Rolling Along

I just wanted to check in and let everyone know that things are going well.  As in the past, after a first night of ‘welcome back to chemo’ sickness, Eli has been having no problems with the Temodar.  His counts are staying rather steady so far, which is a blessing.

Thank you SO much to everyone that voted for Arms Wide Open in the Pepsi Refresh challenge.  It appears that we got second place, which means $250k towards Turbo 3F8 (a much more effective 3F8 treatment)!  Pepsi will confirm the win on 10/23, but it looks like we pulled it off.  I heard from so many of you that were texting and voting every single day and telling others to do the same.  This has a direct impact on treatment options available to Eli and his friends!

On Sunday, we went to the Center Grove Orchard in Cambridge with the Children’s Cancer Connection.  We had a fantastic time there as the boys swam in a ‘corn pool’, jumped on a huge pillow, navigated a corn maze and a hay maze, slid down a huge slide, saw a chemistry show, made a carmel apple, picked a pumpkin and went on a hayrack ride.  We spent 4 hours there and didn’t even do everything that was there to do!

Here are some pics:

Center Grove Orchard

On the 28th, Eli was featured in a local newspaper article to help promote the Blood Bank and to encourage people to donate blood.  You can check it out here:  http://www.iowastatedaily.com/news/article_44de035c-c856-11df-8495-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=story

Thank you for your continued prayers as Eli continues his chemo while going to school.  Also, thanks for praying for Eli’s buddies.  Another Neuroblastoma warrior (Morgan) ended her battle with Neuroblastoma last week.  Please keep the Deckard family from Indiana in your prayers.  I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to stop hearing about kids that suffer through and then lose their life to cancer.  Especially kids that we have personally met and grown to love!  It’s why voting for things like the Pepsi Refresh project and supporting other pediatric cancer research is so important.  It directly and positively impacts the survival rate of kids by providing better and more effective treatment options!  We can’t thank you all enough for supporting us!