I have a new Cousin - his name is Cameron

On December 28th at about 8am, my cousin Cameron entered the world at 8 pounds 8 ounzes. His lucky number will be 8 I guess. My mom went to see him at the hospital, here is a picture. Congradulations to my Uncle Erik and Aunt Becky. I can't wait to meet him.

Still Waiting for White Blood Cells

The wait seems forever. I had my 14th Birthday here on Dec 26th. My mom suprized me with a birthday party. She had to keep it fairly small, but I was suprized. I had vanilla cake with rasberry filing, whic h was good, then we had pizza. I got lots of presents. Again! It' s really not bad having a birthday right after Christmas, because I have 2 days of presents! My mom gave me 14 pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, fifty cents, dollor coins, dollor bills, 5 dollor bills and 10 dollor bills. As you can see I was quite happy about that present! We're gonna load that money on a visa card so I can go shopping from my computer here at the hospital.

I had a bone marrow biopsy on the 27th, so now my bottom hurts. They extract bone marrow out of the bone, and they took a little piece of my bone to look at. Nothing new, not a lot of activity in there. The doctors did say that was fairly normal since I had two back to back chemo's. I've had no white cells since 11/30. I hope this doesn't stop my transplant. I know I have to have a certain amount of cells before they can do it. I guess we wait and see.

If you feel like it, come for a visit.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Well, al in al I had a good day. Santa visited me and gave me presents! My nurses were all super nice today and my mom and dad gave me lots of stuff. Cole came down to open presents together. We have to open some presents at the same time because we often get the same things. I saw the Adams famly yesterday and played Apples to Apples. Cousin Alicia won! My uncles & grandma dama came to see me tonight. Mom brought down dinner, but I really liked the scaloped potatoes from my grandma dama. I did get a whole strawberry rubarb pie from granpa Jack the other day. Food is starting to taste better.
I still don't have any white blood cells yet. What's up with that? I hope everything is going to still work out for me and I can get out of here sometime soon. I'm not really looking forward to spending my birthday here tomorrow, but I guess I got to.

No White Blood Cells Yet

Three days to go until Christmas, then my birthday, and I don't think I'm gonna get out of here. It seems like I should have some sign of white blood cells by now, but, noooooooooooo, not yet. I've been getting some visitors, which is nice. I do like visitors. My friends came down today. And my mom made a Christmas tree on my wall. Here's a picture. I hope Santa remembers where I'm at! I'm sure "she" will!!

My Uncle Ted spent the night last night, and Jeanine is here tonight. I've been making some Christmas presents. Hope everyone has a happy holiday. Thanks to all!

10 Days until Christmas

I heard one of the nurses call my confinement ANC Jail. That's what it feels like. I'm in Jail. I still have zero white blood cells. Any day now they should start coming back, then I'll get out of jail.
Some of my neighborhood friends came to visit me yesterday. They cheered me up some. It's hard to stay cheery when there is no end in sight yet. We had pizza and played some games. Watched some funny videos on UTube.
My mom & dad are trying to decorate the house for Christmas this weekend. Hopefully I'll be home to see it soon. I do love the Christmas lights. It's my dad's turn to pick out the tree, so he's doing that today. My mom's friends are coming over tomorrow to help decorate. I hope Max stays out of the stuff and doesn't chew up everything! I can't wait to see the puppy dog when I get home.

Completely BORED out of my mind!!!!!!

Hi All.
The chemo part is over.....now we wait. I did end up in ICU for about 24hours last weekend, because my blood pressure dropped so low. I hate ICU. They don't even let you get up to pee! I was never so happy to see my room on the 3rd floor. Then, we had to move rooms, which was a pain. We are back in the room we were in last time. It's kinda cramped, but I still have my computer & xbox, so I'm good. I'm feeling ok, but I don't seem to have much energy. I've been sleeping a lot lately.
I made some christmas presents with Jeanine today, and now I'm off to help the nurses paint decorations on the windows.
Thanks Austin, for the candy tree. My nurses like it too!!

