and the plan is to start chemo on Tuesday.

My mom is here from California. She came in on 8/13 and will be here until 8/27. Its wonderful to have her here.....theres nothing like having your mom by your side. Thanks Mom!!!

Zach is beginning to the expected outbursts and anger issues. He talks in 3rd person alot which the psychologist explained is a way that he disassociates himself from the situation...again normal. He is not happy at all if I pay attention to anyone else......he has a lot of frustration and anger which gets focused on me.....which is normal. Like I said, its expected. The poor thing has had his whole life turned upside down since March really....with selling the only home he knew and moving into our trailer to leaving his best friend then to coming here and within a week being diagnosed. So, he has a lot of feeling and he doesn't understand how to express them. He said to me last night "What made me mean?" We talked and let him know its ok.
Of course, regardless, we have boundaries......name calling, hitting, and being disrespectful is not ok.......We have a wonderful support system here at the hospital and he loves Aaron, the psychologist.

We go outside for an hour or two everyday and play basketball at the UVM campus, which is right outside the lobby doors basically. He loves to run around and we love that he burns of energy!!.....it will be soon enough that we are isolated to the room for 2 weeks....so we go out and try to soak up the fresh air and sun now.

Thank you for all the continued support and prayers. Please know we appreciate everything everyone is doing.

More later
Steph

Back at the hospital

We had a wonderful 10 days off with no complications other than his cough, but now its time to get back to business at the hospital. Zach had his bronchoscopy today and was sooooo brave. He didn't fight, argue or cry when we went into the treatment room. Last time we had to hold him down to give him his sleepy medicine as he would not give his "tubey" lines up willingly (his central line ports). I just held him and he watched the movie and they gave him the sleepy medicine and that was it. We got pictures of his lungs, which Zach thought was cool. The lung dr said both lungs were full of secretions, but there was no inflammation or irritation, just secretions. He was surprised that Zach was doing as well has he is with the amount he had. He said he didn't feel it was fungal, but its definitely pneumonia, just not sure what kind. So they are testing the secretions for everything. Zach is still doing fabulous. Breathing fine, no fever.....just doing great! His throat is sore and Zach says "I hate that stupid lung Dr!!!! He made my throat sore." He is entitled to vent his feelings. Today, in his view, stinks as we had to come back to the hospital. He is right, but it is the best thing and I tried to tell him all the positives.

Favorite Bible Stories. We have read several about God healing people and children and performing miracles. Last night while we were having snacks, Zach says " I don't want to go back to the stupid hospital. God can heal me and when the As we go through this, we talk a lot about God and I have started reading him Children'sdr's come to bother me I'm going to say....Nope, You can't touch me, sorry, I'm healed now. God healed me." I told him God had healed him and is caring for him and that God also gave knowledge to those dr's and nurses to continue to heal him and make sure the leukemia stays away.

So, we are back. Room 588. Its not as big but is nice. Zach said there was a problem with the room, and pointed to the window.....sure enough there were Cinderella window stickers on the window. So thanks to Aunt Yvette, we took Spongebob window stickers and put Spongebob over one Cinderella's head and Patrick on the the other Cinderella head! Everything looks perfect now!!!

Thank you for the continued prayer and support. We all appreciate it very much

Love
Zach and mom

CT results

Well, the results are that he has "stuff", infiltrates (small) in both lungs, not just the left upper lobe like 2 weeks ago. So, he isn't running a fever, he is playing, eating and acting wonderfully, but, the Dr called and said that after reviewing this with the lung doctor, it has been decided that he won't start chemo on Monday but with have a bronchoscopy so they can find out what exactly this "stuff" is in his lungs and treat it. So, they have to deal with that first and then he can start the 2nd round of chemo. We still go Monday to be admitted and will actually end up staying longer because of the lung thing. So, 5-6 weeks probably this round as long as nothing else occurs.

So, prayer requests for Monday, that the bronchoscopy is uneventful and what they find is nothing serious and can be easily treated so we can go on with the chemo.

