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.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Bone Marrows Complete






Dawn took this picture Sunday Evening while she was hanging with Hans as I made a much needed and appreciated run for supplies at the Ronald.


Oh my Goodness what a day. I can tell by the site stats that everyone is worried about Hansie this week! Thanks for the love.

Today was one of those awful days you hope you'll block out eventually. Hans woke up and from the get go was just getting worse if not better. He had a debilitating headache (an underlying scary mystery of this hospital stay), and then he vomited his pain meds. We made it up to the Alex Scott (Alex's Lemonade Stand) Day Hospital for our procedure only to get turned away. Since Hans had vomited earlier, the Anesthesiologist suggested a new plan. He sent us back to our room. We were to have the bone marrows done in the Operating Room while intubated. I didn't handle that change up so gracefully. The last time Hans was intubated was for a pretty awful dental procedure. What was it...7 caps? The poor guy came out of there hurting and wincing and crying about his throat hurting for days.


Sooo....we sat in the room and waited. Hans could barely hold on through the time it took to get orders written for IV Morphine for the headache he eventually rated an 8 on the pain scale. Then he slept all day. We got called up to the OR at about 4pm. To my delight, the team decided they could try the procedure without the breathing tube, since so much time had passed since any vomiting, and since they'd have the support of the whole team and the whole floor if anything was to happen. Well, it worked. They went in from the front to get the bone marrows. They are actually hoping to go right through or into (I'm not really sure which) the new spot that is alighting on the MIBG scan. The good news here: they hope to test it for the ALK mutation. We've never been able to test Hans' tumor for it before.


Hans came out of everything okay. With the location of the spot on the MIBG scan, Kevin and I are bracing our selves for news that there is some marrow involvement on that right side.



Now the CT is tomorrow. Let's hope Hans'll drink the contrast even in this state he is in. Sweet boy!


Actually, seeing the improvement I saw this evening, I wouldn't be surprised if we get discharged tomorrow. We haven't had a true fever since Saturday.


Dawn was here to sit with me through the waiting and after. Hans was up and alert for three hours after the procedure. He was even eating and drinking and playing a little! No headaches! No vomiting! Is he about to turn a corner?



Thanks for checking up on us.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh,what a sweet boy... Hope that headache is better and the rest helps!! I have been thinking of you all so much today.
Claire

Kate said...

Oh, Hans! We've been thinking of you so much these past few days and you are in our prayers for a quick recovery. Rest up and get strong. We admire you so much.

alanaransley said...

I was just thinking about you and wanted to say hello. I hope you guys had a good night last night, and that discharge is imminent.

Anonymous said...

So glad that you got through such a rough day with Hans feeling better by the end of it all! Hope you had a restful night and the CT is easy-peasy today with no problems. I'll be thinking of you guys all day!
Sarah

Anonymous said...

La and Hansie - we love you guys and are saying our prayers......love & hugs, pl