Hey Austin, something is growing on your head!!!

Hello all,

Well tomorrow is the big day for Austin starting his Accutane. We will pick it up at the pharmacy tomorrow morning. They had to order it for him. We got back to Dr. Patel's office for blood count check on Friday and then we leave for Rockport for the weekend. We will be back on Monday. We plan to all just get away and relax from nine months of work!!! Austin is just being a normal 16 month old boy. For me I enjoy every day with him. I hate spending a minute away from him. He is my pride and joy. He is the reason I wake up everyday. Once everything slows down a bit more I want to start working on putting Austin's story out there more. If any one has any ideas or has any connections to publications let me know.

Well I will post tomorrow to let you know how the first dose of Accutane went.

Take care,
Elizabeth

Austin do you stink? No that is the ZOO!!!!

Hello all,

Austin went to the zoo today with his friend Aidan. We all had a blast. The boys really seemed to enjoy it. It was overcast so it wasn't too hot. There were a lot of bees though. His favorite part of the zoo this this time was the petting zoo. This was his first time to the petting zoo. He loved the animals. When Austin wants the dogs to kiss him he puts his head down so they can kiss his head. He was doing that with the animals at the petting zoo. Uncle Alan was worried because the animals had horns!!!

On the medical end we are doing good. We go back to Dr. Patel's office tomorrow for blood count check. Dr. Patel feels we will start his meds next week. The side effects are flu like symptoms, dryness, and platelets to drop. We have to give it to him two times a day in apple sauce. I have already trained Austin to eat applesauce with breakfast and dinner. So hopefully it will all go smooth.

He has been doing very well in his new toddler bed. He has gone down to one nap a day and going to bed at 8 p.m. He usually gets up between 6:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. He has been on whole milk for two days no and no signs of lactose intolerant. I think he likes the whole milk. His favorite snack right now are club crackers. Which he loves to eat while sitting on his little sofa and watching the Wiggles. Which by the way we are going to see the Wiggles next Wednesday. He is starting to get up and dance with them now. In the car we listen to the Wiggles too. He loves to sing his version!! His favorite song right now is Fruit Salad. LOL!

As you can see in the pictures Austin's hair is coming in. It was coming in dark but now it has started to lighten up.

Well I hope everyone has a good weekend and we will talk to ya'll all soon!!

Elizabeth

An end to another chapter.....

Hey,

Well radiation is finally over!!!! We successfully completed this chapter of our life. We now move on.

Austin has had a busy day. He got a new big boy bed and slept in it for the first time last night (I slept on a mattress right next to him). He got up at 6:30am all by himself. We got to CTRC early so we let him run around. The picture of him on the bench is at CTRC.

He got lots of toys for his last day over at CTRC. They gave him blocks and balls. He loved that. We then went to Dr. Patel's office where they were all hot because their AC was out. Austin's counts were down so he gave him some meds through his port to help them recover. We go back Monday to Dr. Patel's again for counts. When his counts come up then we will start his maintenance meds.

We had friends over this evening with their two girls. Austin loved to play with them. As you can see in the picture of Austin and I, Austin has a BIG boo boo on his forehead and eye. He decided to get in one of his toy boxes and fell over and smashed his face into the toy box lid. He later did a head stand in his room but I can't see any damage from that. Boy he is all over the place.

Austin is not in isolation yet but we are still on watch so he can not be around anyone who has been sick or anybody that has been around anyone who has been sick. We don't want to chance anything. We come to far.

Thanks for everyone's support along this journey of Austin's life.

Elizabeth

The countdown has begun!

Hey,

Yes, I know it has been a long time since I have put a post up. I have been slacking. We have been busy with radiation and going to Dr. Patel's office. Monday, Wendsday and Fridays we have to do radiation and get his counts checked. Today we went to Dr. Patel's office first because there was a chance he would need a blood transfusion and radiation was in the afternoon today. So we went to Dr. Patel's and luckily we didn't need a transfusion so we went back to Nannie's house nad took a nap, played and then back to the medical center for radiation.

