A Visit From Sister

I brought Amanda to the hospital today to visit Logan... but he was sleeping when we got here.  His nausea is still plaguing him so they upped the dosage of his anti-nausea medicine... which makes him super sleepy.  : ( 

 So she quietly entertained herself by crafting body parts for these furry monsters.

 Then Logan woke up for the last part of the Chiefs game, but still didn't feel good.  : (  Poor guy.  Hope he feels better tomorrow.

Highs and Lows

Logan is experiencing highs and lows in his energy level as the nausea comes and goes.   During one if his highs, he played with his new helicopter that Grandma brought.  We've also been decorating the room, coloring the windows, and rigging up slingshots.

The Chemo is Catching Up

This morning Logan was feeling fairly well, then this afternoon the chemo caught up to him.  Now he's down for the count, but hopefully he'll wake from his nap feeling better.

Day Negative 6

The way that the hospital refers to Logan's treatment is in days.  Day Zero is the day he gets his transplant.  The days leading up to the transplant are negative.  Then we count up from day zero for his recovery.  Today is his day negative 6, first day of chemo.  The drug that they recommended for Logan is new to the US and still in clinical trials, therefore Logan get's to be one of their test subjects.  He is handling this new chemo drug well; no nausea, fatigue, or allergic reactions so far.

The physical therapist came to visit him today and gave him two elastic bands for exercising.  Our goal is to keep him as active as possible to minimize muscle loss.  So far so good, as you can tell in the video!  : )

He also got a package in the mail... LEGOS!  He spent a good hour and a half putting this little guy together.  He was SO proud of himself when finished since every other Lego adventure his dad has helped him.

For friends and family wanting to visit Logan or send care packages, he has some new restrictions you should be aware of.  With the transplant they are concerned about him being exposed to fungus and bacteria so please make sure your clothing/jackets/shoes are dirt free before visiting.  He also can not have foods baked at home and brought to the hospital or take-out foods from restaurants.  He can have frozen food brought in and prepared here, or pre-packaged non-perishable foods.

First Day Back

 This evening we are laying our heads down on our comfy pillows in a familiar hospital room.  Admission this afternoon took an exceptionally long time and Logan entertained us by blowing soap bubbles.

 I was very impressed with his creativity and skill!

After several trips back to the sink to refill his hands with soap he grew tired of the diversion and washed the soap off... then said "There, are my hands clean NOW?"  Stinker.

 Then this evening they had a classic car event in the parking lot.  We got special permission to leave the room to attend the event.  This will be the only time Logan will be allowed to leave the floor for the duration of our stay.  He made the most of it!

One owner even let Logan sit in the race car.  9 year old boy HEAVEN!

Tomorrow will be a busy day... time to get some sleep.

Hiking, 4 Wheeling, and Camp Firing.

Logan and I had some Mother/Son time last week and enjoyed hunting for treasures.  Logan has become an enthusiastic geocacher and we recently found out that he will have to stay out of the woods for many months following his transplant.  With this in mind, we been doing some extra nature adventuring to store up some memories.

This geocache had trinkets you could trade for.  He took a poker chip and left a cool car sticker.

We find these treasures with the GPS on my phone.

Then Saturday afternoon we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's woods for a tractor ride and bonfire.

Logan and Eric took several trips back to clearing, transporting supplies.  Logan has been learning the art of driving a 4 wheeler under the watchful eye of his father.

Eric decided that Logan was skilled enough to give his sister a ride around the circle drive all by himself!

(I have video too, but for some reason it's not uploading.  I'll try again later.)

As darkness falls, Amanda and her cousin entertained everyone with skits and stories.

The best part of a camp fire is feeding the fire!  Burn, baby, BURN!

And burn it did.  : )

Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for moving the annual bonfire up a month so Logan could attend.

More Fun...

Sunday we packed a family picnic and headed to the park to feed the bison and elk.  We took apples and lettuce for the animals....

... and the younger bison loved it!

Then Logan and Amanda discovered that the elk LOVE acorns.  There was a big tree near the bison so we loaded up our bags and hiked back over to the elk.

The girls put on quite a show, pushing the other elk away so they could eat the tasty acorns.

There was one big daddy there too that enjoyed the crunchy treats.

Tuesday, Logan had multiple doctor appointments.  One of which was the eye doctor.  They dialated his eyes for the check up and hours later he still couldn't see properly.  No homework was getting done in this condition, so we headed to the local aquarium for the rest of the afternoon.

Logan LOVE LOVE LOVES aquariums and will spend hours watching the fish.  Amanda is not as big of a fish lover so it was good that we picked a day to visit when she was still in school.

I think Logan spent an hour just at the touch tank.  He charmed the staff person into letting him hold and touch all sorts of critters.

However, his favorite by far was the stingray exhibit.

 I wasn't planning on a trip to the aquarium when we left the apartment this morning so I didn't have my "real" camera with me.  I still took pictures with my cell phone, but the quality is not the same.

Some of the exhibits you can climb under to get a different view.  Logan was pretending to hold his breath like he was in the tank with the fish.  : )

  We also spent a lot of time in the shark tunnel.

 But the best part of our visit was the octopus feeding.  This little guy was crazy active, swimming back and forth across the tank, playing with the humans, and devouring the fish.

Then yesterday we in the were hanging with the cousins when Logan noticed something hanging in the tree.  It was big K's kite from 4 years ago.  It had gotten stuck in the 'ole oak tree on it's maiden voyage and had stubbornly held on through the seasons.  Logan was determined to get the kite down.

 After some re-design of this extension pole, we all took turns trying to free the kite.

It took a metal pole, long branch, rope, duct tape, a pocket knife, 6 people and 45 minutes...

But we were VICTORIOUS!!!

I hope big K treasures that scrap of kite and all the memories it has created.