Poke Here!

Today Matthew is having another bone marrow sample taken. He's not looking forward to it, but he's not dreading it either, which is good because he gets really nervous for procedures. When he gets really nervous, then he gets anxiety attacks. Anyways, last night he was in a really silly mood, so when everyone went to bed he drew a map for the doctors. He came into my room at 12:30 AM, woke me up, and showed me what he did. Look:

He drew an arrow pointing to his hip where they extract the marrow. My dad said that the doctors this morning got the biggest kick out of him. They thought he was so funny. Silly boy.

The Reset Button

On Wednesday night, two representatives from Make a Wish Foundation came over to meet us and fill out paperwork for Matthew's wish. His wish is to go to Spain to pick up Chad when his mission is over in just over a year. They were here for about two hours, and they were awesome. They were both very charismatic and funny. Matthew has great Make a Wish reps.

Annie, T and Logan

On Thursday, when Matthew was in the clinic getting platelets, the nurses came in and gave him a bag of goodies. This amazing gift was from the McKenzie Monks Foundation. The bag (aka Kenzie Kase) contained movies, legos, games, a portable dvd player, a Nintendo DS with games, magazines, drawing pad with colored pencils, Under Armour bag, fleece blanket, a beanie, and finger skateboards. This foundation was started by McKenzie's family after she passed away at age 4 from bi-lateral Wilms Tumor: cancer in both kidneys. Their goal is to help other kids with cancer, provide game rooms for oncology centers, and arts, crafts, etc. for children's hospitals. The McKenzie site is great, and can be found at:
http://www.mckenziemonksfoundation.org/?q=mckenzies-story
We were really touched to be a part of the McKenzie Foundation. Matthew isn't allowed to use the things he received until he is stuck in the hospital for his transplants (yes, that is supposed to be plural) though. He's going to need things to do.

We just found out last week that he's going to have two bone marrow transplants. This means that he is going to be stuck in the hospital for at least a month, he'll have anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks to be home, and then he'll be stuck in the hospital for at least another month. He's going to have absolutely no immune system, and when he's done, he's going to need to get all of his booster shots again. When he's finished both of his procedures, he won't be allowed to leave the house very often for 90 days. We're still learning all of the details, but I'm pretty sure that's a fact. This procedure is literally like hitting the reset button on his body. I think it is safe to say that these will be the longest months of our lives.

T's Kenzie Kase

Oh Chad...

This morning we got a letter from Chad, and in it he said, "So I have a question for Matthew...have you compared yourself to a picture of Matt Williams?"

It is hilarious that Chad pointed this out because Matt Williams was Chad's idol when he was a kid.

***Funny Story***

Last night my mom was cleaning Matthew's room, and she found a stash of pills he was supposed to take but hid from her instead. She found them on his desk inside one of those rubber bracelets with a mint case on top. He tried to act innocent about it, but we all know the truth!

Here Are the Facts

Mom typed up a summary of what has happened over the last few weeks in case I missed anything. Enjoy.

"Matthew spent the week of Feb. 10-16th back and forth to the hospital getting his stem cells harvested.  It was a long week of collecting and 23 painful shots.  He did a lot of laying around in the bed in a very noisy room as they were pulling his stem cells.  He had to go back to the hospital 3 nights that week after spending the whole day there so that they could give him transfusions and more shots and didn't get home until midnight and then back again by 7:30 am.  It was an exhausting week but Thursday they called us and they finally got enough stem cells for his transplant.  They took enough for two transplants in case two are necessary.  He then went back in on Friday for more transfusions and then to have the catheter removed from his chest.  During all of this Matthew still found the energy to go to a birthday party and volleyball tryouts where his coach put him on the varsity team.  Thanks coach Grover it means a lot to him and to us.

This past week Matthew had another round of chemo that lasted all 5 days of the week.  These chemos are hard ones and they last all day along with some platelets that he needed on Friday.  Again Matthew surprises everyone at the clinic by leaving there from chemo to go straight to Gilbert High for volleyball practice.  Matthew is the toughest kid we know.  He gets to celebrate President's Day back in the clinic getting more blood and platelet transfusions."

Valentine's Day

(This is a post that I wrote on Feb. 14th. I thought I posted it, but I guess it just saved as a draft)

Ok so Matthew has been doing great lately. He is done having his stem cells harvested, so that means no more lava shots! He was so happy the night he found out the doctors got what they needed. He is having another round of chemo therapy this week, but he is still eating normally and not getting sick. On his mirror in his bathroom, he has been tracking his weight ever since he got home from the hospital  in January. I went in there today to look at his progress, and when he first got home his weight was in the 120's. Today his weight is in the 140's! I'll get the exact numbers later.

Anyways, this morning he went in for chemo, and his lovely nurses had his room all decorated for Valentine's day today. They are so awesome! I know my mom was truly touched by their gesture.

T and Michelle

Harvest Season

Matthew had a catheter placed surgically in his chest on Friday so that they can harvest stem cells for his transplant. They put him under anesthesia for the procedure, which he was appreciative of. I don't think they're going to put him under when they remove it though, which is really bothering him. On the way home from the hospital, my mom dropped him off at Buffalo Wild Wings for his friend's birthday party. This kid is an animal. The only pain he really took away from the surgery was a sore neck. I guess his head got in the way during the operation, so the doctors yanked it around like it wasn't attached. His neck was so sore that he couldn't lay down by himself. He needed someone to support his head and guide it to his pillow.

One thing that is pretty terrible is his shot schedule. Ever since his last chemo therapy, he has had to get a shot every day. The shot helps his cell counts grow so he will have enough for doctors to harvest and save for his transplant. On Friday and Saturday he got two shots, and yesterday he got FOUR. These shots are the worst because the medicine burns him really bad as it goes in. I hate being in the room when he gets them because he really groans, and you can just hear how painful they are. Our awesome neighbor, Adam Hellmann, has been giving him the shots because my parents really don't want to. He's great for doing that for us, and it's kind of funny because watching the whole process is like watching groundhog day. The scene just repeats itself. Adam comes over, gives T the shots, T says, "You know I really don't appreciate you doing this," and Adam leaves. That exact same thing happens every time. It's the only comical thing about getting the shots. Hopefully he won't have to get more shots tonight...That all depends if his cell counts have come up high enough for the doctors to get what they need though. We haven't heard from his nurses yet today.

Harvesting the stem cells takes hours. I think the process is kind of like donating plasma, because a machine takes his blood, it takes out what is needs, and then it puts the blood back into him. It's not a painful process, but you can tell that he loves it so much...

P.S: Matthew is now, for the first time, completely bald.