Well, as you can see by the title we have reached the one year mark. Monday marked one year since Brendon's diagnosis. How our lives have changed since then! We have spent the last few days reflecting on the past year and remembering where we were on April 21st, 2007. Life as we knew it at the time was forever changed. That was the day that we were at the hospital finding out that our only child had cancer. It's something that we never even imagined would happen to us. Andy and I have talked a lot about how much we have changed. We have grown up and we have grown closer. There were times that I wanted to fall apart, but Andy was there to pick me up. There were days when Andy wanted to fall apart, but I was there to pick him up. Our relationship has forever been changed. We both found out that we are made of tougher stuff than we thought. We also found out how great our family and friends are. It made us appreciate our son so much more. I think we took him for granted before all of this. We did too many other things when we should have been focusing on the privilege we have of being parents. We have now realized that money is not everything and the true way to show your love for your child is to spend time with them. When Brendon is 18 and he looks back on his childhood I want him to remember the times we spent as a family, not the things we bought for him. Even if it's just doing yard work, I hope that he always knows how much he means to us. There are days when he gets on our nerves, but there are also days when we get on his nerves. We are now able to communicate in a much healthier way when things are upsetting us. I feel so sad that our little boy has had to experience so many grown up things at such a young age! On the other hand I am so thankful that he is still able to be a child. He tries so hard to be grown up. I can't tell you how many times I hear "But Mom, I'm a man! I can do that!". I promptly tell him that he is WAY too young to be a man at age 10! He has the rest of his life to be a man (after 18.. or maybe 25...). I get so emotional when I think of the amount of faith and trust that he has to put in our hands. He has someone making life-altering decisions for him and he doesn't even know it. I am so humbled at his complete trust in us when he has aches and pains. He has no doubt that I can fix things for him. Here are pictures taken a few days before his diagnosis and a picture of him now. How he has changed!
4/9/07
4/21/08
We spent the day on Monday together as a family. We went mini-golfing, had some burgers from Roy's and then we had a party. We invited our family over to surprise Bren with an anniversary celebration. He was so excited! He had been asking for a new bike and we surprised him with the one he wanted. People came over who hadn't seen Bren in a little while and they were amazed at his hair. It's getting really long and it's still pretty curly. It's so soft that everyone rubs his head. He can't get away from it. Before it was because he was bald and now it's because of his hair. He loves it though. It used to bother him, but now he's ok with it. Here are some pictures from Monday.
Brendon had his chemo on 4/23 and all went well. His white blood count and platelets were low, but they were not too concerned about it. They thought that maybe he was fighting something. He hasn't had any fevers, so I guess he's doing ok. He is scheduled for a PET scan and a CT scan on 5/28. We are hoping for no new masses or any regrowth! He hasn't had any scans for a while so it will be nice to know.
Brendon had a palatal expander put in on Thursday. He's still getting used to it so he's a little uncomfortable. He talks with a lisp and he keeps getting food stuck under it. Other than that he's doing well with it. It needs to be expanded 2 times a day for the next 7 days, then we go back to the orthodontist. The assistant at the orthodontist was telling Brendon what an easy patient he was (He never complains about pain and he follows direction easily) and I told her that compared to all of the other things he's been through, this is a cake walk. Brendon said that was true and then they proceeded to talk about cake walks and what kind of cake they both like. They are so great with him! They always make sure that they make him feel comfortable and they don't single him out as a child with cancer.
Yesterday was the first day of turkey hunting for Brendon. Andy and Bren were so excited! I think Andy might have been a little bit more excited to teach Brendon about hunting, but it's pretty close. They got up really early in the hopes that Bren would get his first bird. I knew this day was coming, but it seems like it snuck up on me. Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday he was starting potty training and now he's old enough to carry a gun. Yikes! Brendon did get his bird. He called me around 7:30 to tell me all about it. He was so excited! He had his dad, his Grandfather and Frank with him. Here are a few pictures of the boys with the bird. It was a jake and it weighed about 16 pounds.
Brendon had his chemo on 4/23 and all went well. His white blood count and platelets were low, but they were not too concerned about it. They thought that maybe he was fighting something. He hasn't had any fevers, so I guess he's doing ok. He is scheduled for a PET scan and a CT scan on 5/28. We are hoping for no new masses or any regrowth! He hasn't had any scans for a while so it will be nice to know.
Brendon had a palatal expander put in on Thursday. He's still getting used to it so he's a little uncomfortable. He talks with a lisp and he keeps getting food stuck under it. Other than that he's doing well with it. It needs to be expanded 2 times a day for the next 7 days, then we go back to the orthodontist. The assistant at the orthodontist was telling Brendon what an easy patient he was (He never complains about pain and he follows direction easily) and I told her that compared to all of the other things he's been through, this is a cake walk. Brendon said that was true and then they proceeded to talk about cake walks and what kind of cake they both like. They are so great with him! They always make sure that they make him feel comfortable and they don't single him out as a child with cancer.
Yesterday was the first day of turkey hunting for Brendon. Andy and Bren were so excited! I think Andy might have been a little bit more excited to teach Brendon about hunting, but it's pretty close. They got up really early in the hopes that Bren would get his first bird. I knew this day was coming, but it seems like it snuck up on me. Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday he was starting potty training and now he's old enough to carry a gun. Yikes! Brendon did get his bird. He called me around 7:30 to tell me all about it. He was so excited! He had his dad, his Grandfather and Frank with him. Here are a few pictures of the boys with the bird. It was a jake and it weighed about 16 pounds.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Walk-for-Wishes. We've raised around $1,300 so far! That's a pretty cool thing. It's not to late to contribute if you would like. You can donate online or mail a check to Make-A-Wish. Please go to http://www.mainewish.org/ and select Walk for Wishes. Once there you can select Brendon's Troops from the teams list. Thanks for all of the support! You can also join the team if you'd like to walk with us. Please contact us with any questions.
That's it for this update. Thank you all again for the continued thoughts and prayers. We often run into people who tell us they check this site all the time. We appreciate it! Take care.
And here is Bren and his Uncle Tommy. So handsome!
We all are participating in a Relay For Life event on June 20th in Farmingdale (close to Augusta) with people from my work. I'm still working on the details for this event, but I'll let everyone know when a page is set up for us. I've heard that this is an amazing event and we are pretty excited about it.
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.
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