Day 1875 - No more clinic visits

     After a very long journey we've accomplished another milestone.  On Thursday July 22nd Evan had his final clinic visit with the oncology team at Aflac @ Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.  I'm excited to announce that his blood counts looked good and his immune system has not shown any signs of fatigue or irregularities since concluding chemo in August 2019. 

     It's been over five years of more chemo, needles, doctor visits, vomit bags, tears and laughs than I can possibly count.  Going forward Evan will now meet with the Survivor's Clinic team annually (roughly 6 months from now).  During this next visit we'll find out more about the long-term effects of his medications, what signs to look for and generally how to manage health challenges that we may encounter.

Nolan has been a rock throughout our journey

     With Evan's health journey reaching a more comfortable level we're going to send him and Nolan back to in-person schooling.  Like most parents I too am nervous about how his body will respond if it encounters COVID.  During the most recent visit Cristy asked the doctor about their professional input on what we should do.  The feedback was that Evan's immune system has shown no signs of relapse and that it should respond similar to any other child.  

     Going forward the family and I will continue to do what we can for the local pediatric cancer charities, make ourselves available to other cancer families and continue to advocate for donations and more federal funding for childhood cancer research.  We are very blessed and fortunate to be in the position we are.  I will never take that for granted.  My prayers go out to all children and their families who continue to fight and comfort for those who lost a warrior much earlier than expected.  

    Wrapping with a few of our older photos, along with some from the last few months since my last blog update.   

Day 1682 - The quarantine continues

      Greetings all, it's been quite some time since I've posted any updates.  Fortunately this post isn't bad news, but rather a state of current affairs.

     Over the past roughly 8 months we've continued to do our part as a family during the on-going pandemic.  We have greatly limited our exposure to others, wear masks in public and have made the necessary sacrifices to better ensure our health.  With vaccine distribution underway Cristy and I are hopeful that 2021 will have some semblance of normalcy later in the year.  Cristy's employer is even rolling out the vaccine to teammates now and she's slated to get it some time soon.

     Both Evan and Nolan are attending school virtually.  Naturally I'm not thrilled with that because they are missing out on so much social skill development, but academically they're both doing fine.  Both of the boy's teachers are great and we're so appreciative for all they do, especially during this unprecedented time with daily health challenges and evolving technology solutions.  We've started a list of things we want to do once the pandemic is more controlled.  Most of the items involve our favorite restaurants or travel.  Personally I'm looking forward to the days of having friends over for cookouts.

     Evan's appointments with Aflac have tapered off because of his strong blood counts.  During his visit yesterday the doctor gave him a clean bill of health and was happy overall with his counts and appearance.  Even his IGG counts seemed to have improved which was welcome news since a downturn would have meant some IV time.  Both boys are growing like weeds.  

     Cristy and I strive daily to find physical things for them to do and try to avoid TV/video game time if at all possible.  The dilemma I face is during work meetings when I need a few minutes of quiet TV is one of the few tools to calm them down.  We bought the boys a green screen for Christmas and they've both taken to it quite well.  If nothing else these past few months have opened up their creative sides and challenged their creative sensibilities.  

     Will wrap up with some photos from the past 8 MONTHS!  I'll try to post a bit more often, but the good news is if you don't hear from us then it means I don't have any negative news to report.