Well, you know when the Horns are at home and doing well because Eli’s CarePage falls quite silent. 🙂 Things have been great and we are of course loving being home (although truly missing our friends in NYC at the same time). I could do without all of the “wildlife” I have been removing from our home. I’m up to 2 mice and a bullsnake. All of which were found in either the boy’s bedroom (the mice) or our living room (the snake). I was fine with the 2 bullsnakes I found outside, but when they come inside, that crosses a boundary. Eli was on a “grandparent binge” this last week as he managed to fit in seeing one of his three sets of grandparents nearly every day of the week.
The Accutane started on Monday and we were a bit surprised that no side effects really started showing until Saturday (nearly a week after starting it), when Eli started getting some dry patches on his face. This is VERY MUCH expected and will probably get worse and worse as he gets more and more rounds of Accutane. Honestly, so far we have not seen any negative side effects regarding his mood, but sometimes we wonder to ourselves if a particular back talking episode is brought on by the drugs or if that is something he would have done without being on a drug that causes extreme moodiness. He does come by his smart mouth honestly and I will do my best to encourage him to use it for good like I did in High School Debate. 🙂 He’s already practicing debate with me, and while I always hold the totally unfair “because I’m the parent” trump card, I try to let him exercise that muscle (in a respectful manner) whenever appropriate. I thought the Accutane would move these “discussions” from rational to emotional, but so far we haven’t seen much of that and I am praying it stays that way as much as possible. One praise is that Eli has been able to swallow the pills, so we don’t have to do what some parents do and suck the liquid out of the gel capsules and squirt it down his throat. Yikes!
I don’t know how many of you got to see Coleman Larson on WHO TV 13 last week, but for those of you that missed it, you can still find it by going to http://www.whotv.com and in the Video section, click on “Internet Connects Cancer Families”. It was a nice short piece with Peggy and Coleman and Eli’s bracelet even makes its television debut. 🙂 Check it out now while you have time, I don’t know how long they will leave it up there before moving it to the archives. Speaking of bracelets, please know that we still have over 1300 bracelets in a tote in our living room, so if anyone was hesitant to request bracelets, please speak up. We ran out while we were in NY because we only brought 100 with us, but now that we are home, the request lines can be reopened. Check out the very end of this post where I have copy and pasted the directions on getting bracelets from a previous entry.
Also, a huge thanks to those of you that jumped all over my comment about the Kansas game on October 4th. The day we were leaving New York (in the middle of packing up), I noticed an e-mail come into my inbox from a Jonna Chizik (ISU fans will recognize that name as one belonging to the wife of ISU’s head football coach, Gene Chizik). Her e-mail said that she wanted to talk to me about the Kansas game and left me with her cell phone number. After we got home, I gave Jonna a call. We talked for quite a while as she asked all about Eli and told us that she had something fun in mind, but didn’t want to ruin the surprise and needed to mail me an official invitation. She said that three different staff members approached her about Eli on three different occasions within 2 days of each other and none of them knew the other ones were going to mention him, so she knew she couldn’t write it off to coincidence. I have since found out that we have several friends of ISU football staff and parents of ISU football players (and ex players) that read Eli’s CarePage. 🙂 So Saturday we got an envelope from Gene and Jonna Chizik with the new Iowa State logo emblazed on it and opened it up to read the following:
Eli Horn
We would like to invite you to be an Honorary Cyclone Football Team Member For a Day!
Join us as the Iowa State Cyclone Football Team takes on the Kansas Jayhawks, October 4 at Jack Trice Stadium
Attend practice on Friday, October 3 at 4pm
Meet the team bus on game-day and join the team on the Spirit Walk
Experience pre-game activities in the locker room and on the field
Enjoy the game from the Athletic Director’s Suite in the Jacobson Athletic Building
Receive a visit from Cy
Wow! To say that we are looking forward to the first weekend in October would be a huge understatement. The very next day (Sunday), we will be taking off for a 5 day 3F8 session in NYC, but returning the following Saturday.
Just a quick reminder once again that this Thursday is the Make-A-Wish benefit at participating Cold Stone Creamery stores across the nation. Check out http://www.coldstonecreamery.com as they are featuring the Make-A-Wish deal on their homepage right now. Thank you for your continued prayers for Eli’s reaction to Accutane and for your prayers for all of our other little friends in their battles.
To Request An Eli Bracelet:
If you would like a bracelet (or two or three or ten), simply mail a stamped, self addressed envelope to us with a note indicating how many bracelets you want in each size (Large – 8 inches or Medium – 7.5 inches). And if you’d like, it would be a perfect opportunity to introduce yourself and let us know who you are and how you came to find out about Eli. We’d prefer to get one request per family instead of having one person from a church just request 50 bracelets for the congregation. That way, we can get an even better idea of who is praying for Eli so we can turn around and give God thanks for each one of you personally! Remember, these are our gifts to you as a very small token of our appreciation for your faithfulness to pray for Eli. We aren’t asking for any money for them. Simply send a self addressed and stamped 4″x6″ envelope to:
Eli Horn Bracelets
18385 590th Ave
Nevada, IA 50201
If you want 1 to 4 bracelets, please make sure the envelope has $.62 worth of postage on it. If you want 5 to 10 bracelets, please make sure the envelope has $.79 on it. If you need more than 10, I’m going to suspect you are breaking the one request per family rule. 🙂
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