We found out today that Austin only has two more days of radiation!!! YEAH!!!! Friday it is all over with!!! He is doing very well with radiation. His counts have been dropping but are still in the okay range.

I don't have picture from today and Austin is already in bed so the picture posted is one from last week at the Children's Museum. I will post a bunch more pictures later when I get my brother to help me.

Have a great rest of the week!
Elizabeth

Long time no post!!!

Hey all,

Sorry it has been so long since my last entry. We have been busy with radiation and we have had issues with our internet. Well radiation has been going well. So far he has had really no side effects that I know of.

Right now we have my goddaughter, Katie, in town for a visit. She is a big help to me. She goes with us every day to his treatments and we have been to the zoo and swimming.

I am going to post a slide show of pictures from the last few days. Hope everyone is well and thanks for checking up on us.

Elizabeth

Wake up Austin

Hey all,

First day of radiation went well. We did run into some trouble with NPO again. The clinic told me nothing past six hours for solids and four hours for milk and two hours for clear fluids. The anesthesiaologist said it is eight for food and six for milk. So the nurse told her that they told me wrong so we had to wait. We didn't really have to wait much. He was suppose to be back at 11:45am (and they were on time too) and they took him back around 12:20. So it wasn't bad. It took about an hour and he did wonderful!! He didn't wake up. The picture posted with the blog today is him wearing his longhorn winter cap to keep him warm during radiation. We were trying to wake him up. Telling him he is going to go see puppy still works. He went back to sleep and slept the whole way back. We pulled into Taco Cabana and he woke up. He ate and drank fine.

We go back to the clinic tomorrow. He will be the second one going in. He is scheduled for 12:30. I got the NPO instructions but I am not going to even mess with trying to feed him breakfast. After clinic we go to Dr. Patel's office for counts.

In the slide show pictures you will see him playing. We found the playroom which helps keep his mind off of food and milk. So we will go in there every day. He can run around and not bother anyone in there.

Thank you for all your prayers for our friend Max. His surgery went well. Please keep him in your prayers for pain management.

Chat with ya'll later!

Elizabeth

A ride to the O.R.

Hey all,

You know you are tired when... you type a post to the blog and forget to publish it an lose it. Yep that is me. Writing this blog for the second time. I hope I can remember everything I wrote before.

Well Austin got his new port placed today. It is on the opposite side as his first port. Our day started off with breakfast at 5:15 a. m., nap at 8:30 (yeah for me I got to take a shower), and out the door at 9:15 a.m. We got to the hospital around 10 a.m. and they took us back really fast. They were not happy with me that I fed Austin breakfast at 5:15. They asked if I knew that the NPO instructions were NPO at midnight. I let them know that the surgeon's office called and gave me the NPO instructions of no solids past 6 am and clear liquids past 10 a.m. I let them know too that it is saved on my answer machine when they threw it in my face that the office would just say they didn't say that. The reason they were ticked off was they had an opening right then to put Austin's port in. Instead we had to wait and of course they were then behind. He was due in procedure at noon and I think it was 1 p.m. when they got him down. He fell asleep before he went back and this time he got to ride in a wagon to the O.R. He slept mostly when he got back to recovery and when he woke up they gave him some pain meds. It made him nauseous so they gave him some Zofran. We were there until about 5:30 p.m. The only thing that could get Austin moving was asking if he wanted to see his puppy. So he reached for his Nannie to take him to his puppy. So we dropped Nannie off and picked up puppy to have a sleepover. Austin is almost back to normal. He ate pizza for dinner.

We have radiation tomorrow. He should be in procedure at 1:45 (so they say).Breakfast will be served to Austin at 5 a.m. at the Akin Casa. The NPO instructions from the clinic are no solids past 5:30 a.m. and milk until 7 a.m. So we will then take a nap and then head out the door around 10:10 to go to the clinic.