November 22, 2007 - Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

It's Thanksgiving here at Children's Hospital and I'm roaming the halls talking to the nurses. I like talking to the nurses. They like to listen to my stories and even help me with homework! I got Thanksgiving dinner from Uncle Ted, via my dad. I got pie from Grandpa Jack via my mom. I also got a pie from the kids at Chef school, one of my classes at school. Wish I could have been there, but thanks for making it for me! I loved it. I got to eat it all by myself! My mom spent the night last night, so my dad's spending the night tonight. I will definitely be up later than him. I'm feeling okay so far. I even had the nasty chemo today, centeribine, or something like that. I guess my body is just getting used to chemo, or maybe the drugs they give me for nausea are working. I dont' know, but I'm glad.
Thanks to everyone for all the cards, gifts, emails, blog comments, etc. I do appreciate all your good thoughts.

November 21, 2007 - Back to the Hospital

It's that time again.....back to chemo, and another month in the hospital. The day before Thanksgiving! I'm hoping I get out before Christmas this way. It took 32 days last time, so that would put me at about Dec. 22nd or 23rd. I really want to be out of here by Christmas. I want to see Christmas Lights and Christmas Trees. I love presents, of course, but mostly I just want to be in my own house. I like seeing my friends too.
I was out for 9 days, but it sure flew by. We went out for dinner to Buca de Bepos, and had Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday with my Grandma Dama, Uncles & Aunts. Molly was there too. I went to 3 movies with my brother & my dad. Nick & Tristen came over and played video games with me. Cole got Rock Band, and I got Assasin's Creed Xbox games, so we had fun playing those. I brought mine with me to the hospital and played most of the first day. Then I got bored and went to harrass the nurses!! They don't seem to mind talking to me. I do like roaming!

November 12, 2007 - HOMEWARD BOUND!

Haliluya! I got to leave the hospital today & sleep in my own bed tonight. It is definitely much better at home. I finally got 288 white blood cells. It went up almost 100 since the day before. It seems like it took forever.

We still have appointments. On Tues we have to have a blood test done, Wed we go to the clinic at Children's Hospital to see if I need palatelet transfusion. Friday I get another bone marrow biopsy, then they will figure out what we do after that.

I don't like living with this cancer. I wish I didn't have it, and I was back at school. Even school is better than this.

I got to meet some Seahawks at the hospital and a Sea Gal. Here's a picture

A donor is found!

Well, there looks like there are several matches for bone marrow for me. That's good, I guess. Now I just need to get my white blood cells jiving again. I need a count of 200 or greater to leave the hospital for a few days. It was 70 yesterday. Normally your white blood cells are over 5,000, so I'm not asking for a lot here............just 200.
I really need to get out of here and smell fresh air. I will only get a few days at home, then I have to come back and do this all over again. One more month long chemo, then my bone marrow transplant probably in January. It takes 10 days conditioning to get ready for a bone marrow transplant. They will use chemo that will kill the bone marrow completely, and possibly some radiation, brefore I even get the transplant. Does not sound like much fun to me!
I guess I can't go to school for a year after a transplant. Holy smokes! That's a long time. I hope I can still pass the 8th grade, so I can make it to high school someday. Maybe 1/2 way thru 9th grade.

Today is Halloween at SCCA

Last night I stayed up until almost 4am. I liked talking to all the night time nurses. There are a lot of ones from last year at night. Keflam, Todd, Jake and Andrew are all really nice. They talk to me when I'm bored. I got to hand out alot of Halloween candy. I even had a piece of pizza.

There was a Halloween party here today. I had fun. The nurses dressed up as butterflys and the residents and fellows dressed up as Dr. Mathews. It was pretty funny. I'm going to try to post some of the pictures if I can figure out how to do it. I got my face painted. They painted my eyelids with eyeballs so it looked like my eyes were open when they were actually shut. I'm going to play tricks on the nighttime nurses tonight. See if they notice.

