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    Monday, March 31, 2008

    Cole's Star

    My cousin, Jeff, was deeply moved when Cole was diagnosed with Leukemia. So much so that he wanted to do something very special for us. His answer was an amazingly touching thing to do.

    Jeff had a star named after Cole.

    If you look at this link here you'll see a group of numbered stars. The star "Cole Michael Rollins" is star #89.

    The star is in/near the constellation Hercules and is also designated Her89. Here's another information page about it. It's on FTP for some reason, but it still displays.

    This last week saw Grammy and Katy joining us. They left on Sunday, and I was quite bummed that they did. It was a great visit, and Dalynn and I were able to get out 3 times by ourselves, once for dinner with our friends Anthony and Nerissa (and Raymond, too).

    So far, we have to say, Delayed Intensification has been better than we expected. We attribute that to a direct answer to prayer. All in all, Cole's side-effects haven't been as bad. We were really afraid that things would be as bad as they were during Induction. Instead, we have had a relatively side-effect free time. Relatively, mind you.

    Cole has still had some side-effects, but they just haven't been anywhere near as bad. He's been pooping better (he pooped today, as a matter of fact, 3 times so far) and he's been sleeping well. He still wakes up once a night, but that's nowhere near as bad as the 3 to 4 times a night he'd wake up during Induction. Dalynn and I are still alternating every 2 nights. So I take 2 nights on, and then she takes 2 nights on. It's very manageable.

    Lisa will arrive tomorrow and she'll be here through the end of the week, most likely. Then Megan comes.

    We're still not sure what we're going to do during the second half of DI. The problem is that we have to wait for Cole's ANC to recover (that's the count that determines if he's neutropenic or not). That could take as long as 3 weeks.

    Once his counts have recovered, then we embark on a two week course of completely new chemo. Some of it will be given daily by shot, too, which we're not looking forward to. We've heard that some kids fly through this stage of DI, and some end up in the hospital with side-effect caused fever.

    Please pray that Cole flies through it, and please pray that we continue to have a better time of things than we did in Induction.

    Saturday, March 22, 2008

    The Poop Table Rides Again and Cole Holds a Grudge

    Well, it was kind of an eventful day. Where to start?

    First off, the changing of the guard took place. Gary left this morning at 1:30 AM (he likes to travel when there aren't any cars on the road). He arrived home safely. My mom arrived at our house around 2 PM this afternoon. While we're sad to see Gary leave, it's good to see my mom. She was also quite thrilled to see the boys.

    We went to our neighbor Chazity's house this morning and had an Easter egg hunt across the street from them at the Pembroke Meadows Elementary School park. Cole picked up about 10 eggs, then climbed onto the playground equipment and started throwing them at me. He thought that we were supposed to play catch with them... After our impromptu game of catch, we flew a kite that Chaz got us. It was great kite flying weather. We had a really good time.

    Like I said, around 2 PM, my mom arrived. After catching up, she took the boys to the park with Katy, my sister, while Dalynn and I took a rare trip sans chilluns to Target. Dalynn and I pulled out while mom and the boys were strolling away, and Cole was not too happy about this.

    Well, after we got back from Target, and after mom and the boys were back from their trip to the park, we were all sitting in the living room and Dalynn went to sit down on the couch next to Cole. Cole wanted nothing to do with Dalynn. Nothing. He even told her to get up. When she didn't, he got off the couch and walked over to Grammy. Grammy asked him if he was upset, and he said "Yes". When she asked him why, he started talking about "Mommy going to the store", ostensibly, without him!

    Plain and simple, Cole had a grudge! It was quite hysterical. He and Dalynn resolved it shortly thereafter and hugs and kisses were exchanged.

    At that point, Grammy, Katy, Cole and I headed off to the poop table. I know I've mentioned this before. It's the Thomas the Train table in the Hungate's at Pembroke Mall. Well, it worked its magic again today.

    Cole was once again constipated, as he got Vincristine on Thursday. The poop table was the last chance for him to poop before we resorted to yet another enema. I kid you not, we hadn't been at the table for 2 minutes and he cut it loose. It's amazing, and quite a weird answer to prayer.

    So, that was our day in a nutshell. Tomorrow's Easter, so y'all have a happy Easter!

    Thursday, March 20, 2008

    How to Leave a Comment

    It's been brought to my attention that it's a little difficult to figure out how to leave a comment here on my blog. That's probably due in part to the way that the style that I've chosen displays the comments link.

