update

Hello everyone!

Zach was discharged on Monday, 11-24. The wonderful thing about that is that his counts during this round were not expected to be going up for another week or more and on the 24th day, they started the upward trend. God is good!!!

His blood infection was taken care of with the antibiotics and they are going to treat him with IV antibiotics prior to his counts going to zero next round. We are going back to the hospital Monday Dec 1 for blood work and if his counts are high enough, he will admitted for his last round of chemo. If they aren't high enough we come home and check in a few more days. We were extremely lucky to be home for Thanksgiving but I don't think we will be out for Christmas......but it doesn't matter where we are.....as long as we are together and he is ok.....who cares....Life is good. I have become quite good at decorating his room and plan on putting a xmas tree up when we go back. The way I look at it...the more homey and comfy I make it, the better it is for him.

Since coming home he is eating as usual...in fact making up. We have been playing in the snow for 2 days and just having a wonderful time outside and being together. Jim has had since Tuesday off and Josh came home today.

Josh is home for Thanksgiving and then he heads back to Florida as housing was just too expensive for him in the Burlington area. He leaves Dec 1.

I've included some pictures from the past few days of fun!

Thanks for everyones prayers and support. Please know that we appreciate everything everyone has done for Zach and for us and we are so grateful. One day I hope to write everyone individually as I have kept a list of things...but for now I hope that when you read this you know that we are very thankful and appreciate each and every thing.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone......I know we will have a wonderful day..we have sooooo much to be thankful for!


November 25:

Update

Just a quick note....Zachary has had a tough time and still isn't "back to himself" but he is headed in the right direction. The blood infection is treated, the blood in his urine is gone, his fever is low grade at times and he is still very tired. His appetite has not come back yet and he is still receiving TPN and Lipids (IV nutrition). He has eaten 4 pieces of bread in the past 10 days. So....progress is in the right direction but like the Dr said, not only was this round of chemo the hardest, but the blood infection in itself can knock you down for awhile. So, all the above has just taken a toll on his little body and it will take time to heal. One day at a time as long as its in the right direction

The most exciting thing is.....his counts are officially starting to kick in...little bits but his bone marrow is starting to come to life!!!! This is earlier than anticipated but who the heck cares...thats a great wonderful thing.

Yesterday it snowed like crazy and that made him pop out of bed a few times to go to the window. It was so exciting to see...as you all know....this is why we moved here...cold weather (of course all the other things as well) but there is nothing like watching the snow come down. Zach was so excited.

so....I have to get back to the room. Noni....Jims mom Lorraine, has been here for a few weeks and has been a wonderful help, has to go back to Florida today. She has cooked food for us...so we won't go hungry as its all in the freezer!!!

I'll write more later
Steph

quick note

I justed wanted to tell everyone thanks for the prayers! Zach turned around at about 1130am today, after the infectious disease dr saw him. His fever broke, he actually was awake all afternoon, took a shower, ate 1/2 of chicken noodle soup, played a bit of video games. He was without any fever until around 7pm and then a small one came on, but he is doing soooo much better.

I'll write more later....I think we will get some sleep tonight!

God Bless
Steph

zach update

Today was a little better at times and the same at others. He woke up without a fever and we were so excited, then by 10am, he was running another high fever that tylenol did not touch. Then, at the 2pm mark, he was again very high with his fever and an hour later, he was a normal temp. He actually was awake for about 2 hours today, managed to walk to the bathroom and back, but that was it and it wiped him out.

So...the cultures came back strep A again, which is what he had last round but this time, the strep A just was more full blown in his blood stream. The infectious disease dr states it will take longer to get rid of and that he has been on the right antibiotic from the get go. So, that dr was not worried or alarmed that Zach was still feeling awful and very febrile 48 hours into this and stated that Zach was just very sick. I was beginning to think, as well as the oncology dr, that he may have something else going on as well.....with no immune system things go wrong quickly.
But....at this time.....they are attributing all his symptoms to the strep A.

So...hopefully tomorrow Zach will be doing even better for longer periods of time and maybe want to eat something. One step at a time though.

Thank you for the prayers......you know Zach could have been in the pediatic icu with this, but....he is not and he is slowly improving. God is watching over Him....what else can you say. Please continue to pray for his healing and that all the other threats to him during this time are kept in check.

Thanks and I'll write more tomorrow.

Steph

Prayers please

Zachary has an infection in his bloodstream again, this time more serious. Its been narrowed down to in the strep family but have to wait 48 hours until the culture is complete to know which strep it is and what antibiotic it is sensitive to. He has been on 2 very big gun antibiotics for 24 hours now, but his fevers have not started to trend down. The drs like to see a change in the right direction the 24 hour mark, but he has not. They added another antibiotic tonight so I hope that is the ticket and by tomorrow he will be showing an improvement. By tomorrow night we hope to know exactly what strep it is as well. He as done nothing but sleep since yesterday afternoon when this all started.

So...I'm asking for specific prayers for him.

Thanks for all the continued support and prayers and thank you in advance for adding Zach to your prayers tonight

Steph

Round 4 complete!

Today was the final dose of chemo for round 4. It was 7 days. Zach went through it wonderfully with only a few episodes of the pukies. He did have a decrease in appetite, but it came back today when he ate the whole package of roast beef lunchmeat.....7oz total. He had the last dose of the experimental chemo this afternoon without incident. They have to premedicate with benedryl and tylenol so he took at 4 hour nap and yes....we will be up all night.

After speaking to Zachs Dr, it has been said that his prognosis is excellent. The Dr stated he would be surprised if he relapsed within the 5 year period following chemo...but as we all know....there are no guarantees. But....I have to say.....God has been with Zach the whole way and I'm sure he will continue to do so. Dr's continue to say that Zach has done incrediably well given the intensity of the chemo and stated that it's "curious" how his rash disappeared after 2 days of the high dose chemo when it should have worsened with each dose until he was done. All I can say is that "With God, all things are possible."

So....now we wait. His counts will be down for the longest time....could be up to 30 days...So prayers that God protect him from all infections while his counts are down for that long of a time would be much appreciated, as always.

Halloween was fun for Zach given the circumstance. We trick or treated with the child life specialists throughout the hospital and we had our own little party with a few games, music and pizza with his nurse's, Josh and Father Tim.



Thats all for now, will post more soon

Happy Fall
Steph and Zach