Prayer warriors start your praying. Our friend Max is having major surgery early tomorrow morning and I am requesting if you would add him to your prayer list.

Well after writing this the second time I am really tired. So I am going to try and go to bed early tonight!!

Love,

Elizabeth

Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy 4th to all,

We had a nice day with my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and Austin's cousins Dylan and Emily. I have been working on overdue summer cleaning with my sister-in-law Amanda. Thank you so much for your help Amanda!! Your the best!!! It won't be long and I will no where everything is in my house.

Tomorrow Austin gets his new port. We have to be at the hospital at 10 am and he goes in at noon. I tried him on grape Gatorade today and he didn't like it. He did like Sprite. It is a clear liquid but I am not sure they want them to have it but I really don't see why not.

He went to bed at a decent time and only has woken up a few times to the fire works. We are getting up at 5:30 to eat breakfast. I am sure we will take a nap before we go. I am letting him sleep in the bed with me tonight (that is usually where he ends up) so the fire works won't scare him.

Well I am off to bed since I have to get up early.

Love,
Elizabeth

It's not time to go to bed!!!

Hey all,

Well I hope everyone had a good Monday!!! And tomorrow is the 4th of July. Yeah!!!! Jason and I were attempting to put Ausitn to bed but he climbed down the bed. I guess he is trying to say he doesn't want to go to sleep.

We went over to Nannie and Pop's house today. Austin went swimming with Pop. He wasn't to crazy about the cold water today. But he did love playing with the dogs. He gave Gizmo lots of hugs. But only Gizmo got the hugs. Nala (my brother's dog) didn't get any.

Well surgery to put the new port in is scheduled for Wednesday at 12 noon. We have to be there at 10am. I think someone from Dr. Patel's office forgot to call CTRC to tell them he was getting his port put in on Wednesday instead of today because they called to give us a time for Austin's radiation for Wednesday! OH boy!! Austin can eat up until 6 am so I will wake him up at 5:30 to give him breakfast and watch cartoons. Then we will probably take a short nap. He can have clear fluids until 10am. That includes Gatoraid. I am going to try grape Gatoraid tomorrow with him to see if he will drink that. His antibiotics smells like it is grape and he loves to take that so it is worth a shot. We will see tomorrow.

Well I will post tomorrow. Hope everyone has a good 4th!!!!!

Happy 15 months Austin!!!!!

Hey there Guys,

Austin is 15 months old today. Yeah!!!! He is all over the house walking. We let the cats roam the house this morning and he had a ball chasing them. When he plays with Gizmo (our dog) he puts his forehead up to him so Gizmo can kiss him. Austin did that to Sugar (one of the cats) and the cat just started to rub his his head on Austin. The only thing is Sugar pushes really hard so Austin fell down. But he thought it was funny.

We had fun yesterday at our cousins Jeff and Misty's house in Austin. The picture posted is all of the little cousins. We had a blast! Thanks for inviting us Jeff and Misty! Austin went up to his cousin Jacob and gave him a hug. This is a first for Austin. Then he started doing it to his other cousin Lindsey. I was so jealous. Well today my brother Alan was at our house sitting on the floor and Austin went and gave him a hug!! I said, "Austin where is my hug?" and he just smiled. Later I watched him give his daddy a hug so I finally sat on the floor and he came over and gave me a hug. Sweet little boy! He always hugs me while he is sitting in the shopping cart but he has never just gone over to someone and give them a hug.

He learned to drink from a straw yesterday too!! It didn't take much at all. We were at Chick-fil-a (our favorite place) for lunch.

We are still working on Austin sleeping in his own bed. After radiation we will work on it really hard. Right now I don't push it as hard as I should. I think during this time he will need some extra comforting. He just woke up while I am writing this post. The air condition woke him up again. So know he is laying on his Tigger bed drinking some milk.

I should find out tomorrow the time for surgery on Wednesday so I will post again tomorrow.

Until next time,

Elizabeth