His labs from yesterday were awesome! His ANC is over 1500 (his immune system). When we left last Friday it was 740. The Dr states his ANC is above average and that's great. All the other labs were great. His hemoglobin and platelets are normal. So, his bone marrow came back beautifully!

Ok...have to go. Hope you enjoyed the baseball pictures of slugger Zach!

Time for bed

Take Care
Steph

Thursdays checkup

We headed back up to Fletcher Allen today for the scheduled checkup and lab work. Everything is great but they want to do another Cat Scan of his chest as he is has a productive cough and his right lower lobe sounds like its got some sounds in it. They want to compare it to the one they did about 2 1/2 weeks ago and of course, see what is really going on before he starts chemo again on Monday. They feel its a resolving thing as he is productively coughing, he isn't running a temp and he acts fine. So I pray that after today's soccer match with dad, brother and mom, he will have done enough running around to expand his lungs all the way to his toes and get whatever else was in there out!!

Zach is enjoying having his big brother Josh here. Josh is really good about spending time with him. They play video games, watch tv together and play outside together (we all play baseball, soccer, basketball.....)

Again, the house that Aunt Louise Tipton has allowed us to stay in while going through this has been a huge blessing. The house is wonderful and has given us a feeling of peace and normalcy. Its a wonderful retreat.

We have continued to receive so many wonderful words of support and encouragement, via cards, letters and gifts (for Zach) and comments on the blog. Words can never express how appreciative and touched we are. Please know that every card, letter and blog is read to Zach and means so much.

Doris Demick continue to lead the way in Zachs education. She has been so helpful in gathering information on home schooling and putting so much time into researching and developing plans for Zachary's education. Zachary stated today "I don't have to go to school this year because I have to be in the hospital" to which I replied..."Oh yes you do....Aunt Doris and mommy have seen to that and you will attend 1st grade in a different way...but you are having school!". We have decided to buy a home school curriculim through Calvert.....it comes with everything you need to teach for the school year (books, tests, quizes, cd's etc...) Doris states she will be my mentor and I'll be the teacher.....I think she should be the principle!!!!

Ok...time to get us to bed. We have to be up early tomorrow to be to the hospital for the CT by 7:30 am.

God Bless
Zach and Mom

Zach the slugger

Our time off has been wonderful so far. Zach is doing very well. He is feeling great with the exception of a cough which he has had for the past few weeks, but the dr said that now that his immune system has kicked back in, his congestion and cough will get worse before it gets better. He is playing outside a lot, eating great, sleeping well and even taking his medicine without problem!!!!

Zachs favorite thing to do is go outside and play baseball. We have gone to Danville School twice just to use their baseball diamond. He has got quiet good at hitting. The more he runs around to all the bases and then starts coughing, which is good as he is getting all the yuck out of his chest. The weather has been great, regardless of what other people may say. We are just happy to go outside!!

He is enjoying is puppies....snuggles them whenever he can. He is excited that his older brother, Josh, and his dog is arriving tonight. Josh is moving up here to Vermont and is looking for a job at fire stations in the Burlington area. He just graduated from the fire academy in Florida.

So.....thats it for now....time to get slugger to bed.

Thanks for all the prayers and support.

Zach and mom

Bone Marrow Results

Zach s officially in remission after the first round of chemo.....which is where he needed to be. Dr Schuller said there were "no" leukemia cells, only tons of healthy cells. His ANC (total of all immune cells) went from 250 to 740 on the day of discharge. They said he is doing incredibly well. We have 10 days off now. The new house is absolutely wonderful!!! We are so grateful!!!!

We still have months of chemo, with up to 30 days in the hospital each time, and that is to keep the leukemia cells away.

God is good......miracles are everywhere. I have seen Him work......He is amazing.'

Zach says he is so happy to be home. He is doing very well. He loves the stairs. He is reunited with his dogs....they were so happy to see him!!!!

More later.........Thank you to everyone who prays for Zach and sends him so much support! You are all awesome!

Praise God!!
Stephanie