Two Years...Belated

So, I am like a month late here, and I apologize.  The end of school was kind of crazy.  Not related to Matthew, but congratulations to Jennifer, for landing her first teaching job!  She will be teaching first grade right down the road from me at Richardson Terrace Elementary.

May 17th was two years since Matthew's diagnosis.  The fight continues on, and Matthew continues to beat the odds.  When I last posted, his port had been removed due to infection.  After some recovery time he had his port reinserted and resumed chemo.  His latest checkup showed that one of the tumors did shrink a bit, which is great considering the fact that he missed a couple of chemo treatments.  He had another bowel obstruction scare, which put him back in the hospital for a couple of days, but it resolved  on its own again (and much faster than last time).  Overall he is doing pretty well.  Emily and Jennifer just visited and spent some time with him.

Cancer is horrible, and I wouldn't wish it on anybody.  However, horrible situations allow for people's kindness and good nature to come through....here is a wonderful example.
Matthew enjoys playing a video game called Team Fortress 2. Jeffrey contracted the company, Valve, regarding Matthew.  In return, the wonderful people at Valve sent Matthew an avatar that is personalized with Matthew's *signature* leather jacket, and a kind note.

A big shout out goes to the wonderful people that work at Valve that took their time to make Matthew's day (maybe even year).  I know that this made him very happy.  Also, thanks to Jeffrey for making this happen, of everything that you could do for your brother, this was the perfect thing....

Attention Please

*Clears throat*. Your attention please...I have an announcement.  Matthew is home!  That is all.

Thank you for everything.

Powerful Stuff

Prayer, I believe it is powerful stuff.  We had more good news today.

Yesterday, I may have used the word dinner very loosely.  Yesterday he tolerated clear liquids, so today he was moving on to thicker liquids.

His port was removed.  Fortunately, the infection in his port had not gone to his heart.  This was of concern because of the location of the port.  He will have to have the port replaced for chemo, but this will be after he infection clears.

They are saying he may be released as early as Friday!


Thanks again for your support!

Dinner

That's right, for the first time in over a week, Matthew got to eat dinner.

 His blockage seems to have corrected itself.  He responded well to the clamp on the pump, so the decision was made to remove it.  Of course Matthew didn't want to wait to have it removed, so he pulled it himself.

 Emily theorizes, from the pictures, that this is all actually an elaborate coverup of a rhinoplasty while Matthew participates in a CIA sanctioned makeover.

His port is infected, and will be removed until it heals a bit, and then replaced.  This is probably what is causing he fever.

All in all this is great news.  Thanks for the prayers!

A kink in the line?

The doctors at MD Anderson have decided that the xrays do not show that warrants surgery at this time.  They believe that it is not a tumor or a blockage, but rather a "mechanical problem"--possibly a twist or a kink.  They are taking him off of the stomach pump to see if it will clear...basically, if it will push through.

He is in a lot of pain.

He has been running a fever (it was down at the time of this post), so they have him on two different antibiotics.  The thinking is that the fever is caused by some sort of infection, but we do not know exactly where.

My understanding is that they are doing everything that they can to hold off on surgery.  They really like for it to be at least 2 weeks, and ideally at least a month since chemo before surgery.

We know that he is the best place that he can be.  I ask that you continue to pray for his healing, and for my parents.  It is so hard to watch your child suffer.

I am sharing this video because Matthew once told me he liked it a lot...I think it suits him.

Blowing smoke

Matthew was successfully transported to MD Anderson this morning.   The doctor told Mom that it is not uncommon to wait 5-7 days before taking action in these situations.  They have done many blood tests and many cultures.   The waiting game continues.

  He spiked a fever this afternoon, which of course, is bad. They are treating it, and it is down.  Mom Is taking the first hospital shift.

He is feeling a bit more confident in his setting.  I asked Matthew what the doctors were saying.  He said, "Blowing smoke up my ass."  I said, "is that it?"  He said, "Oh yeah, acetomeniphen too."


I will try to update tomorrow.

Back on the inside

Matthew is back in the hospital.  He was having a lot of abdominal pain and vomiting this morning.  They found that he has a blockage in his small intestine.  They are not sure what it is.  It may be scar tissue, it could be a twist, and it may be another tumor.  However, he just had a scan at MD Anderson that (we think) should have shown any tumors that size.  

There are a couple of things that complicate the issue.  1) Matthew has had a lot of surgery in the abdominal area.  2) Matthew had chemo on Monday-Wednesday, and one of the drugs in his cocktail  acts as a blood thinner.

As a result, they have decided to put him in the hospital and keep him on complete rest.  He has a drain that is draining his stomach and keeping the stress off his intestine.  He is also on an antibiotic and fluids.  They hope it may resolve itself and no further action will be necessary.  MD Anderson is currently full, so he will stay at Brazosport.  His doctor at MDA has been consulted, and the current course of treatment would be the same either place.

In addition, he had been experiencing back pain.  They did an MRI to rule out more tumor growth.  They found he has a bulging disc and vertebrae out of alignment by 25%.  He saw a local doctor, who said he needed a neurosurgeon.  At this time, there is no treatment plan for this problem.

As always, your prayers are greatly appreciated.