7/03/2005

Radiation Complete!

Max is such a stud! He went to radiation for 3-1/2 weeks (17 treatments) and behaved as good as an adult! (Amazing what the promise of a few gummy bears can do to inspire your child!)

He made up his own routine of bringing a new toy each day to set on a shelf in the radiation room to look at, and always had a small toy to hold in his hands. He'd let the therapists get him all set-up, then we'd all leave the room for a few minutes while he received his radiation. We could watch him on a video screen (to make sure everything was okay) but he had no way to see us. The therapists and his radiation oncologist were quite impressed with him. There was never a hassle!

Tuesday, July 5, he's scheduled for an all day event at Children's Hospital. Max is checking in at 6am for: MRI, CTscan, bone marrow biopsy, bone scan, heart sonogram and a hearing test. The first four are to track the cancer and ensure that is dead everywhere. The heart-echo is to make sure the chemo he received didn't have any adverse effects on his heart (he's had two of these already). And the hearing test is to see what kind of hearing loss he may have suffered from the chemo; he's received two hearing tests as well. Hearing loss is a typical side effect of some of the chemo drugs he was given. As far as we can tell from being with him everyday his hearing doesn't seem to be to bad off. He may need a hearing aide for certain circumstances... we'll find out!



Max had a great 4th birthday party last month. He celebrated with three of his best buddies. We took them to the local firehouse to check out a fire engine! The boys had a blast, got to climb inside, put on firefighter equipment,and meet real live firefighters! At the end of the tour the Fire Chief asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up... Max quickly answered, "I'm going to be the trash guy!" I guess when firetrucks get a big claw-like arm that can pick-up big cans and slam them back on the sidewalk...

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