Whose blood was that?

Ever since Matthew's blood transfusion on Wednesday, he has been a little crazy dude, operating at 100 mph and getting into EVERYTHING...especially Claire's business.   My speculation is that the blood he received was donated by someone with a sever case of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.  Irregardless, Matthew is loving every minute of it and is terrorizing the house and all who occupy it...as any 22 month old should.  Matthew's counts seem to be going up as we would expect.  Our oncologist thinks that we will be starting our next round this Wednesday.  This next round is 7 days long and is also the next-to-last round for the little duder.

Beads of Courage

I wanted to show everyone Matthew's Beads of Courage that he is accumulating.  Beads of Courage is a pretty cool program aimed at helping children with serious illnesses.  Each bead has a different meaning or milestone related to a child's treatment.  For example, a white bead symbolizes 1 dose of Chemotherapy.  A blue bead represents a clinic visit at the day hospital.  A Red bead indicates a blood transfusion.  You get the idea. There are also some special beads like the crazy tortoise bead to the right of the Beads of Courage bead symbolizes a lumbar puncture.  You get the face bead when you lose your hair.  The fish bead is a symbol of the courage you must have to travel away from home to get treatment. This is only one of the strings.  There is another full string somewhere around here also. 

Team Matthew Fundraising

Before I get into the fund-raising specifics, I am happy to report that Matthew came home late yesterday and is on an antibiotic as a precautionary measure.

Our amazing friends Katherine Bottarelli and Jennifer Rosenbaum have been working diligently on coordinating and organizing many different fund-raising opportunities for Team Matthew.  The support for Matthew so far has been unbelievable and for that, I cannot thank people enough.  There are a few other ways to donate to Team Matthew.  These donations will go towards covering the medical costs associated with Matthew's leukemia. 

• Team Matthew Trust - there is a special trust account setup through Bank of America for Team Matthew.  You can make a contribution to this account by walking into any Bank of America location and telling them the donation is for Team Matthew.
• Giveforward.org - A website has been setup to also accept donations for Team Matthew.  You can access this website here.
• Community Events - There are several special events planned in and around Naperville over the next few months.  On the right side of this blog, there is a calendar highlighting each one and also a link to any required flyer if one is necessary.

Ouchy

After waking up several times last night saying 'Ouchy, Ouchy', it is not surprising that during his reguarly scheduled clinic appointment, Matthew was admitted to CMH and started on anti-biotics as a precaution.  One of the great challenges of experiencing this with a child Matthew's age is the inability for him to tell you how he is feeling or what it is that hurts.  We are often left to guess and wait.

The Bone Marrow Drive

A sincere thank you to all who came out to the bone marrow registration drive yesterday at St. Thomas church in Naperville.  We had a great turnout and had nearly 90 people register for the bone marrow registry.  A huge success!!!  Thank you.  Here are a couple of pics from the drive and also from around the house afterwords.

Daddy / Daughter Valentine Day Party

I was Claire's guest on Saturday morning at the Happy Times Preschool Valentines Day party.  We had an awesome time making an art project and eating a couple of doughnuts. 

Drive Details - Drive For Matthew-St Thomas

Drive Details - Drive For Matthew-St Thomas

Mdogg is back home

Matthew returned home yesterday as scheduled.  He seems to be doing very well except for a case of IHS (Itchy Head Syndrome).   I just made up that syndrome but he does have a very itchy head which is probably caused by his chemo and he has little scratches all over his gigantic dome.

Claire and Matthew

After spending the day with her Aunt Jen, Claire came to the hospital to see Matthew.  They were both so excited as they walked around the halls holding hands.  Matthew has been doing pretty well with the exception of a recurring fever which is most likely caused by his chemotherapy. 

Round 3

Matthew has been home for the last couple of weeks which has been great.  Today, he is back at Children's Memorial for his third round of chemotherapy.  This round lasts only 5 days but the dosage is supposed to be much more intense than previously experienced.  His counts are up where they should be and he had a bone marrow biopsy this morning.  We should have the results of that over the next couple of days.