Waiting for a Bone Marrow Match - October 29, 2007

Today I find that my mom, dad or brother are not a match for my bone marrow. Now I wait for a match from the bone marrow bank. I'm still in the hospital from my first chemo. They said I'd be able to go home for a few days after about a month. It's only been 18 days so far, but it feels like a lot longer. It will take 1-3 months for a bone marrow transplant, I dont' really know for sure. Everyone says a different thing. I just have to go with the flow because I dont' get a say in anything.

While I'm waiting, I have to do these one month chemos. It's no fun that is for sure. The actual chemo takes about a week and it makes me sick. I take lots of medicine to help with the sick feeling, but it makes me very tired. Once that's over I feel ok. I'm feeling pretty good right now but they tell me I have "no counts." This means I have no ANC (Absolute Nutrafil Count) or white blood cells in my blood. As soon as my counts go over 200 I can go home for a few days. I hope that means more than 2 days, but I bet it doesn't mean a week. I want to see all my friends while I'm at home.

I guess I can't go to school for a long time. I don't really want to miss that much school. I was just starting to feel like I was caught up from the last time and now I am behind again. My mom says we will try to get some work, but I'm not really sure that is going to work.

Leave a note if you read this. I'm just getting use to this blog

Secondary Leukemia Diagnosed

Oct 5th, I went in for my 9 month scans. The scans turned out ok, but the blood didn't. The next day I had a bone marrow biopsy to confirm that I have Secondary AML (Acute Myelogenous Leukemia). This means I got leukemia cancer from my original bone cancer treatement. This is pretty rare, but not rare enough for me.
I got that weekend off, which was good because it was Coleman's birthday party. Then, by the next thursday I was in surgery getting a hickman line inserted in my chest. By friday I was getting chemo again. Totally different kinds than the last ones that gave me cancer, but with more side effects. With this chemo I must stay in the hospital until my white blood cell count comes back up. This could take up to a month or more. What I really need is a bone marrow transplant. The chemo rotted my bone marrow and the best way to fix that is to give me new bone marrow.
My brother got his blood tested, and it takes 3 weeks to find out if he's a match. He would make the best 'natural' match, but the chances are only 25%. If he isn't a match, then other family will get tested, but we will probably have to go to a International Bank of Bone Marrow Donors. It could take months to get a transplant, and several more chemos before it's available.
In the meantime, I'm done with the first chemo, and I'm bored in the hospital. I really do not like staying here day after day. It's really boring. I can't even leave the floor.
Today, my friends Nick & Daniel came to see me. Thanks for the donuts guys. Really enjoy those!

August 2007 to Alaska on the Cape Decision

Once again, I got to travel through the SE islands of Alaska with my Grandpa Jack on the Cape Decision. We caught lots of salmon and crab. Evan and his dad were on the trip too. Nice to have them aboard.

Grant does Disneyland & California Adventure

On June 2nd, Mom flew me & my brother down to Anaheim, where she was at a convention. We got to stay in the Disneyland Hotel for 3 nights with our favorite Utah relatives, Diana, Savanah, Brittany, Aubrey and Jeanine from Canada. We stayed in a suite near the top floor. It felt like we were high in the sky. We hardly had any sleep. We went on all the rides at the California Adventure. We went on the River Ride 9 times in a row!! We all were absolutely soaking wet. I finally went on a roller coaster upside down. It went really fast and was so fun we went 3 more times. It was pretty warm out compared to the Seattle rain.

Grant "Makes a Wish"

In February 2007 I got to "Make a Wish". I wished to fish in the Florida Keys. What a blast me and my family had. 4 fishing boat charters, lots of fish, nice hotel, shopping at the Worldwide Sportsman, drinking pina coladas at the Tiki Hut, and fun in the sun. And the gators. What can I say about the aligators? I find them facinating. We went to an aligator farm, where they raise them to use their skins.

Grant Diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma

January 25, 2006 I was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma Bone Cancer in my left jaw. I went through 42 weeks of chemotherapy and 6 weeks of radiation. I finished treatment in December 2006 right before my 13th birthday. I got pretty sick and didn't feel good most of the time, but I got through it.