All is well

Hi everyone, we are all doing mostly well. Cain has a head cold so he missed school today. Cain started school last Tuesday, very bravely and keeping his anxiety levels in check. He has mixed emotions, usually he comes home saying school was good, but then in the evenings says he is worried about getting good grades and the differences between the academic standards in Australia Vs America. I keep telling him that it’s only been the first week and that he will get into the swing of it just fine. He has already made a few friends too. We tossed up whether to put him in 7^th or 8^th grade but chose 7^th grade so as not to put too much pressure on him. In the end the school placed him in a 7^th grade honors class, meaning that he will have to maintain a certain percentage of grades for the year to remain an honor student. The school even has an extra after school class called "Law and Order" which involves working with the NYPD and the community, which Cain wants to get involved in because he wants to be a detective when he gets old enough to join the police force. I am so proud of him, he really is doing great and coping very well. This is a big achievement for Cain as he is usually a very anxious and sensitive kind of kid, and he did struggle dealing with the whole cancer world thing. But he has really matured lately and come out of his shell and has done a complete turn around since I last saw him, he is less anxious and so much more grown up. Cain is just so happy to be here with Dylan and I, he keeps saying how much he missed me and hugs me all the time. He has set up his email account to contact all his friends back home and that seems to have made him less homesick. We spent the weekend at Long Island and have been enjoying great quality time together as a family. Dylan’s hospital schedule has dropped dramatically so we are not spending hours at the clinic which is great too. His scans and work up has been delayed until the end of September, Dr Modak decided to hold off until he completed cycle 6 of his Accuntane which ends this coming Sunday. Dylan is looking and feeling fantastic, except for his hair LOL. He refuses to let me neaten it up so he has these long "Elvis" sides and is getting a mullet at the back. I think he wants to grow his hair like Cains, after all it has been so long since he actually had hair so I guess I will just have to deal with it and let him enjoy having it the way he wants to. His platelets are almost at 70, which is well on the way to a possible stem cell harvest at the end of the year. We are not sure what the next therapy will be after the “work up” but from what other parents are telling me, there might be other clinical trials involving some kind of human antibodies that is used for other cancers (it's not 3F8) which Dylan will be able to have with his very high HAMA status, meaning he cannot have any mouse antibodies until those levels go down, ruling out the use of 3F8 for the time being. Today Dylan helped out our friend to deposit money into the Loneliest Road Campaign, which is geared at humanizing the 3F8 therapy to help all the kids who are HAMA positive like Dylan. We are also looking at joining the bus load of families to go to Washington DC to meet up with the riders at the finish line. Please visit the Loneliest Road by clicking HERE