Eventful birthday for Dylan

Hi everyone, I know it’s been a while in between updates. Well, lets see, Dylan had an eventful 9th birthday. At lunch time a friend of ours took Dylan, Cain and friends, Sean and Morgan to Patsy’s pizza for lunch and then to the movies where we watched “Fred Claus”. We planned a birthday cake and celebrations on the 2nd floor at RMDH but just before I prepared the decorations, Tim came in the lobby at RMDH with Dylan in his arms. Dylan had fallen off his scooter and even though he was wearing his helmet, he had hit his head and it was bleeding badly. We called an ambulance and Dylan ended up with 7 external stitches and at least 6 internal stitches, followed by a CT scan that revealed all was ok. I felt so bad for the rest of the night, I should not have let him ride the scooter but after talking to several parents that told me their children with cancer all ride scooters and bikes I felt a little better. I have never let Dylan ride a bike for the fear of falling off and I thought a scooter would be a little safer, but I was wrong. It’s certainly a 9th birthday he will never forget. He was his usual brave self though and it has almost completely healed now. Balancing out wrapping up your cancer child in cotton wool and letting them live an almost “normal” childhood is hard. I guess in a way it was a nice change to be in the hospital for a totally unrelated cancer issue and in for a “normal” childhood injury issue. After his visit to the ER, we sang him happy birthday and cut his cake in the dining room where his friends waited for him.

Cain celebrated his 13th birthday 5 days later, he too had a great day, I think he liked the fact that I let him have the day off school for his birthday. We took him to “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” and then to Olive Garden for lunch to use his gift certificate he was given the week before. Later that night we had a cake at RMDH and celebrated with his friends. Over the weekend we spent time in Long Island, playing basketball in the backyard and just chilling out. Cain is doing better at school, he seems to have found himself a slightly better homework routine which is making him more comfortable. We are in the process of getting him involved in Scouts and he has been teaming up for ball games at the park with another sibling that used to live here at RMDH. Thanksgiving was nice here at the house, in the morning we joined the families to watch the Macy’s parade which was fantastic as always.

Dylan is doing fine medically. He completed his 8th cycle of Accutane and Dr Modak now wants him to have a break because his plan now is to have Dylan on the Vaccine trial that is due for release this December/January. Dylan’s platelets are at 66 which is ok, but we still are hoping they get higher. Dylan is actually putting on weight finally and he looks amazingly well. His HAMA test is due to be done Thursday. He was supposed to have one done a few weeks ago but with all the vials of blood they took we had only assumed it was done, when in fact it was overlooked. We should get the HAMA results of this Thursday’s test, later the following week.

Band of Parents is currently fundraising please visit the site and purchase some cookies! Visit HERE or use the banner below

Lunch for Life has the “giving tree” once again this year and you can buy ornaments for Dylan’s tree, with the proceeds going directly towards Neuroblastoma research. Here is the link to use to make a donation which will be reflected as an ornament on Dylan’s tree ($5 buys one ornament) and you can use this code when prompted 27088. Make sure you honor a child by choosing their name using the drop down key, this is where you will find Dylan’s name along with many other NB warriors, many of which are friends of ours.

Click HERE to buy an ornament

Click HERE to view Dylan’s tree