Office Check up

Hey Everyone,
We had our office visit today. We also made an appearance at the Parent Meeting. It was nice to see the familiar faces. Hans did just fine and he got his next prescription for Accutane. He'll start back up on Oct. 1st. I'd say it has been nice to be off Accutane - but we did run into some problems needing to triple his steroids first for a fever and then for a "little" fall at the park, so I don't know... it's been kinda crazy. We did get approval for the Make A Wish Trip from our doctor. At least they can get the ball rolling now and maybe we'll get to go during the dry season... The cool thing is that Hans' special buddy, Dr. Rainusso, will prepare a letter in Spanish for any doctor Hans might need to see in Costa Rica. Kevin is fluent in Spanish, so even if we did have a need for a physician at least we could communicate with them! We'll keep you posted.

Everyone is starting to get excited for this ranch trip. A few of the staff members from TCH are going. We leave on Friday next week and get back Sunday. It should be lots of fun! It's so generous of the owners of the ranch to donate this trip.

Hans has scans starting next week, then he gets a week off, and goes back the following week for an MRI. His audiogram follows on November 2nd. Thanks for praying along with us for clean scans for Hans, Patrick too. He's been doing well in Kindergarten! It sounds like Accutane is not "fun", but he's doing okay on it - and almost halfway done now! It must be time for Colby and Carlie to repeat scans, too. We were all doing it together at the same time this summer...

I can't stop thinking about it. One year ago today Hans had his first office visit related to his Neuroblastoma symptoms. We had noticed that his left testicle was a little swollen and discolored (brown or blue, like a bruise) in one little spot. I had noticed it for four days, but it would look smaller in the AM, so I would think it just went away, and then by the PM it came back. When we went into the office visit, the doctor had actually a bit of a look of shock. But, he didn't say the "C" word, or even indicate a concern. We were referred for a STAT testicular ultrasound. I had just enough time to pick up Elle off the bus and get over to the hospital. I cancelled the Girl Scout camping training I was scheduled to go to that night. We went to the ultrasound at a complex near the hospital here. Hans did great, but we really learned very little. We left the place thinking it was possibly an infection or an injury. Everyone kept asking us if Hans had hurt himself, but we couldn't remember any specific incident. I had asked if sterility was a possibility. I was reassured that no, probably not. Hans and Elle talked a little about that on the way back home. Hans told me that he wanted to have three babies!


Lara