About Me

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Bakersfield, CA, United States
Hans was a busy, happy, sweet and fearless three year old when he was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma. He fought his disease like a "gladiator" for nearly 6 years. Hans was an animal lover to his core. He was 'guarded' at home by his three cats, Black, Orange and Cotton. He also had his Golden Retriever, Honey, to keep him company. Hans enjoyed swimming, biking, gardening, grilling (he had his very own grill!), horseback riding, playing video games, building Legos, and flipping between Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Animal Planet. Hans loved all members of his family and he was a loyal friend. He had to go through a lot of treatment in his life. But Hans powered through it. His attitude was let's get this done! His motivation was always to get back home, to his family, pets, favorite foods and pool.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

toothbrushing and bathrobes...

Not the most exciting post, but I'll take it. I am thrilled that my focus these days has been on the more mundane, or normal aspects of parenting. Hans has been borrowing my and Elle's bathrobes to snuggle in. They are both too big, so we just had fun going to pick out a new one for him. Cars! It fits great - sz 4. He is a professional snuggler and now he can do it in style.

I also feel it's just an absolute luxury to focus on regular behavioral stuff. We have had a tough road with treatment the last few years and we have really 'picked our battles'. Hans hasn't ever been very good about wanting to brush his teeth and it can often be an interesting/unpleasant experience to get the job done. So, we started him on his first ever star chart yesterday. So far, it's going pretty well! His reward after 14 happy teeth brushing sessions will be a new transformer (Bulkhead), and hopefully, we'll take some of the drama out of this little task. I've already got big plans for future star charts (getting dressed, taking baths) but I think we'll take it one star at a time. He's funny, it's like he is kind of into getting the stars, but he has to play it very cool/low-key. He told me today that he'd put the star on for this morning, but only if I wasn't looking. I can meet those terms!

Hans is getting more and more energy! He is enjoying bike riding and the little park/with the rock wall. We are planning to keep celebrating our good news into the weekend, and right into next week. I honestly think he is doing better these days than he has since before he got sick in Oct. 2006, at age 3.

We got the OK from CHOP yesterday for the ABT-751 for Hans. We should be able to start it next week. It is an oral pill, 7 days on, 14 days off. I guess the first pill will be taken in clinic, go in for counts I think once a week for now (while we're still monitoring his Potassium levels) and watch him for side effects and go back up to CHOP for scans again after the first 2 cycles...

The Valentine's Day Bake sale will be at TCH on Feb 13th. Please email me if you'd like to help out and I don't have you on my mailing list yet. Thanks. kevinandlara@hotmail.com.

Lara

ps i wanted to post a couple pics, but I cannot find my camera battery charger at the moment:(

6 comments:

Vickie said...

I have a graduate student starting to work on a project for Mark Dungan. He said he might be in Houston for the Bake Sale, so if he is, I will probably drive my student down. He doesn't get out of class until 10:00 so I don't know that I would be much help, but at least I would see everyone.

Enjoy the weekend, the clean teeth, and the mundane.

Erin still looks and feels well.

VB

Anonymous said...

To clarify - Hans is not acting like a cool dude - he is one cool little dude! Nice that you can just be concerned with kid things.

Hope Elle has a good basketball game this weekend and doesn't meet up with any "evil genius" this weekend!

Love, G. Kathy

The Adkins Family said...

So glad the norm is what you get to blog about! Hope you guys are doing well and tell everyone hi!

Anonymous said...

It has been so much fun to see Jack and Hans playing together, riding bikes and climbing the rock wall!!! No better medicine for everyone than seeing that little boy in action! I think the summer holds great things for you guys!!
The Nolens

Anonymous said...

To "just be a kid" is GRAND!

Our "star" child is modest in his own delightful way! Everyone likes to believe (even if it is an illusion) that he/she has some control over day to day tasks!

Spring is on the way...life in full bloom...head outdoors with Honey...she will lead you on new adventures!

Love and hugs to ALL!
Aunt Susy

suzanne said...

Sorry about the ER visits this weekend, but glad he's better. I think the fever spike after the initial antibiotics is pretty common - at least Elizabeth liked to do that. Sometimes they would be still be signing her out when I'd look at her and suggest they take her temp one more time....

Love the new robe, Hans! It looks like it would be great to snuggle in.

Hugs,
Elizabeth and her g'ma