It was definitely nice to have a weekend to de-stress from all of the 3F8 last week. Unfortunately, Friday didn’t go as well as expected. The pain came back at about the same level as last Monday. Today was arguably one of his worst days ever in regards to the pain. In fact, today Eli said something during the treatment that we’ve never heard him say before. He said, “I’m scared, I’m really scared.” All we could do was assure him and rock him while he asked to be squeezed and told stories. He didn’t use any hot packs today. It is funny how every day something different seems to help him cope with the pain. One thing to worry about if the kids stop feeling any pain is that they’ve developed HAMA. Some kids get HAMA after 1 week, so hopefully that isn’t the case with Eli. We have many more rounds to go! However, today’s treatment is done and we can officially count down the last 4 days until he gets a break from 3F8 for a few weeks!
This weekend was really fun. Mainly because Eli was so happy & eager to play with other little boys. He and his new pal Jonathan played quite a bit this weekend. Saturday, the House provided breakfast, lunch AND dinner, which was a rare treat.
Sunday we went to our first St. Baldrick’s event. St. Baldricks is an organization that raises money for pediatric cancer research. People agree to shave their head at an event and people make donations to sponsor them. This event was a concert in Yonkers, NY put on by the police and fire departments. There were about 30 people shaving and they raised $15k. I, of course, had to make an Animoto video from my pics. Eli and his other new buddy Christian played incessantly in the VIP room where they let the families from the Ronald McDonald House hang out.
The really big one is going to be at the Boathouse in Central Park in a week and a half and “NY Gma Barbara” from Candlelighters, NYC is putting it on. There are going to be over 60 people shaving their heads. Today, Barbara met with the Central Park Precinct and convinced a LOT of Police Officers to shave their heads in honor of Eli. I received e-mails from 13 of them today saying it is their honor to do it. Wow. We are planning on heading over to meet them sometime early next week since Eli’s radiation doesn’t start until Thurs. Barbara just e-mailed me a slew of pictures of “Eli’s Team”. Check it out!
http://www.stbaldricks.org/events/event_info.html?EventKey=2008|20
Tonight my dad and little sister Anna are flying to New York to spend a couple of days with us. We are excited, and I think Anna is just as excited to be flying for the first time (that she can remember anyway). Thanks everyone!
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