Monday

Another week has started. Josie's Kindergarten teachers are finally back, they had both been sick for 2 weeks and we weren't very happy with the subs.
We are going to the hospital on Friday for a Spinal Tab with intrathecal Methotrexate, IV Vincristine and the first dose of her steroids. Hopefully Josie's counts have come down a little too (how weird does that sound?) since they've been too high for the past 3-4 weeks. We have been constantely upping her Chemo to get her counts "under control". But the doctor said that we shouldn't worry too much. Easier said than done though.

Another long week

...is over with. Sammy had his first appointment at the Reha psychologist. And no...I did NOT mention the snowman with boobs. LOL Anyways, we have to fill out an autism screening to exclude Asperger's or autistic tendencies. That comes first, then they'll start the whole ADHD diagnosis process. The psychologist already said she doesn't think Sammy is a "pathological autist" (no surprise there) but she can't say yet whether he has autistic tendencies or not. It could all be the ADHD too. At least the whole process started and we should have an answer by late March.
Josie had Clinic again on Thursday. They ran more tests than usual since the Kindergarten (and we at home) noticed that she has been drinking a lot more than usual these past couple of days. The Kindergarten was really concerned, Tim and I were more shrugging our shoulders since Josie's always been a kid who drinks a lot. Anyways, all tests (Diabetes mellitus, Diabetes insipidus) negative, so she's fine. Her counts are still too high, WBC 4.5, ANC 3000 so more Chemo again. I wonder when they'll start coming back down. Our next Clinic appointment is next Friday. Josie's scheduled for a Spinal Tap, Vincristine and her next round of steroids. Why do her steroids always seem to coincide with days off, fun things planned etc. It's always like that...Can't be helped though.
Tim's birthday is coming up too and I still have no clue what to get him. Unfortunately I am out of the age range where I can just draw a picture and get all kinds of "how cute" in return. Josie and Sam can pull that off, but not me. LOL

Snowman...uhh...woman

It all started out like a "normal" snowman building fun afternoon...Opa and Sammy at work in our backyard.

Then....Sammy decided the Snowman was missing 2 vital attributes

Sammy with his Snowwoman (and the HUGE you know what)

Daddy and his princess

We love seeing her laugh like that! :-)

New pictures

The lady is posing...Sammy taught her that; he said:"Josie, you have to stand like that because all girls stand like that." It was hilarious.
Miss Karen, do you recognize the dress??? Thank you again, she loves it! :-)


Rockclimbing with the Parent Initiative of Kids with Cancer...Sammy getting ready on the wall with climbing teacher Holger right behind him. The point of the rock climbing is for the kids to get a better self esteem and feeling for their bodies. Sammy LOVED it!

This is how high he was the second time he went up. Boy am I glad that they have those ropes on them! In this picture Sammy just let go of the wall to go back down.

Yesterday...Josie found this big hair thing with a flower on it and she had to put it into her hair right away.

Better

Sammy's eating is getting better. He still tells me he doesn't want to eat but when I tell him he has to, he doesn't fight it too much anymore. His blood work was totally fine (auch die Schilddruese, Tante Maria! Aber danke fuer den Tipp).

Now we have to tackle the possible ADHD thing. Still haven't heard from the Reha doctors. Will have to call up there soon.

Josie's due for a CBC today at the Clinic. I'll have to pick her up early from Kindergarten and drive straight to Homburg.

Please pray for little Ellie and her family. Ellie's a little girl whom we've met at Children's in Omaha. She was diagnosed with Wilms' tumor and just recently relapsed. The tumors have trippled in size in 2 weeks and Ellie's mom Annie was told yesterday that there is nothing they can do anymore but make Ellie comfortable. Our hearts go out to them, we are keeping Ellie and Annie in our prayers.

Sammy

Sammy has been going through some rough times lately. His attention problems have increased and we finally had an appointment at the Reha Clinic for him. The doctor strongly suspects ADHD and they're starting the whole ADHD diagnostics. It sounds like a semi-lenghty process. But that's fine with me. I didn't like how we basically filled out paperwork and Sam was diagnosed with ADHD in the States. No psychologist ever observed him. Here, they'll do that. He also just had an EEG done yesterday to exclude any problems coming from his cyst or anything else. I am waiting for a phone call from the psychologist but who knows when that'll happen. They are also going to do an intelligence test since the doctor suspects that he's highly intelligent.

Also, the little man's been very picky about eating. He skips whole meals and says "my stomach tells me not to eat". He lost a couple of pounds and looks super skinny now. They did blood work to see what's going on, but everything was fine there. I hope it's just a phase, he really can't afford to lose any more weight.

Monday

We had an okay weekend. Sammy had fun rock climbing. We went to a meeting of the parent initiative of kids with cancer, they do rock climbing for the kids to boost their self esteem. Sammy made it all the way to the top of the wall and was very proud of himself.

Josie didn't have a very good weekend though. Ever since she got her Vincristine on Friday, she's had major pain in her feet and legs and sometimes even her hands. But her right foot is the one that's bothering her most of all. It hurts me to see her in so much pain and to see her try to hop on one foot because the other one is hurting her so much. We try to give her Ibuprofen as much as possible but it only does so much. She is better today though and even went to Kindergarten. Hopefully it stays that way and it was just a temporary thing from the Vincristine shot.