Finally... an update....

Things are going well. Life is still pretty busy, but we welcome it! That means that Brendon is well enough to keep busy. Here are a few updates since the last post...

We've been trying to get out and enjoy the LARGE amounts of snow that we have received as much as we can. Bren and I have had 7 or 8 snow days this year! Today was another one. Bren has been doing great at ice skating, although the snow has stopped us from hitting the ponds as much as we'd like. This year we are planning to go skiing/snowboarding at Lost Valley and Shawnee Peak for the first time as a family. It should be a lot of fun! Here are some pictures of our outdoor adventures (including some from Bren snowblowing the driveway today).

Brendon had his monthly chemotherapy session in Scarborough on January 30th and found out that he will not be able to play football this year. He was pretty upset, but he's trying to think of another sport that he'd like to get involved with. The chemo went well. He had the normal body aches that accompany the vincristine the week after, but it was mild. He will be having a PET scan and an X-ray in March/April just to check things out. We talked about how we would know if Brendon relapsed, besides the pain that he had before. I asked if they would know by his blood, and found out that it would not show in his blood. His doctor said that he's doing very well and that she thinks his chance for relapse is small. She also said that Lymphoma doesn't sneak up on you. Once it's there, it's there. Bren went to see a neurologist yesterday because he has been having severe migraines that Oxycodone doesn't help. He had 2 or 3 last month. They usually hit him at night time and they are so bad that he usually feels like he's going to vomit. His doctor referred him to neurology to see if they could offer him some alternative medicine to help him out. The appointment went well and he was confident that Brendon does not have any neurological issues (which is a huge relief!). Brendon is just one of the many people who suffer from migraines. He gave us some medicine to try when he gets one. Thank goodness it's not another pill that he has to take daily.

Brendon has also discovered his love for babies. A friend of ours had a baby about a month ago and Brendon is just fascinated with him. He was nervous to hold him for the first time, but after that he was hooked. He loves holding him! Here are some cute pictures of Brendon and Zander. Brendon has all of his hair back. He looks great! His hair is a light to medium blonde now and it's a lot softer. He actually has a little bit of a wave to it. Not much, but just a little. Before chemo his hair was stuck straight to his head and was light brown without an ounce of wave. I actually had to trim his hair in the back the other day because he was growing a rat tail. He kept saying how strange it was to be getting a trim. It's been about 6 months since his hair has been long enough to trim. It's still pretty short right now, but he's growing it out to see what it will look like. He also has long, thick eyelashes! He lost those because of the chemo, but they are back and better than ever. I am so jealous of his lashes. They are beautiful!
And finally, Brendon made the honor roll for this quarter! We are so proud of him!! He made the Behavior Honor Roll, Effort Honor Roll and the all A's & B's Honor Roll. This is the first time he's made all A's & B's this year. He has worked so hard to stay on track and his school has been so great with helping him not fall behind. He is such a smart kid and it's great to see him so proud of his accomplishments. His attendance has also gone up drastically. He was in school almost every day this quarter.

That's pretty much it for updates. We are doing the day to day thing and trying to stay warm and dry! This winter has been pretty rough! I don't remember getting this much snow in the winter... I'll leave you with another slide show of some random pictures.



Take care! ~Amber