    There are two ways to get to the comment page.
    1. On the bottom right of each blog entry, you'll see a link that says "X comments", where X is a number. Clicking this will take you to the comment section.
    2. Alternatively, you can click on the title of a post (here, it would be "How to Leave a Comment") and this will take you to a page with only this entry on it. On the bottom of the entry will be the comments that others have left. At the bottom of the comments is a link to "Post a Comment". Click this link.
    Now that you're in the comment section, here's how you post your comment.
    1. The white box in the upper right is where you type your comment. Type it in here.
    2. Under that box, you'll see a group of 4 radio buttons. By default the "Google/Blogger" radio button is checked. However, if you would like to leave a comment with your name, click the third radio button down, which says "Name/URL".
    3. Two boxes will appear beneath the radio button, one with "Name" and one with "URL". You only need to fill out the "Name" box.
    4. Finally, click the "Publish Your Comment" button.
    Your comment has now been left, and you can interact with all of the other folks that leave comments on this blog.

    I hope that this will allow everyone to take part! Please feel free to use this thread as a practicing ground for leaving comments.

    Wednesday, March 19, 2008

    One Week Down

    Well, we're one week in to delayed intensification, and so far so good. Cole's had some constipation problems, and will get another enema today, but the steroids don't seem to be messing him up as bad as I thought they would. If things continue as they are (and I use "if" as a kind of "knock on wood") then it will be tolerable.

    Of course, in Leukemia Land, nothing is as it seems. That's something that's been proven to us already. But, hopefully, things won't get worse.

    One thing that I can say is a plus is that Cole has not gotten sick recently. We've had some kind of nasty cold running around our house. Both Logan and I have had it, though with Logan it was RSV, which I don't know if I had, but the antibiotics sure didn't seem to touch it. Anyways, Dalynn might be coming down with it now, too. And this isn't the first cold/bug to work its way through our house over the past couple months.

    However, Cole has stayed consistently well, even with neutropenia, which is nothing short of miraculous. Now, if he can stay well for the next few weeks, it'll be really awesome. So get your prayer on.

    Sunday, March 16, 2008

    Land of a Thousand Enemas

    So, with the start of Delayed Intensification we're back to the "an enema a day keeps the doctor away" routine. We had to administer one today, which was not a pleasant experience for anyone, especially Cole. But, the good thing is that we can. Come neutropenia, we may not be able to, though we'll probably choose to ignore that stricture in favor of good poop. Good poop is important, you learn.

    We're currently watching "Cutting Edge 3: Chasing the Dream". Dalynn's riveted, as she has been during Cutting Edge 1 and 2... I'm over the Cutting Edge! But, alas, I shall persevere through the teeny-bopper melodrama in an attempt to strengthen my marriage. I really do care about this movie, I do, honey!

    Cole got to see his Grammy yesterday. His Grammy who had a new haircut and was wearing capri pants. To the haircut, he said, "I like your old hair, Grammy." To the capri pants, he said "Come on, Grammy, pull your pants down!" No kidding, he really did.

    Gary is staying with us for the first week of DI. He's definitely eased a lot of burdens for us and freed Dalynn and I to focus on Cole's treatment. He's going to go home Friday, and my mom will come hang with us for a week, as well. After her, Lisa will come for a week. I think a week, so don't freak out if it's not a week, Lisa... ;)

    That leads me to the fact that it's "my night". "Mike's night", you might ask? Well, of course it's my night. See, Dalynn and I take a 2 nights on, 2 nights off approach to dealing with Cole's hunger due to steroids. When it's "your night", you get up with either of the kids that may need it and you wake up with them, as well. I honestly find the waking up part to be more grueling, hehe. I'm not a morning person.

    Cutting Edge update: Our fab duo are now competing at "Nationals", hoping to get to Paris for the world championship. There's a "romance" forming between the figure-skating boy and the hockey player girl. Surprise, surprise, surprise!

    /target wrists
    /cut

    Anyways, hope you enjoyed a peek into the Land of a Thousand Enemas!

    Thursday, March 13, 2008

    Delayed Intensification

    So, Cole's delayed intensification began today. I've never looked less forward to something in my life.

