01-10-2008
I had the pleasure of meeting the Sundberg family at Wegman's yesterday. Megan did the grocery shopping while Craig and I watched Robynn and Jack in the eatery area of Wegman's. There was a play area for the kids and they loved it. Robynn kept doing little plays with the puppets and she even made Jackie do some plays too. It was adorable. Of course when it was time to leave, Jack and Robynn both got balloons. He wanted a green one but all they had were orange and yellow. Luckly the really nice ladies at Wegman's were able to give him a green string with his balloon. He couldn't wait to get outside to release it of course! He held on tight to the balloon all the way outside and when he got out into the open air he set it free. We had a lot of fun. Here are a few clips from the evening!
01-04-2008
From Beth Williams, the child life specialist at the Pittsburgh Children's Hospital:
HERE is a pdf of the radiation therapy prep book I told you I would put together. Use adobe reader (you can get it online for free) to open the file.
01-03-2008
News from Megan, Jack's mom: Jack's last day of radiation treatment was Monday, December 31st. It went well and for the most part, like any other day, except that he got presents from everyone and balloons to celebrate the end of treatments. Everyone at the hospital said they will miss him. We now get a break from treatments and thankfully don't have to travel back to the hospital again for another month. In the meantime, we will be going to Disney World through the Make a Wish Foundation. We were told we should go now while Jack can enjoy it and that's what we're doing. We're all very excited. None of us have ever been to Disney World so this will be a new experience for the whole family.
12-27-2007
Jack and the family came over the other night to my house and we had a blast! We played so many games together. The first picture is of Jack throwing the ball to our dog Digbee. He loves playing with Digbee. The second picture is of Jackie singing to the XBox 360 game Rock Band. The third picture is of Jack playing hide-n-go-seek. His uncle Gregg hid him under all those pillows. He was sooooo good at the game, he kept very still and very quiet. The last picture is of Jackie playing a card game with Grandma Wilda. They played War and he actually won quite a bit!
12-26-2007
Jack's Christmas: Sorry for the long delay in between updates... things were crazy during the holidays. Jack had a WONDERFUL Christmas!!! There are three videos to the right. The first one is of Jack and the family decorating Christmas cookie. Jack puts a little too many sprinkles on, but it's so cute. The second video is of Mike holding Jack after the Christmas Eve service at church. The third video is of Jack opening one of MANY presents on Christmas morning. Jack spent all of Christmas day with his family and he was able to take a break in his radiation treatment. He spent the morning at his parents' house, followed by the early afternoon at his Grandma Jotha's house and then the end of the day at his Grandma Wilda's house.
12-20-2007
Update on Jack from Jack's Mom: Here are some pics of Jack. The first is from the "Holiday Ho Down" at the hospital. It was the Child Life sponsored Christmas party for all the inpatients. We got invited because we're there everyday. Jackie got to meet four of the Pittsburgh Steelers and get his picture taken with them. He also got a couple stuffed animals and we sat and ate dinner while a guy played Christmas songs on the piano and a magician walked around doing card tricks. We sat with Ms Beth and Ms Nicole, the girls from Child Life that spend their morning with us everyday. I got them both in a video, I'll send that later. The other picture is from the ride over to radiation in his crib.
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Here is a video of Jack riding in his crib on the way to get his radiation treatment. We were just going into radiation to get the "sleepy medicine". Jackie loves sleepy medicine because he associates it with food. He's not allowed to eat or drink anything in the morning before treatments and he knows as soon as he wakes up he gets pudding and cookies and juice. Click on the thumbnail to the left to watch the clip. |
Make-a-Wish update from Jack's Mom: I also just wanted to let you know that Jackie decided he wants to go to Disney for his wish through Make-a-Wish. We found out from the oncologist this week that we need to do the wish in the next month or so before complications from radiation can crop up. It's called a "rush wish". Kind of a scary thing to be told, but anyway, we're going to Disney World next month from the 14th thru the 20th! It's kind of hard to even think about that yet with Christmas, New Year's, and Robynn's birthday in between now and then but it's exciting nonetheless.
12-15-2007
Jack is fine after his mediport surgery. He came home late last night from Pittsburgh. He was a little sad and distraught but that is because he had an extremely long day (radiation therapy, surgery, scans, etc). Once he got into his mommy and daddy's bed at home with his family he started smiling. I'm sure he will be happier today not having to go to Pittsburgh and just being able to spend time with Craig, Megan, and Robynn.
12-14-2007
Jack is in surgery as I write this to have the mediport in his chest replaced. A mediport is a semi-permanent port directly into his blood stream that doctor's can use to give him medication and sedation through during his daily radiation treatments. Jack's mediport had to be replaced because it became clogged. I will let you all know more once I hear more.
12-12-2007
Jack has made tremendous progress since the last update. He is speaking much much more (even though sometimes it's hard to understand him with his pacifier). Watch him in these two videos where he even has the hand eye coordination to click on things on the computer. He also sings along to the songs. Click on the thumbnails to the right to watch the videos. |
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12-05-2007
I had the pleasure of wathing Dora the Explorer with Craig and Jack yesterday. Jack is regaining his speech back so quickly!
Click on the pic to the left to watch a little video of him watching Dora. |
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