Hooray for Dr. Baron and Hooray for One Week Down!

Today we went in to Springfield Clinic so Landon could have his picture taken with Dr. Baron (the man) and Dr. Baron (the bear) to put in the Clinic newsletter. Dr. Baron is being recognized for his service because of the thank you note we sent him. We are very excited about that. He deserves it! For a doctor who doesn't see children to see a two year old in a one day's notice, that's pretty good service I'd say. We sent him a card that we recorded Landon saying, "Dr. Baron, You're the Man!" and played Danke Shoen. It was a hoot. Here's a picture of the Dr. Barons and the Little Man.

Landon had his first chemo treatment on Monday and he did very well. We STILL don't have the results of the last pathology test, so no word on whether we're in for 19 or 25 weeks yet. The head oncologist was reassuring that either way the test came back that Landon would be fine....which was good to hear. Anytime a doctor can reassure us that everything is going to be fine, it's nice to hear at this point. The way things were explained to us on Monday is that he'll be coming in each week (we're moving to a Friday schedule, so every Friday) for treatment. Every fourth week he'll have two drugs in his chemo, the rest of the weeks he'll have only one. (This is if that test comes back without the chromosome, if it has hte chromosome, we'll have a whole different routine, still weekly, but with different drugs). The drug that we get every fourth week is likely to cause nausea and vomiting, the other one that we have each week can cause constipation, jaw pain, mouth sores, and hair loss. There are tons of other side effects for each of the meds, but those are the most likely ones. So far we haven't experienced much of the side effects. They give him medicine before the chemo to prevent the nausea and we have a prescription for that at home as well. So far that has worked. They said he should only have to take it 24 hours after his treatment. He complained a few times over the past few days that his tummy hurt, but no urpies. :) HOORAY for that. I would not be strong with handling the pukes right now. Today he's started complaining that his "tongue hurts" and that switched to his throat hurting after nap. I think this may be the really challenging part of this whole thing....that he can't tell us exactly what's hurting, he just knows he doesn't feel right. We're hoping and praying that we can keep the majority of the side effects at bay, which will probably be a little easier now than it is in a month of two when his immune system is down from the treatments. Right now, we're just going to take it one treatment at a time and mark them off the calendar. As soon as we know exactly how many weeks we have to do treatments, the countdown is on. :)

So moving on to other things that we've come to realize and accept over the past few days:

1. Landon may have become a little too comfortable bathing in the kitchen sink. We put him in here when he had all of the stitches we had to protect, but now with the stitches gone, he still demands to take his baths in here. Cute now, but what about when he's 14? I promise not to post any of those pictures. Couldn't resist this one though. And just for the record, neither one of us are sure where he gets this skinny hiney.

2. Our couch's main purpose is no longer for seating comfort. It is a RACE TRACK. If we (or anyone else for that manner) sit on the couch, we are told to "look out" or "please move to the floor" because the cars are racing. Sigh. This is a several times a day game here. He gets all of these cars out one by one and drives them from one end of the couch to the other, strategically placing them somewhere in his line of traffic. Hours of entertainment.

3. Landon has a memory like a steel trap, which is why after we returned to Springfield on Monday after chemo that we had to go to the mall. We told him when we were getting in the car in St. Louis that we were going to the mall to buy him a new Skip Schumaker jersey. He fell asleep before we even got out of the parking garage. Not knowing what kind of shape he was going to be in when he woke up, we went straight home. When we pulled into Walgreens here in town to fill his prescriptions, he asked when we were going to the mall. So us being the suckers we are for giving him what he wants right now, drove out to the mall. Here he is driving a race car there.

4. I went to school last night and today and I have A LOT to get done in room 109. And just like Forrest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that."

5. We have an athlete on our hands. See video below. :) We don't push him to practice any of these sports activities, just so you know. And NO ONE taught him how to take the practice swings or tap the plate. He just picked that up from watching the Cardinals on TV.

And last but not least, the most important thing we've come to realize over the past few weeks, is how blessed we are to have so many people who care about us. THANK YOU again, for EVERYTHING you've done, and everything you're continuing to do to help us through this. Thank you just doesn't seem to say how we feel, but not a day goes by that we don't give thanks for all of you. As a humorous little side note here, Landon has gotten a little annoyed that his bed time prayers have gotten so long. After we do our regular prayer every night we say thank you for the people who he has seen or gotten something from or we've talked to that day. He now says "Thank you Jesus for Vella (our sitter), Me, Mommy, and Daddy and that's EVERYBODY." Having so many things to be thankful for is such a burden for a two year old at bed time. :)