    Here's a very good write up my mom did that will walk you through the stages of delayed intensification:

    Thursday, March 13th, Cole begins an 8 week arm of his treatment known as delayed intensification . This is a very intense portion of his treatment where he will be getting 8 different forms of chemo. Three of them he has never had before, and two he has had only once. Here's how the next three weeks will look starting Thursday, 3/13;
    1. 21 days of steroids by mouth twice a day
    2. Starting Thursday, 3/13, he will get two of the drugs, vincristine (IV) and doxarubicin (IV) - new -, once a week for three weeks.
    3. On Thursday, 3/13, he will have a spinal tap where they will place methotrexate into his spinal fluid.
    4. Either Sunday, 3/16, Monday, 3/17, or Tuesday, 3/18, he will get PEG asparaginase (IV) - had 1 time.
    Staring Thursday, April 3rd, he will have one week off.
    On April 10th, he will begin a two week period where he will get;
    1. A spinal tap on 4/10 with methotrexate placed in his spinal fluid.
    2. A one time dose of cyclophospamide (IV) - new - on 4/10
    3. 14 days of Thioguanine (by mouth) - new -
    4. Cytarabine (IV) - had 1 time - on 4/10 thru 4/13 and 4/17 thru 4/20
    Starting Thursday, April 24th, Cole will have a two week break!! Whew.


    I think the thing that I fear the most about all of this is that Cole will return to the zombie he was during induction. I've been savoring the past week. Cole, while challenging as any normal 2 year old is, has been delightful to be around. His personality is developing daily and some of the things he comes up with are awesome.

    For example, Cole loves Backyardigans. If you haven't seen them, I highly recommend them. Backyardigans all end the same, with one of the casts bellies rumbling for food, at which point one of the others will suggest, "Let's head to my house, we're having X." And off they all go. In a recent episode Tyrone suggested that they have sushi. At this point, I told Cole, "Sushi is my favorite food."

    Fast forward to today, 5:45 am, we're watching the same Backyardigans episode (you have to watch them multiple times to pick up all of the nuances, you see...). When Tyrone suggests sushi, Cole looks at me and says, "Sushi is my favorite food!" To which I responded, "It's my favorite food, too!" He reacted with a mixture of self-satisfied shock and glee. It was quite literally too cute for words.

    It's little things like this that I'm afraid that delayed intensification will take from us, even if it is only for a time. I just pray that there's no return of zombie-dom. With everything else that's going to be going on, not losing his personality completely would be a blessing.

    But, in the long run, I have to be grateful for delayed intensification. Grateful. That's really, really hard. I want to hate it all with everything I have. But, I can't. It's saving his life.

    Friday, March 7, 2008

    Wowie Zowie and Radio Debut

    WARNING: Geek Content

    So, for a while now, I've been wondering how many users I have reading this blog on a regular basis. I had estimated anywhere from 1 (my mom) to around 10. Turns out I was WAY off. Turns out I have about 28 unique readers (in 2 days). Even accounting for a few people using two machines, that's way more than I expected.

    Now, how did I arrive at this fantastical number? I installed Google's Analytics code in my blog. Google Analytics allows you to embed a piece of tracking javascript in your web page(s). That tracking script then keeps track of some basic statistics on each of your visitors, such as where they go on your web site or where they came from (search engines, links from other sites or direct reference). Once your tracker has been running for a day, you can go to the analytics website, log in and check these statistics. It's pretty cool, I think, but then, I'm a geek, so I think stuff like this is nifty.

    Here are some interesting statistics:

    • 63% of my visitors use Internet Explorer, while 4% use Safari (hi John!)
    • I had 33 visits on the 5th and 44 visits on the 6th
    • 86% of visitors are direct traffic (which means they come directly to my page without going through a search engine or someone else's site), while 8% come from links on other sites
    All of that is immensely fascinating to me. I'm quite glad I got it working (it took me a few days to get it right).

    End Geek Content

    Cole had his radio debut yesterday. A radio station was running a radio-thon at CHKD and they asked Cole to say a few words (as a patient). He gave his best rendition of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to start with, and when asked if he'd gotten ladies numbers, he responded "Yes."

    Apparently the stardom went to his head, however. Once they finished the interview, he threw a full-blown 2 year old temper tantrum in the lobby of CHKD (much to Dalynn's mortification). I'm sure that coming off of stardom is a difficult thing, but I'm also sure Cole will adapt to it handily. Fear not!

    Lastly, I'd like to congratulate the Hennigan's on the birth of their baby girl, Lucy. She was a bigun', 9 lbs 8 oz and was delivered by C-section this morning, early. Apparently mom, dad and baby are all doing well. Congrats Hennigan's!