Silly String Fight

Uncle Bob, Aunt Yvette and cousin Riley came to visit today!!!!

Day 5 of chemo

Zach was readmitted on Monday to start his 3rd round of chemo. His bone marrow and his spinal fluid remain clear of leukemia and his cat scan of his lungs is perfectly clear. This round of chemo is called intensification as one of his chemos goes from 92mg every 12 hours to 950mg every 12 hours. I was nervous as I was told all the side effects which are normal to happen and also not knowing how Zach was going respond. He was effected the first couple of days with fatigue, no appetite, some nausea, and fever, but by the 3rd day, his body adjusted and he is back to normal.....he is eating, drinking, not tired and no fever.....and again the dr's are stunned. He does have a rash which is expected and his head looks like he has a sunburn. It itches a lot but the new cream helps. So...tomorrow morning is his last does for this round, then we wait 2 weeks for the "no immune system" time. Prayers that he won't get an infection during that time please. All the prayers are helping!!!!

He made a friend today. There is a boy here who has cancer and is receiving chemo and is 6 also. They are both finishing up chemo and waiting for the no immune system period. SO...they are both still ok to go out from their rooms and play. They sat in the play room and played Star Wars on playstation. Zach also set him up with some silly string to shoot at the drs and staff. Zach is showing him the ropes.

Zach got a clone trooper costume for Halloween and he proudly struts around the unit showing it off. Of course, everyone is so wonderful here they just "ooh and aah" over it and make him feel real cool.

He also had visit from the F16 pilots and received a real flight suit that a woman took from a pilot and modified it to Zach's size. I'll post a picture of that later now that I got my camera.

The slide show pictures are pictures of waxing leaves with Noni on his time off as well as some of the beautiful leaves starting to show up here.

That's it for now. More later.

Love
Mom and Zach

Photos

We remain free until Monday!!!!

Well......as I said.....it would be nice to just get the show on the road and get the 3rd round of chemo started.....its also nice to be out of the hospital for a few extra days. Zach had his blood drawn today and his counts are still not high enough to be readmitted, so we get to be off until Monday!!! The dr's reassure me that this is very normal and expected for his counts to be slow coming up, so its just part of the program.

So....today we went to Lake Willoughby for a picnic and played some football. It was a nice family day with mom, dad, brother Josh. The weather is beautiful. It was 39 this morning but warmed up to a nice 68. We then decided to go to Crow Hill Rd to do some apple picking but as soon as we found it, the sign said "No apples". Oh well.

Thats it for now. Zach is doing very well and tomorrow is another family day with all at home (Dad, Josh, Mom and Zach).

Home for 4 days

Hello everyone!

I'm sorry I didn't post this sooner, but Zach was discharged Friday from the hospital! His complete immunity count was still very low, but the dr said since he never ran a fever and wasn't actively sick, there was no reason for him to stay as we could do the same thing at home.

So Friday was a blur. I had to call Jim at work and he left and of course a million trips to the car with all the "stuff" I take with us.

We have to go back for blood work on Monday and Wed for bone marrow aspiration and cat scan of his chest. Then, if his "counts" are up where the drs can restart chemo, he will stay Wed after the bone marrow and ct of his chest and start chemo Wed. So only 4 days off with 1 trip up on Monday. This type of schedule is more of the norm than getting 10 days off. He has done so well...no fever which is very uncommon. Wed will start with the lumbar puncture and chemo injected in his spine which is what they do at the beginning of every round. They then increase one of the chemo's 10 fold . The dr's were very sure to tell me that "universally"kids will react to the increase with high fevers, body aches and flu like symptoms......so lets pray that Zach handles this as he has done all the others.....out of the box!

So, round 3 of 5 starts Wed if his counts are high enough. We are enjoying our time at home, but its way too short.

The weather here in Vermont is starting to change but has been warm this weekend. Everyone who knows me well knows I didn't move here for the heat.....bring on the crisp fall weather and then the winter. Of course, we have no clothes for this type of weather...oh darn, i will have to shop! The squirrel I names "Bernie" that Zach and I watched all weekend was busy collecting some kind of nut or seed from a tree and burying them in random places in the grass and flower beds.....he must be exhausted tonight as he was a busy squirrel today!

Ok...thats it for now! I will post more on Tuesday when I know what the plan of action is going to be.

Zach has told me to say this " Don' t worry Mrs Mancini, I'm going to send you leaves and some to Sawyer too! My noni says we are going to collect them and wax them and send them in the mail"

Again as always, to everyone who has added Zach to their prayers, to prayer lists at churches, have sent things to Zach (cards. letters, gifts) and to those who have had fund raisers/benefits for Zach.....Thank you for taking the time to do what you do. I haven't sent out individual notes as there are so many, so I hope everyone understands and accepts our gratitude via this blog. Just know that what you all are doing is working, is appreciated and makes us realize how much good there still is in todays world.....Zach is such a lucky little boy in so many ways!

Hope everyone has a good week!
God Bless
Steph, Jim and Zach

Day 21

Hello everyone,

Today is day 21 on the 28 day chemo cycle. He only received 8 days of chemo but the cycle from chemo being given until the effects are seen and then start to resolve is a total of 28 days.
Zachs counts were down a week ago Sunday and they should start to rise now. He has done wonderful!!! Thanks to all the prayers that are being said for him......God has blessed Zach once again with no side effects (other than hair loss) from the chemo, no fevers, no infections thus far,no lack of appetite, and no lack of energy! Again the dr's just scratch there head and smile. God is good!!! I know its not hard to figure out why Zach is doing so well.......I'm so grateful!

If Zach's counts trend upwards this week and he remains in good health, we hope to get our "break" next week...the 28th day is Monday.

Home schooling is going well, however, I'm having to skip through stuff to get where he isn't going to be bored. I'm also having to figure out how to keep him from taking advantage of the fact that "mom" is the teacher. Things to work out.

Zach had a 2 visits from his cousin Jack. He was so excited and kept asking for days after if he was coming again. Jack is 1 year older than Zach and both like to play video games and be silly.

Zachary is very excited about the change in seasons that will be coming soon.....especially the snow. We started a graph which we track the weather on a daily basis with temperature and if its sunny, cloudy etc.......if it is 2 degree's cooler than the day before, he thinks winter is coming....I have to explain that 72 degrees is far from winter here!

Thanks for all the cards and letters that everyone has been sending. Zachary enjoys getting them!

Thats it for now.....time to try and get Zach to do some school......."try" being the word of the day!

Thanks, as always, for all the support and prayers.......we appreciate them very much and we can see them working every day!

Steph