Tuesday, December 2, 2003

Tuesday, December 2, 2003 11:32 AM CST

Susan here - Luke wrote an update below but I just wanted to add that we have found an apartment to rent nearby and we will provide the address soon but meanwhile don't send anything more to the Ronald McDonald house address. There will be no trouble getting things people may already have mailed so don't worry about that. We will move in Friday evening.

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Luke here...Sorry it has been so long since our last update. I'm trying to recall how our weekend was and what went on, but I'm totally blanking on it. I'm sure there were several long walks through the city and daily fights with Nathan over making him walk. Overall, things are going well. Nathan continues to feel a little better everyday, but he isn't anywhere near feeling himself physically yet. He still complains about walking. I'm not sure if it is pain, fatigue, or just that he doesn't want to. We force him to walk everywhere inside the Ronald McDonald House and allow him to ride in the stroller pretty much everywhere else. We had a big fight about walking one morning this weekend. We had planned to take him to a big toy store, but we told him if continued to throw tantrums over walking around the room that he couldn't go. Well, he didn't end up going. The next morning he woke up telling us he "wanted to be a nice boy so he could go to a toy store". He did better. Yesterday was a good day for everyone. I have started back to work again. I'm working from Susan's aunt and uncle's apartment using their broadband connection. They continue to do such great things for us to make this trip easier. Yesterday Susan and Nathan spent the day here too and enjoyed the change of scenery and company. Nathan played with Joan and had a good time. Last night there was a Christmas dinner and party at the Ronald McDonald House. It was apparently the first of many. It was fun. There were prizes and gifts for kid and a meal. It was a little late for Nathan, but he handled it well and had a good time. He was lingering at the party and then we figured out that he was waiting for the cake. He associates "party" with "birthday party" in which there is always cake. He was a little disappointed but handled it well. He then lay in his bed playing with a horn he got at the party and talking, singing, and giggling to himself. It was great to see. That was very much like normal Nathan. He woke up in the middle of the night talking to himself about how sad he was about missing Colorado Springs and wanting to sleep in his own bed in Colorado Springs. That was sad to hear. Overall he is doing very well. We have no planned visits to the hospital until Thursday when he has a follow-up with the surgeon. Hopefully they will get us started with testing for the trial so we can start on 12/15 like tentatively planned. We are also nervous about getting the pathology reports from his tumor and bone marrows. They may be trickling back, but we haven't heard anything yet.

As always, thanks for following along so closely with Nathan's progress.