First Post Treatment Scan Results

It's been an incredibly stressful two weeks!!  Cameron had to have a range of tests and scans over the past two weeks to determine whether he is cancer free.  Even though he has only just completed treatment, Neuroblastoma is known to relapse - it's the nature of this beast!  Thankfully, all of his scans have come back clear of Neuroblastoma cells!  We are still waiting for the results of the bone marrow aspiration and the urine analysis, but we are quietly confident that those will come back clear too.  He will continue to be rescanned every 3 months for the next two years and will see his oncologist once a month. 

Beside the stress of the actual scans, I was extremely worried about how I would cope taking both boys to the hospital with me - in the past, our dear friend, Leigh would watch James or we had my mom here or our awesome nanny, Ana, to help out with weeks like these.  Unfortunately, January is a busy month for everyone and all of our scans conflicted with the calendars of all the people who usually help us.  So I was on my own, with two potty training, busy toddlers.  Much to my surprise, it all went very smoothly.  James was an absolute star!!  He told me when he needed to use the potty, he sat quietly and watched videos while the nurses worked on Cameron, he never complained!  James is by nature a relaxed child, but I wasn't sure how he would cope with hearing Cameron cry when they put the IV in or how he would keep himself occupied for 5 or 6 hours while we waited around.  Cameron, as usual, took everything in his stride.  He is such an amazingly strong little boy.  He allowed the nurses to put the IV in with minimal fuss and played happily with the Child Life Specialist's iPad until it was time to go through for his scan.  He drank all of his contrast (a medicine that allows the cancer to show up on the scan) without complaining and was just an all round star!

I continue to be inspired by these two little people!  Cameron's strength and James' calm, patient demeanour leave me awestruck and I am thankful for everyday that I get to spend with these amazing children of mine!

This is truly a remarkable milestone, we have moved through the treatment stage to monitoring. We really appreciate all of the support we have received over the last 16 months. From an amazing medical team of doctors, nurses and technicians at Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta to all of our family, friends, neighbours and colleaugues both near and far who have gone above and beyond to help us. From help with caring for James when our energy and time were spread so thin, to the meals and financial support that arrived when we needed it the most, and to the countless gifts and messages of encouragement from across the street and around the world that have kept us filled with hope. Thank you to everyone of you. You will never know how much you have touched our lives.

  

Christmas, New Year and Everything Inbetween!

 

What a joy it has been to be out of the hospital for such an extended period of time. We have been keeping ourselves very busy, as usual, and we made a special effort to make the holiday season very exciting for the boys. They are finally at an age where they can understand some of what Christmas is about - they are both VERY into Santa Claus and snow and reindeer. It's such a fun age!

We kicked off our festive season with Cameron taking a trip to the North Pole! Delta and Aflac Cancer Center kindly organized the most fabulous experience for their patients. The Cameron and Frank were picked up in a limousine and taken in convoy to the airport with a police escort. On arrival at the airport, they had their own private check-in desk and were given real tickets and boarding passes. They boarded a jet and "flew at the speed of light" to the North Pole (the plane taxied around the airport for an hour and arrived at a different gate). Once they disembarked, they entered a winter wonderland! Of course, Santa and Mrs Claus were there, along with several of the elves. It was an absolutely incredible experience for Cameron, who now asks every time he sees an airplane, if Santa is on it.

Just before Christmas, we rented a small cabin in the North Carolina mountains, and headed up for a weekend break. The children were besides themselves with excitement when we arrived and they realized that it had been snowing! We spent hours playing in the snow and Cameron enjoyed a soak in the jacuzzi to warm up. They were fascinated with the fireplace and loved warming their little hands up in front of the stove.

The snow was short lived, by the time we got up the next morning it had all melted, so we headed into town to ride the Polar Express! Some of you may have seen the movie, well, the train ride is made to be very similar. We enjoyed hot cocoa and cookies as we chugged along, singing Christmas Carols, until we reached Santa's house. Santa got on the train with us and handed out silver bells to all the children. The kids absolutely loved it!

We returned home on Christmas Eve and began the mad rush of getting presents wrapped and under the tree. We had a quiet Christmas at home this year, celebrated with some friends. We missed being with our families, but we made the most of the time together!

December 26th marked the first day of the dreaded potty training. We had left it for as long as we possibly could, and with the boys returning to school early in January, we really needed to get going and get these boys out of diapers. The first day was insane. Frank and I spent every waking moment watching the children like hawks. We honestly didn't let them out of our sight. We bought bribes, I mean rewards, and we stripped them down to just a shirt, and we waited. It wasn't a complete disaster, by the end of the first day, James had managed to pee on the potty. Cameron showed no interest at all and just peed wherever he was standing. As much as I think we would both have liked to throw in the towel after the first day, we persevered! By the end of the second day, both boys were using the potty consistently - as long as they were naked from the waist down. We are in our third week of training and the boys are slowly but surely getting the hang of it.

To round off our exciting Christmas break, we took the kids to Snow Mountain. Snow Mountain is a type of theme park where they generate fake snow for a few weeks a year. We were kindly given four tickets by Cure Childhood Cancer. Of course the boys loved it! Cameron was too small to go on any of the bigger sledding/tube rides, but Frank and I took turns take James on the bigger slopes while the other stayed with Cameron and went on the smaller toddler tube rides. Even though we were cold Cameron just kept on going. The more I told him we needed to go and warm up, the more he begged to stay and play. Both boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we will definitely be back next year if we don't get any real snow!

This week, Cameron started his end of treatment scans. He had a CT scan on Monday and next week he will have an MIBG scan and bone marrow aspiration. To say that we are extremely anxious would be an understatement! We are so aware that Cameron's cancer could rear its ugly head at any time and the thought of it coming back makes me physically sick! Cameron will be scanned every 3 months initially and then at increasing intervals. I will post all the scan results next week as soon as we have met with Cameron's oncologist. We would appreciate your thoughts and prayers that Cameron has no evidence of disease.