Hooray!!!

It's been a little bit more than a year since Zack completed his treatments. All is well and I'm grateful for his health and happiness every day. Following his final chemo treatment on March 22, 2011, Zack went to NYC where he celebrated with cousins and other family members. He continues to have regular check-ins with the pediatric oncology docs --- he had monthly appointments for the first 6 months and now he's switched to every 3 months.

Zack's Cookbook

Please use the below link to remit payment via Paypal. Once your Paypal transaction is complete, I'll email the cookbook to you in pdf format asap. Thank you!!

Zack had another chemo appointment yesterday. All went well and he was at school by 11:00am. His blood counts are well within the normal healthy range but slightly higher than what his hematology/oncology doc, Dr. Loh, would like to see. Zack's at 100% dosage of the chemo meds he takes at home and his doctor would like to increase that amount. For now, Zack and I agree that we want to leave the meds as is and Dr. Loh is okay with that decision.

Only 5 more months until he's done with chemo!

Zack had his port removed this week! The operation went smoothly and he recovered easily, only slightly sore at the site of removal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_(medical)

Zack's monthly chemo appointments continue with spinal taps every three months. Dr Malempati administered this week's procedure and everything went beautifully. Zack's counts are exactly where the docs want them to be and his daily meds were increased slightly, according to his height and weight. 

Here's some of what Zack's been up to the past three months:

Zack as King Rayna in the class play "Scheherazade," 

posing with Gabe, Edan and Gaelan after the final show...

5 performances in 3 days!

Zack, Gaelan, Edan and Gabe...celebrating 

Zack's and Gaelan's 14th birthdays in early January

Cheering for his fellow 8th graders' 

basketball team, The Moose

Volunteer work at the Oregon Food Bank, 

part of his 8th grade project

 

Zack had chemo with spinal tap (intrathecal chemo) today and it was his smoothest of these procedures to date. His nurse said he used the least amount of pain medication/conscious sedation meds she'd ever seen for a spinal tap. Best were the small amount of pain he experienced and the quickness with which it was over. Today was Dr. Tilford and RN Jen.

Zack's blood counts are right where the docs want them to be! He's taking it easy for the rest of the day, looking forward to Ken's Artisan Pizza for dinner and tomorrow he'll visit Meigra for a Bowen bodywork session.

Zack had another chemo appointment at Doernbecher this week. We were in and out of there in an hour which must be a record for us. Dr. Malempati said Zack's doing great and Cyndi administered vincristine...and then we were off to Yuki's for tofu and home to finish homework. Zack felt nauseous later that evening but it passed quickly and he slept well that night.

We've been reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame and it ended in all its grisliness this week so we've moved on to The Call of the Wild. Zack's enjoying school. The class just finished a writing block during which Zack wrote a short story about murder and revenge in Russia during World War II. Now the class is studying chemistry.

Zack's excited about Halloween and is planning to be Skulduggery Pleasant.